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Capture One\Settings files

Jerry C
Out of hundreds of file folders in my referenced files, 25 have CaptureOne\Settings folders in the folder with the raw and jpg files. Except for one, the settings folders have no content. One has a .cos file for each of the images. Is it possible that these folders and .cos files are left over from an export of images with thier settings? if so, why are all but one empty of .cos files?

Can these files and folders be deleted?
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  • SFA
    [quote="NN635680879799322049UL" wrote:
    Out of hundreds of file folders in my referenced files, 25 have CaptureOne\Settings folders in the folder with the raw and jpg files. Except for one, the settings folders have no content. One has a .cos file for each of the images. Is it possible that these folders and .cos files are left over from an export of images with thier settings? if so, why are all but one empty of .cos files?

    Can these files and folders be deleted?


    If you are using sessions then the cos files are the edits for the images. (There may be other file types as well if some specifc edit activities have been undertaken.)

    Any folder you have opened in C1 that contains images files that are recognised will have the Capture One sub folder and its subfolder created and populated.

    There may also be a cache folder. It would contain thumbnails and previews. The Cache folder will be recreated on next use if you delete it.

    Does this help to explain why they exist in your file system?


    Grant
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  • Jerry C
    Thanks. Were you referring to using sessions, not a catalog? I have not used sessions for the affected folders. The CaptureOne\Settings subfolders are in my referenced files collection, outside of the catalog. They are not part of the cache or any other part of the Capture One catalog (.cocatalog) package. Out of hundreds of folders in the referenced files collection, only 25 of these have the CaptureOne\Settings folders, and as mentioned, all but one of these is empty. Opening a folder in my catalog does not produce the CaptureOn\Settings folder.
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  • SFA
    [quote="NN635680879799322049UL" wrote:
    Thanks. Were you referring to using sessions, not a catalog? I have not used sessions for the affected folders. The CaptureOne\Settings subfolders are in my referenced files collection, outside of the catalog. They are not part of the cache or any other part of the Capture One catalog (.cocatalog) package. Out of hundreds of folders in the referenced files collection, only 25 of these have the CaptureOne\Settings folders, and as mentioned, all but one of these is empty. Opening a folder in my catalog does not produce the CaptureOn\Settings folder.


    Using a catalog the edit info, etc., is held in the catalog database.

    With a session it is held in folders like you have described in the folders that contain the images.

    If you have had a session open at any time in the past and accessed a folder of images that C1 recognises as images it will scan the folder and create subfolders, cos files (initial settings) and thumbnails previews (if given enough processing time at that point.) The folder naming identified the C1 version in use at the time.

    Empty folders would suggest that either the contents were not created for some reason OR were created but were moved on elsewhere - deleted for example or the images were moved elsewhere in the system.

    I am not aware of any other activity that would create the folders but then that is not to say that some form of converison from system to another might not have done so.

    However there is not much point in speculating about that this point without your input about what you may or may not have done with C1 at some prior points in your usage history.

    Do the folder dates provide any guidance as to when they were created and last saw activity?


    Grant
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  • Jerry C
    Thanks, Grant. I got a reply from tech support that answered my question as if I was referring to a session, not a catalog. Indeed, as you explain, the files to which I referred should be part of a session, but the settings in a catalog are stored in the catalog database.

    So, I created a session and imported a folder's worth of referenced files into the session. Indeed, within the session package, the CaptureOne\Settings folder was created with .cos files for each image file. However, none of this appeared in the referenced files folders. No changes appeared to my Capture One catalog.

    I have used Capture One since version 8 and the dates in the affected folder with .cos files vary. The other referenced file folders with the empty CaptureOne\Settings never were associated with a session. The appended numbers to the settings folder indicate that the CaptureOne\Settings files date from version 8 and 9, but not any later. The odd thing is that the CaptureOne\Settings folders and the one folder of the 25 that has .cos files are in my referenced file folder\subfolders, not among the CaptureOne catalog files. As you point out .cos files are only a part of a session, not a catalog. I did not think Capture One stored anything but the original image files when these files are moved from the catalog's managed files location to the separate referenced file location.

    It would appear that the files have no function in a catalog, and certainly would not be seen by Capture One when they reside in a referenced file folder, and therefore should be able to be deleted. They take up only 200MB of space, so I might just leave them rather than tampering with something that works.

    Jerry C
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  • SFA
    Hi Jerry,

    Since C1 will always open in either a session or catalog mode, default being session if no catalog specified, it may simply be that at some point that happened, the folders were created but never populated in most cases.

    Whilst a session will typically have a folder structure created under all circumstances it may not have any images - for example if it is created inadvertently and abandoned in favour of a catalog.

    A session with "favourite" folders is something like an open catalog. It has a knowledge of where the files are stored in a database (a .cosessiondb file) but the edits and cache files are stored with the images not in the database.

    However on can open a folder of images in the system folders using a session but NOT make it a favourite folder and so not link it to the database at all. If C1 finds and reads files in the folder opened the subfolders and .cos files will be created along with the cache folders and files.

    They may then be orphaned there, or if imported to a catalog will be replicated in the catalog of it is "managed" or if "referenced" the original files will be known to the catalog at their current location but the edit data will be copied into the catalog. That will be entirely independent of the session data.There is, so far as I am aware, nothing to exclude the possibility of the same ORIGINAL files beng used by a catalog and a session (or indeed multiple sessions) at the same time. Nor, of course, other applications that might also refer to them.

    If you wish to tidy up I can think of no reason to keep the older empty folders. You might want to do a bit more checking for any folder structure that has both original files - RAW, jpg, tiff, whatever - and C1 subfolders of some past age.

    Are the Original files in that location still referenced by the catalog? If so leave them there.

    Are the edits for the files IN the catalo in some form? Maybe a later version and a newer "engine"? If so the subfolders can probably be dumped. The cache folders with thumbnails and previews can be removed since if anything really needs them at some point they would simply be recreated.

    HTH.


    Grant
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  • Jerry C
    Thanks for the details. Is it possible that I exported originals from the catalog, including the settings.
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  • SFA
    [quote="NN635680879799322049UL" wrote:
    Thanks for the details. Is it possible that I exported originals from the catalog, including the settings.


    Export to a session would do that I think. Is it something you might have tried?

    It's not something I have tried as my experience of catalogs is mainly experimental stuff to see what is on offer and how I might use it as a master reference for the output from sessions.


    Grant
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  • Jerry C
    I don't think I ever exported to a session from a catalog. I guess, the presence of the CaptureOne\Settings folders in my referenced file collection will remain a curiosity. The last time this folders appears was with version 9, according to the number appended to the Settings folder, so it has been a couple of years. My memory of what I did is too dim. Perhaps the tech support folks will have an ah ha moment.

    Thanks for your thoughts on this.

    Jerry C
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  • Jerry C
    While waiting for tech support to explain the issue, I did a brief experiment in which I exported some images from my catalog. If you export originals and include adjustments, Capture One creates the folders, CaptureOne\SettingsX (where X is the version under which the settings were adjusted) and stores the originals in the same location. In the past, if I exported originals to the folder in my referenced collection in which they reside, CaptureOne would create the adjustments (.cos) files in a CaptureOne\SettingsX folder in the folder with the originals.

    I cannot account for the creation of the 24 empty CaptureOne\SettingsX folders in my referenced file collection with hundreds of other folders not so affected.

    Jerry C
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  • SFA
    Jerry,

    If they are all for older versions I doubt it is on anyone's interest nor a great use of your own time to try to chase this down some years after the apparent events. As I recall you have ascertained that the one populated folder and subfolders of C1 Session data are not images that might be missing from your catalogue so if you wish to tidy up it would seem quite safe to do so.

    So long as you take a full backup of you Catalogue (which I assume you do anyway so just need to ensure it is up to date) before you remove (or, to take extra care, rename first and remove when happy that nothing is affected) the offending folders you have no practical risk to the catalogue.


    Grant
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  • Jerry C
    Grant,

    Exactly right. Not worth a lot of time. I do multiple redundant backups, and backup the catalog each time I make any change. I did delete the .cos files, after I was confident that they were an artifact of something I did in the past. It presented no problems and I now have 200MB more space.

    These are the little things that can bug you even if you know how to use all of the obvious bells and whistles.

    Thanks for the help.

    Jerry
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  • SFA
    [quote="NN635680879799322049UL" wrote:
    Grant,

    Exactly right. Not worth a lot of time. I do multiple redundant backups, and backup the catalog each time I make any change. I did delete the .cos files, after I was confident that they were an artifact of something I did in the past. It presented no problems and I now have 200MB more space.

    These are the little things that can bug you even if you know how to use all of the obvious bells and whistles.

    Thanks for the help.

    Jerry


    You're welcome Jerry.
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