automatically synching images with filesystem

[comartlab]

I have a large collection of images across several NAS file systems. Generally projects move from a current working area to an archive and then after about a year to cold storage. Is there a way to automatically synchronize the photo mechanic database with the different filesystems? Let's say there is an image called image1.jpg and it lives in the archive, when it is moved to cold I would like for photomechanic to either relink it or remove it and then re-add it to the database. I'm using photomechanic primarily for searching based on keywords which are already in the IPTC metadata of my images.

[ahoward]

If you're using Photo Mechanic to do that move, then it does what you describe: catalog will know about that move and they will update accordingly. If you are moving the file outside of Photo Mechanic, such as with your OS's file browser, Photo Mechanic is unable to know that the file was moved (as opposed to, for example, some other file with the same being created in that watched folder).

[comartlab]

That makes sense. Is there a way then to get photo mechanic to remove files from the catalog when they are moved (or deleted). I can then re-add them by doing a "scan to catalog"

[ahoward]

I think you may want to use Catalog Sync rather than "Scan to Catalog". The reason for this is that, in addition to looking for any new files within the paths that you provide, it can also create collections of the images that were missing at the time of the sync. Once it does that, you can go to that Collection, select all items, and then remove them from your catalog. Take a look at the "Automatic collections to create" section of this document for further details, and let me know if you have any other questions.

[comartlab]

That should work, thank you!