Sharing settings between computers

[Stefanjan]

I have read https://www.photools.com/help/imatch/content/en/topics/settings_db.htm but not entirely sure I understand.

I have experimented transferring a database between two computers but believe that having two independent databases would be preferable.

My desktop PC would be used for most of my editing, my laptop sometimes for culling and perhaps keywording, face recognition (when my wife thinks I'm spending too much time upstairs).

A subset of images get automatically transferred between desktop, NAS and laptop using Resilio Sync.

In the help topic it says I can store a single imatch.pts settings file on my NAS. I am unclear how I can make the settings global for both databases or does that just happen automatically.

Do I assume correctly that the Thesaurus, categories etc are database specific and is there a simple way to transfer these between databases?

I'm also guessing there is minimal performance hit storing the settings file on a NAS.

[Mario]

IMatch manages settings per machine, per user, per database and mixes thereof.
Database-specific settings are of course stored in the database. Two databases, two sets of settings.
Each database must have its own unique database ID, as explained here: Change Database ID

See also Traveling with IMatch and Pack & Go

Storing the settings database on a NAS should be only the last resort. I have seen lots of shit happening with NAS and their somethings buggy SAMBA implementations.
The database vendor has many technical documents about problems caused by sharing implementations of NAS file systems, buggy locking etc. Its one of their "how to corrupt a database" reasons.
The IMatch settings database uses the same database technology IMatch uses itself.
If I work on multiple computers, I use Pack & Go to transfer the files. I use a NAS, but I only trust it for archival and streaming use, not for live database systems like IMatch.

[Stefanjan]

Storing the settings database on a NAS should be only the last resort.
If I work on multiple computers, I use Pack & Go to transfer the files. I use a NAS, but I only trust it for archival and streaming use, not for live database systems like IMatch.

Words of wisdom, I'll take your advice and not do it.

I tried out Pack & Go and it did work well but it's a bit of overkill if I all I want to do is spend 30 minutes or so every so often culling photos on my laptop.

I'm wondering whether there are any issues if I use Pack & Go to copy the database to my laptop.

Set up the paths to the images (possibly on my Synology NAS, otherwise synced locally, I use Resilio Sync to maintain copies from my desktop to NAS)

And then use Pack & Go to update the master database on my desktop.

Then I  work on both my laptop and desktop using the same database with image files synced between the two. 

I would then only use Pack & Go in one direction from desktop to laptop when I had made significant changes to the database.

Would the above scenario work or are there dangers?

[Mario]

Pack and Go takes a few seconds, unless you also include the database. Then it depends on the database size and if you also run a diagnosis & optimize.
Which is not required when you use Pack and Go just for transfer and you do a diagnosis regularly.

[Stefanjan]

Pack and Go takes a few seconds, unless you also include the database. Then it depends on the database size and if you also run a diagnosis & optimize.
Which is not required when you use Pack and Go just for transfer and you do a diagnosis regularly.

I tried pack & go without the database and without optimize and yes it only took seconds. But don't I need to include the database to transfer between two computers?

[Mario]

Yes. But if you don't to a diagnosis and a optimize, P&G is as fast as copying the database file in Explorer.

[Stefanjan]

Yes. But if you don't to a diagnosis and a optimize, P&G is as fast as copying the database file in Explorer.

Thanks, without diagnosis and optimise took 3 minutes to pack & go to 3.99GB. 4 minutes with. Then quite a while to sync the file across my wifi network.

I'll experiment with doing an initial Pack & Go two way sync. Then only syncing Pack & Go when settings change on desktop.

[PaulS]

My desktop PC would be used for most of my editing, my laptop sometimes for culling and perhaps keywording, face recognition (when my wife thinks I'm spending too much time upstairs).

A subset of images get automatically transferred between desktop, NAS and laptop using Resilio Sync.

I tried out Pack & Go and it did work well but it's a bit of overkill if I all I want to do is spend 30 minutes or so every so often culling photos on my laptop.

Set up the paths to the images (possibly on my Synology NAS, otherwise synced locally, ...

Then I  work on both my laptop and desktop using the same database with image files synced between the two. 

I would then only use Pack & Go in one direction from desktop to laptop when I had made significant changes to the database.

Would the above scenario work or are there dangers?

I'll experiment with doing an initial Pack & Go two way sync. Then only syncing Pack & Go when settings change on desktop.

I may misunderstand, but it sounds like you are saying that you want to make changes on both computers but use Pack & Go only from the desktop to your laptop.

If you only want to do culling on the laptop, your approach sounds OK to me.  Or if all of the changes made on the laptop are saved back to the images metadata and then rescanned on the desktop.

But changes on the laptop that are typically saved only in the database, e.g. Categories, Events, Attributes, Thesaurus, etc. would be lost if you do not also use Pack & Go from the laptop to the desktop.

If you haven't already, it would be good to test your approach with a small group of files, making changes using all of the IMatch features you intend to use on the laptop.

[Stefanjan]

Thanks PaulS

You have understood exactly.

And it's good to have a list of things to avoid on the laptop. The only one I am currently using is the Thesaurus which I am building from scratch as I keyword. I'll make sure all my keywords are input on my desktop.