Catalog Help
Fairly new to Capture One. The way I am set up at the moment is I have this years images in a catalog on a SSD drive on my PC. These are backed up every night to a DAS where I also have previous years' images. No Capture One catalogs on the DAS. (There's a further back up as well but that's not relevant). I want to delete this years images from my SSD and start a 2024 catalog there. If I just create another catalog for the images on my DAS that are currently in my SSD Catalog, can I get the C1 edits etc in there? My Capture One Backups are on a HDD on the PC. Hope that makes sense.
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Does not make sense - removing from local drive would make the files on DAS the original and as such managed differently than the files that are a result of backing up, so if this storage is considered a backup by itself, would be risky as these "originals" might be marked for removal. Also the following quote seems to contradict the earlier statement:
My Capture One Backups are on a HDD on the PC.
Where do the backups go, finally?
If you mean moving content of catalog to DAS entirely, you can just relink photos to the new location that has been already made as a backup, though it is possible that the best approach for you would be to edit catalog file directly to replace paths, as Capture One is said to be bad at file management (disclaimer: I don't use catalogs for this reason as well, as I move the photos between drives A LOT - sessions are always local in contrary, everything is contained within a single folder and paths are relative).
A catalog user might have a better understanding, at least there is no point in creating a new catalog for existing files, as photos have been just relocated.
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Trying to make more sense out of the opening post: there is an option within Capture One to "perform a backup", though it confuses me, as at the time I checked it, backup was essentially an empty directory - no workspaces, styles, settings, just nothing worthwhile. It's better to backup user profile in its entirety, without involving Capture One, as it covers settings of other applications as well.
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I meant the catalog backup (.cocatalogdb file) is on a HDD.I have another external drive backing up the DAS, so that's where the real back up is. SSD is my working directory which is a C1 catalogue.
In the past I've mainly used Affinity Photo for editing and deleted the images on the SSD and started again every year.
I've been thinking I should use Sessions more. I have abeMeda to keep track of files.
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abeMeda is a sort of catalog itself?
Sessions are more mobile - catalogs are generally supposed to be fixed, I think: once you add a file to catalog, it should never move. This might be an exact assumption made by C1P developers, considering multiple problems with relocating/finding images and missing features like
or
I see people talking about combining sessions and catalogs for example in this way: first they create a session, edit photos, then move the completed session to permanent storage and either import only final photos to catalog, or import entire session to catalog (with edits and adjustments), but from the location they are guaranteed to stay at forever. In this way they can edit efficiently AND have a catalog that does not break while moving files.
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First let's clarify what constitutes a catalog. You referenced PC so I assume you are running Windows. On Windows the catalog folder should be treated as sacred. There will be a parent folder with the catalog name. Inside there will be three subfolders and the catalog database.
MyCatalog\
MyCatalog\Adjustments
MyCatalog\Cache
MyCatalog\Originals
MyCatalog\MyCatalog.cocatalogdbThis entire folder tree must be treated as sacred. You can copy it anywhere, but it must be copied as a single unit. For example, select the folder MyCatalog above in Explorer and drag-n-drop it elsewhere. You can open it in the dropped location and it will function just as it did before.
You can copy the current year catalog folder from the internal SSD to your DAS. No need to create a separate catalog and import any information to it.
Next let's clarify what a catalog backup includes and excludes.
- Catalog backups only include the catalog database (adjustments, layer definitions, metadata, labels, ratings, keywords) and layer mask files (Adjustments folder).
- Catalog backups exclude presets, styles, preferences, and original image files.
Are your images stored inside the catalog (in the Originals folder) or outside the catalog folder? In the Folders tool in Capture One you will see a line "In Catalog" indicating how many images are stored inside the catalog. If that line does not appear then you have them stored outside the catalog and the Folders tool will show you which folders have images indexed by the catalog.
If your files are stored inside the catalog folder you should not have to do anything else. Open the copied catalog on the DAS to make sure it is working, then close it. You can create a new catalog on your internal SSD for the next year and delete the one you just copied now that you have verified it works from the DAS.
If your files are stored (referenced) outside the catalog then that adds another challenge. Once you provide that answer I can offer more details regarding that.
If you would like to set up a 1-on-1 Zoom session I offer that for a fee (US$25 per 30 min session).
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If your files are stored inside the catalog folder you should not have to do anything else. Open the copied catalog on the DAS to make sure it is working, then close it.
Nice, so it is possible to setup catalogs te same way as sessions (as in, with all files contained within and the whole collection being mobile), and yet we have so many reports of spectacular failures and lack of integrity on even a slightest movement? 🤨
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Marcin Mrzygłocki said:
Nice, so it is possible to setup catalogs te same way as sessions (as in, entirely mobile), and yet we have so many reports of spectacular failures and lack of integrity on even a slightest movement? 🤨
There is a perception that once you store images inside the catalog they are somehow held hostage and potentially lost if your catalog gets corrupt. The files are there. You just have to dig for them.
The major risk with any catalog based system (Lightroom, Capture One, Apple Aperture) is you have one place (a database) that has ALL this information. That is a single point of failure. If the database is corrupt then you've lost everything - adjustments, metadata, ratings, labels, keywords, albums / user collections.
Make frequent backups and you will always have a recent restore point just like any other system.
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abeMeda is the Windows version of NeoFinder. Its a catalog app. A bit old school but effective. Before I got C1 I was using a few apps so an independent catalog app is useful.
I'll have another think about what I'm doing.
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For everyone's information ..
I primarily use a single catalog (over 66,000 images). The images are stored on external SSD. The catalog is stored on internal SSD.
I use a session for new images. In the session I apply my edits, ratings, metadata, keywords. Once done I import those images from the session into the catalog and let the import process copy the original raw files from the session folder to my external SSD where I want them archived. Everything done in the session is imported into the catalog.
I have had a few scary moments over the past 10 years of using Capture One where I thought I had lost it all. I have been able to recover my catalog every single time. It hasn't alway been pretty, but I have always had success.
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Thanks for all that. I think I can see a way forward. I may be back!
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The solution I've found is to change the catalog location in the Folders item in the Library of that catalog to the new location on my DAS.
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That's the solution! Good to hear you figured that out.
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I got tired of importing images into my main computer catalog and sorting them into albums after returning from a trip with a thousand or so images on my laptop. So, I now have my referenced files and the catalog on a 4 TB NVME Thunderbolt SSD that I can plug into any computer with Capture One on it. Using my external drive is indistinguishable from using the internal drive in terms of speed.
Because damage, loss and corruption are always a risk, and media is becoming increasingly affordable, I have another NVME SSD that I sync the catalog and referenced files to. I also copy the catalog to a couple of other HDs every week or so. Comprehensive backing up of the catalog, not just the database will make it unlikely that you will lose anything. Backing up the database when you exit Capture One is quick and should be enough to recover the catalog, but regenerating previews could take hours that you don't need to spend if you have a complete backup of the catalog.
One problem to address if you have to use a backup drive to access your referenced files will be reconnecting the referenced files. This can be tedious and time consuming, but using the locate function to reconnect the files is usually not necessary if you have a backup of the referenced files with an identical structure. Because the catalog database expects to see the referenced files on a drive with a specific name, if you rename your backup drive with your referenced files to that of the original working drive, Capture One will not have a problem locating the files; it can't tell the difference because it just relies on the drive name.
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Rephrasing last chapter for brevity - keep the same folder structure on backup as on the original drive (there should be no visual difference) and assign the same letter as for the original drive when planning to use catalog from backup drive (disconnect original if still plugged in or give it a temporary letter). This will guarantee catalog will continue to see all files without glitches.
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Jerry C and Marcin Mrzygłocki provide excellent advice.
My method is similar to Jerry's.
- Working catalog on internal SSD (his is external).
- Backup the entire catalog folder in addition to File > Backup Catalog.
- Backups stored on same external drive as referenced images.
- External drive sync to TWO other drives frequently.
I lost TWO drives at one time many years ago. After that I realized I needed multiple backups, not just one.
I have three SanDisk 4TB external SSD drives. One is my "working" drive. The other two are backups. They are SO fast.
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