I recently started a new job and with that came a new computer. I’ve downloaded Tropy and also my photos. I download my photos via dropbox, so they are now all stored locally on my new computer. However, Tropy is not finding them. I did not change the pathways - It is simply the organisational architecture that I have in Dropbox, which is the same as on my old computer. Any thoughts on what I should do would be great, thanks!
Tropy has been a tremendous boost to my research and I hope to be able to use the software in the office too!
If Tropy can’t find the photos it likely means that the absolute paths to the photos are not identical on both computer; since you did not change the paths inside the Dropbox folder, this will be due to the location of the Dropbox folder itself (perhaps your username is different on the new computer?).
In any case, it should be easy to update the paths once we have determined what has changed.
Can you tell me the path where your photos are located now on the new computer? And to see where Tropy thinks the photos, just open your project in Tropy; when the photos fail to load, select Help -> Show log files and post your project.log here.
Many thanks. I’m attaching a screen shot of ‘show logged files.’ There’s nothing really there. Yes, my computer name might have changed but usually I just use my first and last name.
OK, to be on the safe side, please try open one of the photos in Tropy (if you select the item and you see an exclamation mark icon next to the photo in the photo panel, you’re good to go) and then upload the project.log file here (please just upload the file itself, not a screenshot, because I will have to take a look inside to see the path).
Alternatively, you can send me your project file (you can send it to sylvester.keil@gmail.com if you would rather not share it here), then I can take a look at the paths there.
We also need to determine the paths on your new computer: just select the folder containing your photos in Finder and press Cmd+i – this should display more information about the folder including the full location (under ‘Where’ in the ‘General’ section). Please post that information here (or a screenshot) then I can change the paths in your project accordingly.
Hi - Okay, I can do all that. I have a quick question first. I have only downloaded some of my photos that are in Tropy from dropbox to this computer. Should I download all my photos that are in Tropy first?
Tropy still ‘works’ even if it cannot find your photos (you just can’t view the photos in the item view and thumbnails cannot be generated) so it is no problem if not all of the photos are there. Tropy will try to find the photo when necessary, so it should find them once they are available (you can also force Tropy to do this by selecting ‘Consolidate Photo Library’ from the menu, ideally, after you download a batch of the photos).
Note that we do need to change all the photo paths in your project now. I am assuming the photos did not move relative to each other, that’s why we should be able to change all the paths in one go now. If you are planning to download the photos and save them in a different location, on the other hand, it would be best to do this first and only update the paths in the project once you have all the photos in their new location.
Okay - I will download all my photos onto this computer and then write back when it’s done, so I only have to do it once.
Just to clarify - Once I do this, I will no longer be able to access the photos via Tropy on my laptop (where they currently are linked to Tropy, right?
If you open the project file with the new paths on the laptop, Tropy would not find the photos anymore (it would still show you the thumbnails in the project view, though, because you already have them there). Of course you can also keep a copy of the project file on your laptop and keep using it, but essentially this would give you two separate projects.
If you would like to work on the same project file on both computers then I would urge to wait: we will publish a beta version (early October) that will allow you to do that.
Is this the “portable project” announcement that just came out? I would like to try this - I am a little confused reading the directions though. My project is hosted on my laptop. I have since opened it on my work desktop and I can see all the metadata (but not the changes I made to the template) just not the photos. Can I start the portable project from the desktop? Or do I need to start it from my laptop. In both cases, I have a single file “archive photos” but I think the pathway is different because I someone have a different identity on this new computer.
Yes, the experimental ‘portable projects’ will make it easy to move your project from one computer to the other. We’re planning to release the stable 1.3 this week, so I’d advise to wait a couple of days, then you don’t need to install the beta. I’ll let you know when it’s ready and will help clarify the steps.
1.3 was released in the meantime so I’m happy to help you convert your project to a portable one. To do this, we need to prepare the project on your laptop (where the custom template is and your photos show up). The specifics depend a little bit on where your photos are on your laptop. That is, I’ll need to know the full path to the folder or folders where your photos are on the laptop then I’ll be able to give you step-by-step instructions how best to convert your project.
hi,
i just downloaded tropy 1.4.1 for the first time, and found this issue.
how to stored my image collection on the go, so i can work on two separate macs.
If you enable developer mode you can turn your project file into a portable project. This is still an experimental feature, but allows you to use the same project from multiple devices.
