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Need your help - catalog gets unusable

Whitesnake
I have troubles backing up my catalogs.

I use for every appointment a new folder with a catalog and the pictures (I don't have a huge catalog for all appointments). After exporting the pictures I backup the folder to my Synology NAS. Sometimes I copy the folder from the NAS over to the desktop, if I have to make changes. Afterwords I only copy the catalog to the NAS (to the same folder als before).

If my catalogs size is taller than 100 MB, some strange things happen if I copy it back to the NAS: inside the catalog the folder Adjustments and the file .cocatalogdb are deleted. It happens every time when I replace the catalog on the NAS. If I make the same step back to my Mac or an external HDD, everything is fine. Also if the catalog is small (under 100 MB) everything is fine.

My setup:
Macbook Pro 2018 with an 1 TB SSD and MacOS 10.14.5, NAS is a Synology DS415+ and I transfer the files over LAN (tried AFP and SMB, it makes no difference).

Can anybody help me by trying to reproduce this effect?
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4 comments

Date Votes
  • OddS.
    [quote="Whitesnake" wrote:
    ...After exporting the pictures I backup the folder to my Synology NAS. Sometimes I copy the folder from the NAS over to the desktop, if I have to make changes.


    I use C1 in session mode and can not explain what is going on or how to mitigate it. Part of your description is unclear to me, some clarification may be useful to catalog users who want to help.

    "Backup" means different things to different people and between different types of backup software. The word "restore" is commonly used for the opposite process. "Backup" may involve more than simply copying files, and that "more" (process logic) is complemented in the restore process, given that you use a backup-restore pair of functions. C1 has a built in backup-restore pair, but I wonder if you use C1 "backup" and then a plain copy instead of C1 "restore". Or are you doing file copy from computer to NAS and file copy from NAS to computer without involving C1 backup-restore?

    It is, for example, part of C1 backup-restore logic to NOT copy image files even if the image files are inside the catalog folder. If I remember this correctly, C1 backup does not copy cache, previews and other data that C1 can recreate once the .dbcatalog and Adjustments (and image files) are in place. C1 backup copies the .dbcatalog and the Adjustments. Strangely they are the two elements that you find missing. That is why I wonder about the details in what you are doing. What application copies your C1 files to and from the NAS, and how? The 100MB size thing beats me, for now.

    In case you need to read it: https://imagealchemist.net/backup-your-catalog/ The Author Paul Steunebrink frequents these forums and may chime in with something that is more helpful.

    Side note: The way you use C1's catalog functionality indicates that you could use C1 in session mode.
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  • SFA
    [quote="Whitesnake" wrote:


    If my catalogs size is taller than 100 MB, some strange things happen if I copy it back to the NAS: inside the catalog the folder Adjustments and the file .cocatalogdb are deleted. It happens every time when I replace the catalog on the NAS. If I make the same step back to my Mac or an external HDD, everything is fine. Also if the catalog is small (under 100 MB) everything is fine.



    Have you got any folder quotas set on the NAS?

    Or maybe some other restriction (although at the moment I cannot think what that might be but it might depend on how you are making the file transfers ...)


    Grant
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  • Whitesnake
    I checked for quotas, but there are no quotas for any user on my NAS.

    I'll try to explain in details: I have a normal folder in MacOS, for example appointment. Inside this folder is a catalog file vom C1. Then I copy my raw files inside the appointment folder. After this step I open the catalog in C1 and import the pictures. Then I adjust the settings in the pictures and export them as jpgs (different folder). Then I close C1. Inside the appointment folder is still the catalog and the raw-files.

    Then I open my NAS folder pictures and pull the appointment folder (with the catalog and pictures inside) to the NAS folder pictures. This works fine. Then I delete the appointment folder on MacOS, because it's stores on the NAS.

    Later when I want to make a change, I pull the appointment folder from the NAS to MacOS. I make the changes, close C1 and then (because I haven't added any raw files) I only pull the catalog file (from the appointment folder) to the appointment folder on the NAS. And then this catalog gets destroyed.

    Since I don't have a second Mac, I cannot test if it only occurs on my Mac, or is a NAS problem. When I do the same to an external harddrive, everything is fine. I need your help, because I want to exclude the option that it's a general problem with Synology NAS systems when dealing with C1 catalogs.
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  • SFA
    It sound like a strange problem.

    Are you using Managed catalogues or Referenced Catalogues (or a combination of both?)

    What do you mean when you say the catalogue is "destroyed?" In what way?

    I use Sessions in preference to catalogues and for the sort of shoots you have described I would think they are a better approach being easier to use. But that is just my opinion.

    I cannot think of any reason for the process you have described to be a problem ONLY when the catalogue size (presumably that is including thumbnails and previews) is greater then 100Mb. Why size would matter at all is unclear unless it is something to do with the internal operation of the systems involved.

    As I don't use catalogues and I run on Windows I cannot help much more.

    I do have a Synology NAS but would not consider myself any sort of expert (maybe not even at novice level!) about its internal workings. I use it for basic storage of my sessions (and other things of course) with replication across discs to provide some failure protection. Anything else starts to look too complicated for my liking or my needs.

    For editing and updating the NAS I have 2 scenarios I normally use.

    Initially for a new shoot all editing is done on the internal laptop drives. At some point I will decide to copy the entire session onto the NAS. When I think I have finished editing (if I continued to change things after the first copy) I will usually re-copy the entire session to the NAS using a new folder and then delete the previous session copy from the NAS to free up the space. Once successful but not necessarily immediately unless I need the space on the PC drives, I will also delete from the PC.

    If I need to re-visit the session for just a few activities I will work with it on the NAS. Slightly slower perhaps but acceptable for a small amount of work.

    If I want to do a lot with it I will copy the entire session back to the PC (or perhaps a USB3 external drive) and work from there. If I have copied back to the PC and undertaken a lot of work that I want to keep I once again create a new copy on the NAS and, once that has succeeded, delete the previous one if disk space is require.

    This works for me on the basis that once a shoot has been dealt with and some time has passed in the majority of cases I will be unlikely to need it again for further editing work so keeping to this simple process works well enough for now.

    HTH.


    Grant
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