Pack & Go Questions

[J.D. McDowell]

I've read a bunch of posts regarding this, but I'm still not finding my answer.

I've used pack and go to take a copy of my main database with me on the road.

The main database resides on a basic Win 7 64 bit machine. My laptop that I've restored the database to belongs to my companies domain, thus the users are different.

I did get a lot of the database to restore, the cache images, file relations all worked great.

What I don't have are any of the display preferences (e.g. the file window layout, colours etc.) additionally added file formats, any of my favourites, renamer presets, that's just to start. I expect i could find more differences, but you get the idea. Metadata templates would be nice too. I understand that I can export / import them separately, but that's an extra step I forgot to do before I left.

What can I do now that I'm away from home or what can I do in the future so that I don't have these problems working with a mobile version of the database?

[Mario]

What I don't have are any of the display preferences (e.g. the file window layout, colours etc.) add

IMatch stores settings per user, per computer, per database and in combinations thereof.
All settings are stored in the settings database "imatch5.pts", which is automatically packed and restored by Pack & Go. Make sure that there are no security problems when you restore that file on the other computer. See the Pack & Go help for details, and look at the Pack & Go output for warnings or messages. Usually it's a Windows file system privilege problem that  causes Pack & Go to skip one or more files during restore.

Pack & Go creates a protocol file and a log file, which are very helpful in diagnosing problems or security-related issues. See the Pack & Go help for additional information.

[Aubrey]

As Mario states "per user, per computer". I ended up creating same user account name on my laptop as my desktop. When using Imatch I log into this account.

I don't know if one can successfully manually  copy imatch5. Pts from one user account to another?

Aubrey

[Mario]

All per-user settings are stored in the central settings database. There is no tool for copying settings between different user accounts for privacy and security reasons. If you want to use the same per-user settings on multiple computers, you need to use the same user name on all machines.

[J.D. McDowell]

I don't know if one can successfully manually  copy imatch5. Pts from one user account to another?

Aubrey

Aubrey thanks, I tried that, but without any success. I don't think I missed putting any files in the correct locations ( C:\Users\user name\AppData\Roaming\photools.com\IMatch5 and C:\ProgramData\photools.com\IMatch5) Curiously I do see shortcut links in the %appdata% location that clearly are from my other machine. I also tried running the restore as administrator.

Mario, is there any reason why I could not or should not copy the settings files manually into place? I'm thinking here not just in terms if my own use, but if I wished to share the database and settings with say an assistant or someone else who would need to be logged in as another user.

[Mario]

Well, the entire business behind keeping all settings in one single file is exactly this purpose. To allow you copying the settings easily between computers, making backups etc. The imatch5.pts file is meant to be copied. Either via Pack&Go or manually. Just make sure you copy it into the right folder and to configure the file system privileges correctly. The file must be readable and writable by all users. The log file tells you where IMatch is expecting the file (search for .pts in the log to find the name).

[Aubrey]

All per-user settings are stored in the central settings database. There is no tool for copying settings between different user accounts for privacy and security reasons. If you want to use the same per-user settings on multiple computers, you need to use the same user name on all machines.

I faced the same issue as you did a while back. The only way I could get my settings the same on both computers was to have the same account name.

Mario is clear that the per-user settings are stored in the database. Therefore if you don't have the same username on both machines the database will not give out the settings.

I don't know what potential security issues there are for display settings; in that they must be encoded and therefore not easily copied between accounts. I suspect many users will be having issues transferring accounts to their laptop that is primarily for professional use. Many laptops are now "locked down" by IT department so that user cannot make modifications.

There is an export/import option available in the Layout Editor and in the Image batch processor (but the batch processor only allows one export preset at a time    https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=2319.msg14862#msg14862) Now that I have accounts set the same my issues have gone away!


Aubrey.

[dadu]

My PC and laptop do not have the same username (PC is my home computer; laptop is my work computer) and syncing between them works fine.

I use Pack & Go to create the one file in a specific folder on the root of the secondary drive in my PC (the destination folder never changes).
I then use SyncToy (64-bit; free MS software) to sync that folder with a folder on a thumb drive I have.
I then use SyncToy on my laptop with my thumbdrive.  Then I use iMatch Pack & Go>Restore to load  the updated database into the iMatch program on my laptop.  I make sure the "Restore to original folders" option is selected in  the Pack & Go restore tab. 
All my settings, workspaces, favorites, etc. from the PC are there...even the file that was last selected on the PC is selected when I open up the database.
To get the database that has then been updated on my laptop after a few hours of work, the process is reversed.