Lost categories and thumbnails when moving to a new PC

[mcasiraghi]

Hi,
I had my XnView.db and Thumb.db in an iMac, and all the images where located in an external drive.

I wanted to move the database to a PC with Windows 11, so as I read in one of the forums, I did a backup copy of both .db files.

I then connected the external drive to the PC, installed XnView in this Windows computer, and replaced the .db files with the backup copies I brought from the iMac.

I can see the categories I was using in the original catalog, with the number of images in each in between brackets, but when I filter by any of these categories, I get back thumbnails with no image. And if I double click them, nothing happens. I believe xnview is trying to find the images in the path to the external drive that I had in the iMac, which is different to the path it has in the PC. Does this make sense? Is there a way that I can redirect the path to the correct one?

See screenshot attached.

Many thanks,
Marcos

[xnview]

the problem is that the path on your MacOS and your Windows is not the same, or do you use a 'base path'?

[mcasiraghi]

Hi Pierre,

Thanks for your reply. Not sure how a base path works and how to set it up. I do not recall doing anything other than backing up the .db files, and assuming that when I copied them into the correct location in the new PC, it would work...

Nonetheless, I have discovered that if I manually change the paths in Tools> Settings>Catalog (image 1) then the thumbnails start to re appear.

xnview Screenshot (Image 1).jpg

So what I am doing is identifying the missing paths from the thumbnails and then relocating it through settings. I believe this is fixing the problem.

xnview Screenshot (Image 2).jpg

If there is an article explaining what a base path is and how to use it, please let me know because I wouldn't have to go through this when I change the PC again.

Thanks!

Marcos

[xnview]

Nonetheless, I have discovered that if I manually change the paths in Tools> Settings>Catalog (image 1) then the thumbnails start to re appear.
xnview Screenshot

you can send me the xnview.db, and i'll make the relocate...

If there is an article explaining what a base path is and how to use it, please let me know because I wouldn't have to go through this when I change the PC again.

For example, if on the Windows you use 'e:\datas\Photos Backup', and on MacOS '/Volumes/WD 4TB/Photos Backup'
You can set the 'base path' on Windows to 'e:/datas/' and on MacOS '/Volumes/WD 4TB/' and all your files will be stored in catalog as '@/Photos Backup/*', so you can use same catalog on Windows and MacOS.

But currently you have absolute pathname in the catalog, so it's needed to change it.

[mcasiraghi]

Thanks, Pierre.

I will correct the base path so that in the future I need to migrate again, I will not run into the same problems.

And let me try do it manually, it serves as a learning lesson for me, and also, I can clean up things a little bit.

Thanks again.