Moving Imatch to New Compouter

[Josebr]

I just purchased a new computer and need to move all my Imatch stuff to the new computer. I have done this before, but it escapes me how to move it now.  Yes, I looked at your online help and none of those headings tell address moving Imatch.  So how do I move it to a new, faster computer?

[Mario]

Searching the IMatch help for the word move brings this up as the 2nd hit:

Re-installing IMatch on a New Computer

[Josebr]

Mario,
Thanks for the link. But something went very wrong. I got error messages when restoring the Pack and Go File. Attached are the errors, as the box containing these did not allow for copy and paste the text.

[Mario]

Wow. These are real shots   Did not see that before.

You know that you can make a screen shot with <Windows Key> + <Print>?
This makes a screen shot and stores the file in your "My Pictures\Screen Shots" folder.

If you instead pres <Alt>+<Print>, Windows makes a screen shot of the active window and copies it into the clipboard.
From there you can paste it into your image editor, save it and attach it.



Pack & Go cannot restore the files because Windows denies access. This is the reason for all the "Access denies" messages.

The user (you) under which you run Pack & Go has no file system permission to replace files in "c:\program data\photools.com\IMatch 6".

Quite unusual. IMatch usually creates these folders and files with "all authorized users" access during installation. Did you install IMatch with a different user than you log in with when running Pack & Go?

Open Windows Explorer. In the Windows Explorer address bar, copy & paste this text:

%ProgramData%\photools.com\

Right-click on IMatch 6 and open the Properties for the folder.
On the "Security" tab, select your user name in the list at the top.
Make sure you have read/write/delete privileges on the folder and all its sub-folders and files.
Then restore the Pack & Go package again.

[Mees Dekker]

I always run P&G (restore) as an "administrator". 

[Mario]

I always run P&G (restore) as an "administrator".

This will work, but should not be necessary. Doing that may, under some conditions, create files which can only be accessed/modified by a user that is part of the Administrator group, and not by your normal user account.

[Josebr]

I was able to correct the problem. The version of Imatch which I downloaded was the trail version. I uninstalled it and then went to my old e-mails and found the link to the purchased version and downloaded it. I was able to then do the Restore of the Pack and Go. But nothing showed up on my program when opening it. So I pointed the program to the latest Imatch database and then it showed all the photos from before. I have yet use the program as it was late and I was tired. Will update this post later today to let you all know how it works with me adding photos as I do everyday.

[Josebr]

In using the program, I found that the categories I have worked years to add to each photo are gone. As are the category tabs on the right hand side of the program. I have tried Pack and Go and I have tried moving over a copy of the database and opening that up. Still my categories are gone. Please help

[Mario]

Categories are stored in the database. They cannot get lost.

Please show us a screen shot of the Category View.
Make sure you have no filter enabled in the Category View that hides categories (in the panel below the category tree).
Run a database diagnosis and attach the result to your reply, ZIpped, please.

[Josebr]

Mario,
Let me rephrase my problem. It looks like the my categories are there and are attached to each photo.(Praise Be). But I can't see them. Also the category tabs I created which go across from left to right on the right hand side panel are not there. I thought that Pack and Go would recreate my settings as I left them on the old computer. Attached are two photos. The first one 2023-03-23-073644.jpg shows the new computer and how it shows things and the second attachment 2023-03-23-074000.jpg shows how my old computer shows things.

As you can see, there are no categories beneath the photo in the new computer and there are no category tabs on the right hand panel. Just my categories going down in a list type view. Why didn't Pack and Go recreate everything as it was on my old computer? Was it not suppose to do that? If it was suppose to do that, then I did something wrong. The new computer is how Pack and Go has created my Imatch environment. Oh, the old computer photos shows that the photos are not connected to a drive because I move that drive to the new computer. I can always move it back for trouble shooting purposes.

[Tveloso]

This may be a function of your File window Layout, suggesting that your settings did not come over to the new computer (or are not being used there).

I had similar issues when I last moved to a new PC, and in my case the issue turned out to be that the Settings Database configured in the new IMatch Installation was different from what my old PC had (so the database was brought over to the new PC, but was not being used).

You should compare the Settings database filename parameter on both PCs (under Edit->Preferences->Application).  In my case the old PC had a database name of imatchN.pts (I think it was imatch5.pts) configured, while the new PC had imatch.pts.

Rather than change the configured database name on the new PC, I deleted the imatch.pts file (presumably created by the new IMatch installation), and renamed imatch5.pts (which was brought over by Pack&Go) to imatch.pts in order to continue with the database name IMatch now delivers.

[thrinn]

As some settings are user specific, do you use the same user name on your new PC? Otherwise, you may want to set up a User Name Alias. This might help regarding the missing user defined tabs in the Categories panel (right hand side). But even without these tabs, the categories assigned to a picture should be displayed in the Categories panel - and I think they are because "East Harlem" is marked in your first screenshot.

I am still not sure what the actual problem is: Your screenshots show the Media & Folders view, not the Categories view. So I assume you mean the footer line below the thumbnails? In this case, I would export the "Default" file window layout from the old PC and import it on the new PC (see The Full Layout Editor ).

[Mario]

I agree. User name Alias is the most likely candidate. Panel layouts, File Window layouts etc. are user-specific.
None of the default File Window layouts shows categories so this has to be a user-defined layout.

This is mentioned in the Re-installing IMatch on a New Computer help topic in the  2.1.4. User Name Alias section.

[Mario]

Rather than change the configured database name on the new PC, I deleted the imatch.pts file (presumably created by the new IMatch installation), and renamed imatch5.pts (which was brought over by Pack&Go) to imatch.pts in order to continue with the database name IMatch now delivers.

This was a long time ago. When I recall correctly IMatch automatically switched/copied the settings database to the new name automatically. Or there maybe was a note about this in the release notes? Don't remember. IMatch uses imatch.pts for a long time now.

[Josebr]

Well I just wasted hours of my day trying to successfully move Imatch to my new computer. I have:
Uninstalled Imatch

Re-Installed Image

I also created name Alias that match on both computer which caused my old computer Imatch to not show my categories under the thumbnails and loose category tabs on the right panel. Which necessitated restoring Windows from a back up from yesterday, which wasted more of my time but it did return my old computer Imatch back to normal.

Changed my User Name on the new computer to match the old computer

Created a new Pack and Go on old computer

Restored that same Pack and Go on the new computer

All for nothing. I even looked into manual moving Imatch, but the folder names and contents for Config were different. The new computer has a different name and contents for the config file.

Question, once a Restore is done for the Pack and Go file, what's suppose to happen? Nothing is mentioned about it. What is one suppose to do? I assumed that once that Pack and Go is Restored than I just open Imatch and everything should be as it was on the old computer. But when I go to Imatch (after a fresh install of Imatch), the program asks me for a Database. (this is after the Pack and Go Restore). Which makes me think, if it's going to open an already made database, what was the purpose of Pack and Go. Or am I missing a step her on what to do between a Pack and Go Restore and Opening up Imatch?  Moving Outlook and Lightroom did not present me with any problems. 

[Mario]

I also created name Alias that match on both computer which caused my old computer Imatch to not show

You only need to create an Alias on the new computer, since you use a different user name on that computer than before.
If you used "Tom" on the old computer, IMatch has stored user-specific settings under "Tom".
If the user name on the new computer is "Peter" (or your Microsoft account) name, IMatch will not access the settings stored for "Tom" unless you create "Tom" as the alias.

Which necessitated restoring Windows from a back up from yesterday,

You only had to delete the Alias on the old computer and closed and reopened IMatch. Restoring Windows from a backup was not required.

Question, once a Restore is done for the Pack and Go file, what's suppose to happen? Nothing is mentioned about it. What is one suppose to do? 

If you let Pack & Go restore into the original folders, nothing else must be done.
Unless you restore the package onto a Windows system with a totally different folder layout or something, which would be unusual.

All for nothing. I even looked into manual moving Imatch, but the folder names and contents for Config were different.

What do you mean by "Config were different"?
IMatch always uses the same folder names. When you install IMatch, all folders under %APPDATA% and %PROGRAMDATA" are automatically created by the install program. What was different? We need more details.

But when I go to Imatch (after a fresh install of Imatch), the program asks me for a Database. 

This is normal. The "last recently used database" is a user-specific setting. If you use a different user name (and you apparently do) on the new PC, IMatch will not automatically load the last database. But it also does not ask for a database, when I'm not mistaken. What was the exact question that IMatch asked? Details matter.

Pack & Go produces a log file that shows exactly which files were restored and to which folders.
Check the log to see if your database was restored and into which folder. Then open the database from there.
If you used the default folder when creating the database, it will be stored in "My Documents". Note that "My Documents" in Windows is also user-specific.

You can always just copy the database from the old computer to the new computer manually.

Note that workspaces in IMatch are also user-specific. And if all the restoring and copying and re-installing Windows and whatnot causes a mess, it might cause the Category View or other views to become messed up.

Try this: Start IMatch and keep <Ctrl> pressed. When IMatch displays the Advanced Startup Options (Recovery) dialog, use the "Reset Workspace" option. This resets the workspace to the default settings. No open the database via the Database menu > Open command. Make sure it is the correct one.

[Josebr]

Try this: Start IMatch and keep <Ctrl> pressed. When IMatch displays the Advanced Startup Options (Recovery) dialog, use the "Reset Workspace" option. This resets the workspace to the default settings. No open the database via the Database menu > Open command. Make sure it is the correct one

Thanks for getting back to me Mario. Do I do what you wrote above on my new or old computer?

[Mario]

On your new computer.
This recreates the "Default" workspace on this computer and for the user name (e.g. Microsoft account name) you use on that computer. All panels will be set to defaults and when you open your database once, IMatch remembers it and loads it automatically the next time you start IMatch.

Note that you won't get access to your custom File Window layouts etc. unless you create an Alias for the user name you used on the old computer on the new computer. You basically tell IMatch "My user name on this computer is "Peter", but I want you to load and store settings as if I where "Tom" (from the old computer)).

[Josebr]

Thank You everyone for your help, especially Mario. All my categories were there with the move to a new computer. But the custom layout and category tabs did not move over. After hours of research, I was able to figure out how I added them back. Pack and Go did not do as advertised, hence I wasted hours of time trying to figure out how to get things back. I wish I could get my time back.

[Mario]

Pack and Go does exactly what's explained in the help.
What did not work?
As long as the installation folders are standard, it will work beautifully.
Many users use it frequently to copy database and settings between computers.

I personally use it several times a week to move and synchronize IMatch installations on 3 different physical computers and multiple virtual machines I use for testing purposes.

I set the user name Alias on each machine and all my user-specific settings are there, despite the fact that I use different user names on these computers.

The only exception are computer-specific settings of course, but that is how it must be.