Moving Files Offline

[Nytewulf]

I'd like to move a large number of files offline and put them in a mirror of the convoluted directory structure they're already in.  Any ideas about the easiest way to do this?

John

[Nytewulf]

I was afraid of that ... 

John

[Mario]

I don't understand.

When you copy files to a mirror, the original files will remain in the database.
When you move files to another folder (outside of IMatch and **while IMatch is not running**) IMatch will consider the files as off-line.
You don't need to do anything...

[Nytewulf]

I think we're miscommunicating.

If there is a file d:/dir1/x.cr2 and I move it to e:/dir1/x.cr2 outside IMatch,
then e:/dir1/x.cr2 will /initially/ be marked as offline. But as soon as c:/dir1 is rescanned the file will be removed from the database.  So you lost me on that one.

In any case, what I'm trying to accomplish is to move individual files offline while preserving both the original directory structure and the IMatch data associated with them.  This could certainly be done with a script -- but given the death and destruction some my scripts have caused in the past, I was hoping to dodge that route. 

The best I can come up with is to copy and paste the directories within IMatch, delete the files marked to be archived from the source drive, then invert the filter and delete the remaining (non-archived files) from the destination drive.  As a one-time operation, that's easy enough -- but I'd like to do this on an ongoing basis.  So I guess it going to require the dreaded scripting ... 
 
John

[Richard]

If there is a file d:/dir1/x.cr2 and I move it to e:/dir1/x.cr2 outside IMatch,
then e:/dir1/x.cr2 will /initially/ be marked as offline. But as soon as c:/dir1 is rescanned the file will be removed from the database.

If I assume that e: is removable media and you were to Move x.cr2 from within IMatch (or use Relocate if moved outside IMatch), all the data will be preserved even when e drive is off-line.

[Mario]

then e:/dir1/x.cr2 will /initially/ be marked as offline. But as soon as c:/dir1 is rescanned the file will be removed from the database.  So you lost me on that one.

Of course. You are rescanning a folder. And this means that IMatch imports new files, updates existing onces that have changed, and removes files no longer found. This is not the right way to do it.

Using the Relocate command is the proper solution. You can relocate individual files via the Relocate command available in the File Window context menu.

If you want to move batches of files off-line, I suggest you

1. Create a new folder in IMatch, below the original folder, e.g. "off-line".
2. Move the files to be taken off-line into that folder.
3. Move the files outside of IMatch to their new folder.
4. Relocate the 'off-line' folder in IMatch to match the new location.

Or, add the new folder to your IMatch database and then move the files within IMatch. If you take the e: drive off-line, IMatch marks the files as off-line, and brings them back on-line when you re-attach the media.

[Richard]

1. Create a new folder in IMatch, below the original folder, e.g. "off-line".
2. Move the files to be taken off-line into that folder.
3. Move the files outside of IMatch to their new folder.
4. Relocate the 'off-line' folder in IMatch to match the new location.

Hi Mario,

You lost me. I can do steps 1 - 3 but not step 4. IMatch 5 will not allow me to Relocate to a folder that is not indexed in IMatch 5. As I recall, that could be done in IMatch 3 but it didn't work for me in IMatch 5.

[Mario]

Relocating a folder not in the database is of course not possible. And would make no sense.

The idea here is to separate the files in the database you want to take off-line from the other files - into a new sub-folder. This folder is of course indexed in IMatch. Then, after moving the files outside of IMatch, you relocate the folder. This way the files stay in the database, and all associated data as well.

[Nytewulf]

That would be workable if it were possible to use relative paths when moving files.  Effectively, I was trying to see if there was a backdoor way of doing that.

With a very large number of directories, however, moving files directory-by-directory is essentially a manual operation -- which is what I'm trying to get around.

John

[Mario]

You want to move some files in some folders indexed in your database to another folder (!).
This folder is not indexed by your database.
But you still want to keep track of these files.
And you want to somehow magically mix the files in another folder, on another disk/media with files contained in a totally different folder on another media/disk, but display the files together under one folder in IMatch.

This is impossible. The Media & Folder View in IMatch is based on the physical disk, media, folder and file structure found on your system.
You can of course always merge files from different folders into a category, which allows you to virtualize anything.

[Carlo Didier]

I think the only solution would be to somehow tag the images you want to move (with a category, a pin, whatever) and then move them by script in iMatch (the script would have to create the corresponding folder structure too).