Categories or Keywords

[Stefanjan]

Is it possible to sync categories between imatch databases on two computers? I'm guessing the answer is no.

Started to use categories for a project with colour coding and keyboard shortcut, worked very well on my desktop PC.

However using iMatch Pack and Go and Resilio File Sync categories don't appear to sync. So unless I'm mistaken, I should use keywords and never categories as I work on both a desktop and a laptop. 

[Mario]

Categories and file assignments to these categories are stored in your database. They automatically travel with the database.
Pack & Go optionally includes one or more database and restores them.
If you restore (or just copy) your database on the other computer, all categories will be there.

If you have to work with more than one database, which is quite rare, you can export and import categories: Importing & Exporting Categories

It is always better to have only one database and copy them between computers. This avoids all extra work, manual synching and is much safer.
That's what Pack & Go is for. But you don't need to use it. You can also just use whatever file sync software you use the sync the database and settings database.
See Backup for info about what to backup / copy between computers.

[Stefanjan]

Categories and file assignments to these categories are stored in your database. They automatically travel with the database.
Pack & Go optionally includes one or more database and restores them.

On my desktop computer, I have a category @All>Projects>Emily 40 Years containing 461 files

After writing back meta data, I used Pack & Go and restored on my laptop. The files synced to my laptop via Resilio Sync. The category  @All>Projects>Emily 40 Years did not come across to my laptop.

[Mario]

This is hard to imagine.

Since categories are stored in your database, they cannot get lost.
Did you copy / restore the database on the other PC?

[Stefanjan]

This is hard to imagine.

Thanks Mario, I've discovered where I was going wrong.

Database on my desktop computer on my C Drive, on my laptop it was on my D Drive. When restoring database using Pack & Go, I selected Restore to a different folder D:\imatch. I hadn't appreciated that imatch creates a dated sub folder each time with this option ticked (using the file name of the impag file.

So when I opened imatch, it opened the previously opened database not the one I just restored.

I have now moved the database on my laptop to the same folder as on my desktop C:\imatch and I now select  "Restore to original folders"

This is a major break through for me as previously there were quite a few issues that I did not understand.

Only minor thing I noticed was the Renamer does not bring across the templates setup on my desktop, Is there a way of bringing these across?

[Mario]

Only minor thing I noticed was the Renamer does not bring across the templates setup on my desktop, Is there a way of bringing these across?

IMatch stores settings per-database, per-user, per-computer and a mix of these.
Most likely you don't use the same user name on both computers, and hence user-specific settings are not available.

See User Name Alias in the IMatch help for information on how to make user-specific settings available, even if you don't use the same user name on different computers.

[Stefanjan]

Most likely you don't use the same user name on both computers, and hence user-specific settings are not available.

Mario, that's perfect! You must be incredibly proud of what you have achieved and your users support is superb. Loving iMatch the more I understand it. Thanks for all your efforts.

Took me a while to work out what exactly I should do with the alias. Initially I thought I should put the same name in the alias on both computers and got some strange results but then realised I should leave the alias blank on my desktop but fill the desktop windows name as an alias in imatch on my laptop. I appreciate that this is what the help implies but you might consider spelling it out for people like me who are not so bright. 

Anyway thanks again.

[Mario]

I appreciate that this is what the help implies but you might consider spelling it out for people like me who are not so bright. 

Each help page has a feedback link at the bottom. Use this link to send me info about missing or unclear information. I update the help frequently.

[Stefanjan]

Each help page has a feedback link at the bottom. Use this link to send me info about missing or unclear information. I update the help frequently.
[/quote]
Tried clicking on the link in the screen sheet shot attached but it just takes me back to the same page https://www.photools.com/help/imatch/rmh_config_appsettings.htm

[Mario]

I see. Working again. You might need to clear the cache of your browser or press Ctrl+F5 a couple of times.

Unexpected side effect of trying to make Google like the help pages more.
Web sites these days must be designed and written to please Google as prio #1, not humans ...