Travelling and not wanting whole database on "light" laptop.

[Aubrey]

I'll be travelling next month.
Each day I want to update my images, add keywords etc.
I don't want to take my whole database with over 100,000 images (database 3.27 Gb) its still reasonably responsive on the smaller machine but as I write back all metadata, I'm thinking of doing the following:
1. Copy database to small machine, do not connect external disk where all images reside.
2. Then delete all "images" in database. So now database size should be reduced, and load/run faster.
    I think all keywords will still be present?
3. While travelling load images in IMatch.
4. When I get home again, copy folder from laptop to main computer and ingest new files. I think all the relevant
     information (keywords, labels) should be in the metadata.

I also use categories, and write category info to keywords, so it should be possible to also get the files into the correct categories

I'll make a test run in the coming days, but before I do just a head's up that I'm not wasting my time.

Any comments?

Thanks,
Aubrey.

[sinus]

I'll be travelling next month.
Each day I want to update my images, add keywords etc.
I don't want to take my whole database with over 100,000 images (database 3.27 Gb) its still reasonably responsive on the smaller machine but as I write back all metadata, I'm thinking of doing the following:
1. Copy database to small machine, do not connect external disk where all images reside.
/

possible, I think

2. Then delete all "images" in database. So now database size should be reduced, and load/run faster.
    I think all keywords will still be present?

Hm, what means delete all images? If there are no real images, you cannot delete them.
I did so with "remove files from DB" or "delete a folder from DB" and it took a VERY long time for this.
And after doing it IMatch was not that quicker, I guess, because I have such a lot of categories and so on.

Keywords: as long as you choosed in the preferences from keywords, that empty keywords should remain, this works, else not.

3. While travelling load images in IMatch.
4. When I get home again, copy folder from laptop to main computer and ingest new files. I think all the relevant
     information (keywords, labels) should be in the metadata.

I also use categories, and write category info to keywords, so it should be possible to also get the files into the correct categories

Seems to work, theoretically. As long as the metadatas are in the file or the sidecar, IMatch should read them all into the DB.
That's why your theoretical workflow should actually work.

I personally would do a reall good test for this. I would prefere taking the real DB with me, in my case I have done something like you wrote once, but at the end the DB was not really a lot faster (I have a lot of cats) and knowing, that I work with the real DB gave me a better feeling (of course making a backup before copying on the laptop).

[Mario]

The number of images in the database has only a small impact on the database startup time. It impacts how fast IMatch can refresh data-driven categories and collections, but there should not be much of a difference between a database with 20K files or 100K files.

"All the keywords will be there..."

meaning what? The keywords in your thesaurus are not affected when you remove files from your database. But of course @Keywords will be affected, when it next refreshes it will refresh from less images, dropping keywords not longer in the database (unless you set the option for @Keywords not to remove empty children).

Reducing the size of a copy of your database by removing folders with the "Remove folder from database" command is always possible. It may take a while (a lot of stuff has to be removed and updated) but your database should be smaller. Don't forget to run a Database > Tools > Compact & Optimize afterwards to free disk space.

Another way would be to

1. Create a new database
2. Export/Import your thesaurus if needed.
3. Use that while on the road.
4. BEFORE moving your images from the notebook to your real PC, write back all metadata.
5. Move the files and add them to your real database. All metadata will travel that way automatically.

See also Traveling with IMatch for additional info.

[Ger]

When traveling, I normally carry my full database on a smaller laptop. Images are off-line. I do add images and add keywords, headline etc, however I don't normally write back the metadata to files. I do make backups of the database and new images of course.

Back home, I'm ready to run: just a matter of relocating the new images to their permanent location.

Ger

[jch2103]

I use Mario's alternative #2. Works great, makes backups faster while traveling.

[meyersoft]

When traveling, I normally carry my full database on a smaller laptop. Images are off-line. I do add images and add keywords, headline etc, however I don't normally write back the metadata to files. I do make backups of the database and new images of course.

Back home, I'm ready to run: just a matter of relocating the new images to their permanent location.

Ger

That's how I do it, too. Works fine.

[sinus]

When traveling, I normally carry my full database on a smaller laptop. Images are off-line. I do add images and add keywords, headline etc, however I don't normally write back the metadata to files. I do make backups of the database and new images of course.

Back home, I'm ready to run: just a matter of relocating the new images to their permanent location.

Ger

That's how I do it, too. Works fine.

Me too.
And it is (for me) the easiest and quickest way.

[meyersoft]

When traveling, I normally carry my full database on a smaller laptop. Images are off-line. I do add images and add keywords, headline etc, however I don't normally write back the metadata to files. I do make backups of the database and new images of course.

Back home, I'm ready to run: just a matter of relocating the new images to their permanent location.

Ger

That's how I do it, too. Works fine.

One addition: When working with offline files, you should switch off "Remove non-existing files from database" (Setting in Preferences/indexing).

[Aubrey]

Thank you for all your input.

I'll test the main 2 methods over the coming days and see what works best for me.
Aubrey