2 laptops, one NAS and 3 collections

[gegory]

Hi,

I have 2 laptops and 3 collections of images: shared photos (located on the NAS) and 2 collections located on the laptop local drives.
Shared is big, privates are smaller.
To deal with the shared collection I have setup XnViewMP on both laptops to have a database on the NAS (together with photos) and to keep thumbnail databases locally on every laptop.

Question: how to deal with local photos?
If I simply add them to the database this should cause "conflict" between the laptops - when DB will be opened on one of the laptop it will not be able to find photos which exist on the second one.What is the proper way to configure XnViewMP in this case?

[xnview]

you would like to have local folders in the catalog?

[gegory]

yes, let say:
laptop 1: c:\users\user1\pictures and X:\shared_photos
laptop 2: d:\users\user2\pictures and X:\shared_photos
I.e. big shared collection in shared drive X and local collections on each laptop.
On each laptop I need to have process local photos on this laptop and shared photos
Nothing special, just a simple family setup

[michel038]

If each laptop uses it's own local database, including shared folder, I think it will work.

But when you make changes in shared drive with laptop 1, you will have to update database in laptop 2.
If changes are in a few folders, you can simply delete / add them in "settings, catalog" , with "import keywords to catalog" option checked.
(i did not try "check folders" button, it seems it will browse all the folders of the catalog ?)

[gegory]

If each laptop uses it's own local database, including shared folder, I think it will work.

But when you make changes in shared drive with laptop 1, you will have to update database in laptop 2.
If changes are in a few folders, you can simply delete / add them in "settings, catalog" , with "import keywords to catalog" option checked.
(i did not try "check folders" button, it seems it will browse all the folders of the catalog ?)

I did not get this.
Let say I marked a shared photo with "5 stars" label on laptop1. This information is stored in the local database of laptop1.
How this mark will become visible on laptop2?

[michel038]

i thought you were using xmp metadata embedded in the photos (see the 3 Export checkboxes in "Settings metadata"), so the catalog could be updated by reading metadata.
If you do not want to use embedded metadata, you can create xmp sidecar files ...

If you use only DB records for star rating, color labels and keywords, it's more complex , and you must be very careful not to lose your data !
Make frequent backups of xnview.db
and wait for an answer from Pierre

Maybe ...
With a shared catalog, you can perhaps exclude folders : (settings, Catalog, Exclude)
- laptop 1 exclude D:\
- laptop 2 : exclude C:\
I never tried this... hope it will not destroy the catalog