strobe Loc: Central Iowa

I have carefully backed up my photos (and other things) and when I had to rebuild my computer hard drive I wasn't too worried. I got everything back, except the information I'd entered into Picasa. I lost all my captions. I know picasa doesn't update the pictures files until they are exported, so all that information has to be kept somewhere. I need to add that location to what gets backed up, or get it restored if I'm already backing it up. Anybody know the name and location of the file(s)?
Thanks,

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

How to move my photos to a new computer
http://sites.google.com/site/picasaresources/Home/Picasa-FAQ/picasa/how-to/how-to-move-pictures-to-a-new-computer
- see Method B

How to move my photos and the picasa database to a new computer
http://sites.google.com/site/picasaresources/Home/Picasa-FAQ/picasa/how-to/move-photos-and-picasa-database-to-a-new-computor
- see Make a Backup of the Database

strobe Loc: Central Iowa

I'll give that a try. I don't know why I couldn't find that.

Thanks,

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

Always

warrior Loc: Paso Robles CA

You can also use a high GB smart drive.

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

Maybe you could explain.

strobe Loc: Central Iowa

I'm sorry, I don't understand what you're suggesting I do. Could you please elaborate?

Thanks,

warrior Loc: Paso Robles CA

Right click on photo file. Send to smart drive. Then put the smart drive in new computer.

warrior Loc: Paso Robles CA

strobe Loc: Central Iowa

OK, but I don't see how that deals with the information that is stored in the Picasa database and not stored in the photo.

Basically, as you suggested, I have a large external hard drive that I backup all my photos, and other things, on and keep it in a safe when not actually running the backup. When I lost my hard drive and rebuilt it I could restore the photos from the external drive, but I did not get back all the information that had been stored in the Picasa database.

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

I hope I am wrong, but I suspect you have to export everything, then you end up with new folders containing Picasa originals and the edited images in the correct folders.

picpiper Loc: California

For the big picture read, reread and understand the information in the links St3v3M referred to above. The critical items to pay attention to in the second link are:
In the Google folder the above takes you to, you'll see two folders that have "Picasa" in the folder name: "Picasa2" and "Picasa2Albums.
Copy those two complete folders to the external drive \Photos Database\Google\ folder.

The Picasa2 folder contains all the indexes and thumbnails that Picasa uses. Picasa2Albums contains PART of the information about albums you have put photos in. The picasa.ini file that is in every Picasa-watched folder contains information about any edits to photos in that folder AND what albums any photos may be associated with. (If you use Picasa albums and move "albumed" files and/or folders outside of Picasa it WILL lose track of them.)

For all of this to work when you are moving Picasa onto a new machine you MUST have the exact same drive and folder structure on the old machine and new. The Picasa database stores the full path to folders and files it is managing.

Re: "I know picasa doesn't update the pictures files until they are exported..." Picasa NEVER updates an original file. The edit information is stored in picasa.ini so when you see it inside Picasa the edits are being "overlaid" onto the original. If, after editing a photo, you do a Save (instead of a Save as) Picasa makes a copy of the original which is placed in a .picasaoriginals folder inside the home folder of the edited photo. It then applies the edits to a newly created file (with the same name) in the home folder. Basically, it is doing an "export in place" and throwing in "hidden" backups of your original image.

However, the .picasaoriginals folder can be an issue when doing bulk file copies because the leading . (dot) hides the folder from the operating system so they don't get copied with the standard drag and drop copy and move operations. One of the first things (of many) that I do when setting up any Windows machine is to go into Folder options and turn on "Show hidden files, folders, and drives" and "unhide" everything else I can.

Regarding: "I lost all my captions." This is most peculiar because the caption entered into the "Make a caption!" field in Picasa IS actually stored in the IPTC information inside the actual file. You can see for yourself by adding a caption in Picasa and opening it in any viewer (like irfanview) that can display the IPTC data - it will be there.

If you are using "captions" to include face tags (names) you're on your own because they are NOT stored the same way as "real" captions and I never use them. Special steps needed to move them are laid out in the second St3v3M link.

While on this general subject and talking about backups - I keep all my photos on an external drive (and point Picasa there) through an eSATA connection (it is connected to the motherboard the same way internal drives are.) I then backup (using robocopy) the external drive photo folders to a single folder on the internal drive and copy the Picasa2 and Picasa2Albums folders to the external drive. When we travel I can put the external drive in a fire safe or take it with us. If the external drive dies I hook up a new one and restore from the internal. If the OS drive dies (and I don't have a fully loaded image to rebuild from) I can start from a fresh Windows install and just copy over the Picasa2 and Picasa2Albums folders.

... Well, actually that's how I handle my wife's system. I backup to a NAS, but that's a different story. :lol:

picpiper Loc: California

Exporting isn't really involved in this process.

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

As I said, I hope I am wrong - your guide has shown that I am wrong. That's good.