I just attempted to open my project database and it is telling me that “photos are not found.”
I recently copied the project to an external HD, and I don’t currently have it with me (I’m on a research trip), but am hoping that it may just be an error from having copied the original project to the external drive. However, I’m not sure what, if anything, can be done to ensure that I can access the photos going forward? All the metadata is still intact, as well as the thumbnail images, but the full photos are not there.
Hopefully the screenshots above can help someone else help me make sense of this.
Is this just an issue of placing a folder with the same images in a different place on my computer and readjusting the pathway that Tropy is reading from or pulling the image data from? Any help is appreciated!
Hi,
most likely your project uses absolute photo paths, that means the photo references break once you move either the project or the photos. You can fix this once you have access to both your project file and your photos by consolidating your photos (click on the Consolidate Photo button in the image viewer or the triangle icon in the photo panel to point Tropy to the new location of the photo): Moving photos - Documentation.
If you often move around your project and photos together, you may want to use relative photo paths: Preferences - Documentation.
Hi - Thanks for this response.
I see that it is a .tpy file and not a .tropy file, and that in the settings it is showing that the photos were originally linked based on an absolute path. My other projects are .tropy and it looks like they all copy the photos directly to the project as opposed to linking to my desktop or documents, for example.
My issue now is that I have looked and I believe I have removed that original photo folder from my computer (though I have in in the cloud). I guess my next question would be is will I now have to go find each individual photo file for this project to “consolidate” them before converting it to a .tropy file that can do relative pathways? Thanks so much.
Hi,
yes, you are right, with .tropy projects you don’t have to think about photo paths anymore as the photos are copied into the .tropy package, so the references can never break.
As for your current issue, when you point Tropy to the actual location of a missing photo, it will ask you wether or not it should automatically check and resolve further missing photos at this location. Confirm and Tropy will update the references automatically – for all photos it can find. If you changed the folder structure of the photos you might have to do this a couple of times, but be assured that you don’t have to do this for every individual photo.
You can switch to relative photo paths (File > Settings > Project > Link photos relative to the project file) after the consolidation and keep your current .tpy file or convert it into a .tropy package afterwards. But it is also possible to convert the .tpy file into a .tropy package right away and consolidate the missing photos afterwards. It’s your choice.
Having the same problem as the user above due to all my folders holding the original photos moving from my Mac desktop to Recents in Finder. If I convert my .tpy project to a .tropy project as described in the “New Project Types”article, will the problem resolve? Or will I need to complete more steps?
In a .tropy project all the photos are copied into the project folder (bundle on macOS) so they are all in one place and always move together. Tropy will not lose access to them anymore regardless of what happens to the original files (but this consumes more disk space if you keep the original of course).
Please note, though, that if you convert an existing .tpy project only the files will be copied which are accessible to Tropy at time of conversion. Missing photos can be fixed before or after the conversion but that’s a separate step (the conversion process will show a warning if it can’t find any of the original photos).
