Catalog with relative references to image files
I always would like to be able to move any of my catalogs including all its images to new locations whenever I need to but I would also like to have access to the original files of all images of that catalog on disk in Finder without having to open Capture One.
So naively I just setup my catalogs in such a away that the cocatalog file is in the same folder (and subfolders) as all the images that it reference. So I cold move the folder somewhere else and the catalog will still work. But now I discovered that it doesn't work that way: Moving a huge catalog – Capture One
So my question now is: Is there a way to setup new catalogs so that the above two requirements can be met?
- be able to move the catalog including all its images to new locations
- be able to access to the original files of all images of that catalog on disk with Finder without having to open Capture One
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If you have a catalog with referenced images, you should be able to move the images to another location and leave the catalog file where it is. Just do the moving from within the Capture One library tool.
I organise my photos by date (year, month, mainly) so I might have a folder for 2018, with subfolders for January 2018, February 2018, and so on.
On my older Mac with a comparatively small internal drive, only 1 TB (!), I keep the most recent years on the internal drive, and older years on an external drive. From time to time, folders would be moved from the internal drive to the external drive. I just dragged them to the external drive within the library tool. So I would create an empty 2018 folder on the external drive and add it to the catalog, then drag January 2018 to it, then February 2018, and so on. Probably best to do a bit at a time, not all at once, to let everything settle down, let Time Machine catch up with the backups, and so on. It works fine.
(Now I have a newer iMac with a 2TB internal drive so everything is internal for now.)
As for setting up new catalogs, there is absolutely no reason why you should not be able to do as you have described. You can create a new catalog and have Capture One put it in the location of your choice - I put mine in the Mac Pictures folder. But when you add images to the catalog, you can have them in another location or locations if you like - the catalog is quite capable of keeping track of images stored in a number of different locations, and all accessible with Finder too.
I would suggest that keeping the catalog file itself on the internal drive us a good idea, for speed if nothing else.
Ian
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@... - what can I say? it's always worked for me. Maybe just move a few at at time.
Alternatively move a folder of images using Finder, and then in Capture One you can use the Locate function to tell Capture One where it has gone to. (You can locate the folder, no need to do it one image at a time.)
Ian
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@...
Why is it that you need to be moving a catalog around all the time? That's an unusual workflow (most of us don't encounter) so perhaps there's a better way to solve whatever problem it is that is causing you to move it around.
It is not that I want to move them around all the time, but I just would like to have everything (the database and the images) encapsulated in one folder. So I can nothing gets "corrupted" when I move ore copy the catalog, so I can for example:
- easily backup a catalog simply by copying the files somewhere
- give a copy of the catalog and my edits to someone but keep the original
- take a copy of a catalog with me and do some experiments while on the go
- move the catalogs over from my old computer to my new one
I find that a very simple and natural/intuitive way to handle the images.
For this use case they made it possible to add the images inside the catalog. But the big downside here is that I no longer have access to the raw files without Capture One.
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... or would a session suit your needs better?
Ian
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