How to create new db using the old preferences.

[ubacher]

I messed up my db and it became unrepairable.
I created a new db and loaded it with the files - used category import/export to recover.

Now: my new db has default preferences settings. Is there a way to copy preferences from an old
db to a new one? (Old one still exists and is openable). There is only one Imatch5.pts.

[Mario]

I messed up my db and it became unrepairable.

How did you do that? A problem caused by IMatch?

IMatch stores settings per user, per computer and per database (and a mix of these).
Some settings are closely tied to a database and cannot be copied. For example because these settings contain references to specific database objects.
(These settings stick when you duplicate a database and then change the database unique id under Edit > Preferences > Database for the copy).

A new database starts with a fresh set of database-specific settings,and automatically inherits per-user and per-machine settings from the global settings database.

[ubacher]

If I knew the steps which lead to the problem I would have documented it.
I think I was trying to get rid of NEF files which were deleted by the ACR processing inside PS.
Could not find a way to remove such a file - option is only to relocate.

[ChrisMatch]

You may find this post helpful
(at least which settings are lost and which can be restored using export features)
https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=457.0

[Mario]

I think I was trying to get rid of NEF files which were deleted by the ACR processing inside PS.
Could not find a way to remove such a file - option is only to relocate.

When you remove files outside of IMatch, the files will show up with the yellow "off-line" icon in IMatch.
IMatch does not remove off-line files automatically. It cannot know if you just have accidentally moved the files elsewhere (and want to tell IMatch where via Relocate or if the files have been really deleted elsewhere).

To remove all off-line files (deleted files) just rescan the folder (<Shift>+<F5>)
When you rescan a folder, IMatch adds new files, updates modified files and removes files which no longer exist from the database.

[ubacher]

Tried rescanning (also deleting again) but nothing removed these files. Probably because there
was already something screwy in the db.

[Mario]

Then the log file of a session where you tries to remove the files would be useful because it may contain errors and warnings.