Moving to a new Mac

[DavidHoffmanuk]

It's time to move on from my old Mac Pro 5,1. I've mirrored the folder structure for the PM+ cats & image files on the new Mac Studio, located & reintegrated the catalogs but of course the files are not seen in their new locations.

Is there an article describing how I connect the catalog to the files on the new Mac?

Thanks
David Hoffman

[DavidHoffmanuk]

I've partly answered my own question. There's an "update folder location" option when I right click a folder in the Browse tab but in this case the original folder is on another computer on the network and I'm not seeing network items in the Browse tab so I can't choose it to relocate it.

Is there a way to show a folder on the network within the Browse tab? I see it in finder windows.

Or is there another way to reset the existing paths relating to the old Mac to the identical folder on the new Mac?

I still have the original catalog & folder system intact on the old Mac so if I need to start again & do things differently then that would be an option.

David Hoffman

[ahoward]

I've partly answered my own question. There's an "update folder location" option when I right click a folder in the Browse tab but in this case the original folder is on another computer on the network and I'm not seeing network items in the Browse tab so I can't choose it to relocate it.

Is there a way to show a folder on the network within the Browse tab? I see it in finder windows.

It sounds like you might have this backwards? The Browse tabs shows paths of folders that have been added to your catalog.  You use 'Update folder location' tells the catalog where that folder has moved to (Here's the documentation page on that feature).

Perhaps this old thread is helpful: https://forums.camerabits.com/index.php?topic=14191.msg70238#msg70238

[DavidHoffmanuk]

It sounds like you might have this backwards? The Browse tabs shows paths of folders that have been added to your catalog.  You use 'Update folder location' tells the catalog where that folder has moved to (Here's the documentation page on that feature).

Perhaps this old thread is helpful: https://forums.camerabits.com/index.php?topic=14191.msg70238#msg70238

Getting things backwards is my specialist skill. I was confused here as the Browse window was showing some drives in their new locations & some in their original locations.

The old Mac had these internal drives:
Pinky
Perky
Mercury
Scratch
Raws (containing 2 large subfolders)

The new Mac has these, all external with subfolders as shown:
Mickey
   Mercury
Minnie
   Pinky
   Perky
   Scratch
Raws 1 (with one of the original subfolders)
Raws 2 (with the other of the original subfolders)

The Browse window shows:
Raws 1 & Raws 2 with all the files now in the catalog as should be.
Pinky is shown as a separate volume although it is a folder on Minnie. The files are all shown in the catalog and are really the ones on Minnie, not the old machine.
Perky is shown as a separate volume although it is a folder on Minnie. The files are all shown in the catalog and are really the ones on Minnie, not the old machine.
Scratch is correctly shown as a subfolder on Minnie but the files in it are shown as offline. Rescanning doesn’t change this.
Mercury is correctly shown as a subfolder on Mickey but the files in it are shown as offline. Rescanning doesn’t change this.

I considered doing a catalog sync in the hope of adding the files on Mercury & Scratch but the window currently shows the old paths. Is it safe to delete all of these, add the new paths and sync?

Why are Pinky & Perky shown as volumes & not as subfolders of Minnie. Does it matter?

David

[Kirk Baker]

David,

It sounds like the .pmshare file didn't make it from some of your drives to your new folder hierarchies.  How did you copy from the internal drive to the external drive?

-Kirk

[DavidHoffmanuk]

It sounds like the .pmshare file didn't make it from some of your drives to your new folder hierarchies.  How did you copy from the internal drive to the external drive?

I used the finder to copy the internal NVMe drive on the old Mac via ethernet to the external NVMe drive on the new Mac.

I've done little work on the copy on the new Mac so, if it's easier, I could delete the existing copy & start again.

David

[ahoward]

It sounds like the .pmshare file didn't make it from some of your drives to your new folder hierarchies.  How did you copy from the internal drive to the external drive?

I used the finder to copy the internal NVMe drive on the old Mac via ethernet to the external NVMe drive on the new Mac.

I've done little work on the copy on the new Mac so, if it's easier, I could delete the existing copy & start again.

David

To show hidden files, make Finder the active Application and hit Command+Shift+. (Command+Shift+Period) If there are hidden files in the directory you are viewing, they will appear. Their file names will be gray and will begin with a period. Look for a file called .pmshare at the root of the drive. It's not there, go into each folder on the root and see if the file is there. Photo Mechanic attempts to create this file as high up on the drive as it can, so if you had a drive called "Drive A", and then put that in a folder called "Drive A" on a new drive called "Drive B", if you copied this file it would likely be at the path "Volumes/Drive B/Drive A" if you did indeed copy it.

Hit Command+Shift+. again to hide hidden files again once you've looked for the .pmshare file

[DavidHoffmanuk]

The drive is called Mickey & there's a hidden .pmshare file at root level last modified 23 Nov (I expected a more recent date as changes have been made). There's a folder Mercury in this drive & that contains the PM+ catalogs in a subfolder.

If I understand correctly that's as it should be?

David

[ahoward]

The drive is called Mickey & there's a hidden .pmshare file at root level last modified 23 Nov (I expected a more recent date as changes have been made). There's a folder Mercury in this drive & that contains the PM+ catalogs in a subfolder.

If I understand correctly that's as it should be?

David

Yes, however, if it wasn't copied initially when all this data was moved around, then it would have created a new one at the root of this drive. In discussing with Kirk, he noted that you may have some luck if you can copy the .pmshare file from the original Mercury drive to the Mercury folder on the Mickey drive.

[DavidHoffmanuk]

Thanks both of you.

I quit PM+ & copied the .pmshare file from its old location at the top level of the old Mac's Mercury drive to the top level of the new Mac's Mickey/Mercury folder. I deleted the previous Mickey/.pmshare file & restarted PM+ but this made no difference to the broken folder paths. Perky & Pinky are still shown as individual volumes, not as subfolders of Minnie but these folders do not have images that need to be in the catalog so it doesn't matter much.

Two other (spinning disk) drives are shown correctly (their names and connection to the Mac are as on the old Mac) & after adding them to the catalog they all have green dots & the ones I've checked are in their collections.

The problem I need to resolve is that images on Pics 1+2 in the catalog with paths CORRECTLY SHOWN AS Mercury/Mickey/Pics 1+2/xxx.jpg & with green dots are not in their collections.

The same images on Pics 1+2 in the catalog with paths WRONGLY SHOWN AS Mercury/Mickey/Pics 1+2/Pics 1+2/xxx.jpg with yellow dots are in their collections. There is no Pics 1+2 folder within the higher level Pics 1+2 folder. There is only the one Pics 1+2 folder.

Can I somehow get PM+ to merge what it sees as 2 folders into the reality of one so as to keep my collections?

If not would I need to delete the PM+ catalogs (& supporting files in application support & ?elsewhere and if necessary delete the folders with the images in their new locations as well) before starting again from the old Mac and moving it all to the new Mac? If so is there an article or other link explaining the process & how to deal with the new location having a different folder structure? Would it be better to mimic the new structure on the old Mac using PM+ to rename drives and move images to new subfolders named as they will be on the new Mac?

David

[ahoward]

Thanks both of you.

I quit PM+ & copied the .pmshare file from its old location at the top level of the old Mac's Mercury drive to the top level of the new Mac's Mickey/Mercury folder. I deleted the previous Mickey/.pmshare file & restarted PM+ but this made no difference to the broken folder paths. Perky & Pinky are still shown as individual volumes, not as subfolders of Minnie but these folders do not have images that need to be in the catalog so it doesn't matter much.

If you didn't do a catalog reintegration after moving this file, please do that (Catalog -> Catalog Management -> Maintenance -> Reintegrate Forgotten Catalog).

If so is there an article or other link explaining the process & how to deal with the new location having a different folder structure?

If I am understanding the issue correctly, then that should be the "update folder location" document provided earlier.

If that doesn't resolve the issues, can we find a time for us to help you by phone/screenshare? I appreciate your explanations here, but I generally find that for more complex issues that we can get so much more done in less time on a phone call.

[DavidHoffmanuk]

Thanks for the help over the last couple of weeks. After a bit more wrangling I found a hidden .pmshare from 2021 and adding that to the top level of the drive with the PM+ catalogs sorted almost all of the path errors. There's one folder that is still shown both in its correct location & also as a drive in the Browse tree but there are few files on it that matter so I'm ignoring it & hoping it doesn't come back to bite me.

The collections, as far as I can tell, are all OK which is a big relief as some represent a lot of work.

One oddity - under Edit/Select folder status I only have the 'Source file unavailable' option. The included/not included options are greyed out. Is there a way to fix this?

David

[ahoward]

Thanks for the help over the last couple of weeks. After a bit more wrangling I found a hidden .pmshare from 2021 and adding that to the top level of the drive with the PM+ catalogs sorted almost all of the path errors. There's one folder that is still shown both in its correct location & also as a drive in the Browse tree but there are few files on it that matter so I'm ignoring it & hoping it doesn't come back to bite me.

The collections, as far as I can tell, are all OK which is a big relief as some represent a lot of work.

One oddity - under Edit/Select folder status I only have the 'Source file unavailable' option. The included/not included options are greyed out. Is there a way to fix this?

David

If you're looking at a catalog tab, everything on the Contact Sheet is in a Catalog. "Included" would return everything. "Not included" would return nothing. Those options are intentionally disabled on a Catalog tab.

[paul tolenaar]

Hi Kirk and David, I'm having the same problem here i think. I replaced an external La Cie disk with a new one, copied everything to the new disk with Carbon Copy Cloner. I did find the PMshare file on the new disk( and even copied it again from the old disk) , and did run "Reintegrate forgotten catalog" but still i'm only having the yellow dots, not the green ones..

[paul tolenaar]

Well, I just found a solution : scanned some new files ( from the new disk) to the catalog and that probably refreshed the pmshare file. And reset the paths to all the other files.