ACDSee Pro 2 and 2.5

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Upgrade to 2.5, lost ACDSee database-info+how I got it back!

(6 posts)
  • Started by mrwul
  • Started on December 25, 2008 - 11:30 AM (11 months ago)
  • Latest reply from mrwul (10 months ago)

  • mrwul
    Member

    Hello,

    After installing ACDSee 2.5 on my new pc - I have encountered a number of problems in getting the 2.0 ACDSee database imported. EXIF and IPTC, no problem, but ACDSee info was gone. Finally, after many hours of trying, I succeeded and I how I did it may be worthwhile for others. Bottomline, my conclusion is that the transfer of the database is far from userfriendly and ACDSee developers should address that (they will not, I know).

    Following situation:

    a) new PC, b) backup folder with the 2.0-database , c) folder(s) with photos copied from the previous pc copied onto the new pc.

    • 1. Install 2.5
    • 2. Close ACDSee
    • 3. Create a new folder "Database" in the ACDSee folder (both located on a different partition, as I donot want the database being lost, in case of a restore of a Windows image)
    • 4. Launch ACDSee, goto Tools/Options/Database and change the folder to the new Database-folder, close ACDSee and relaunch again.
    • 5. Go to Database, import database, select folder containing the backup database of ACDSee v.2.0
    • 6. Start importing
    • 7. In my case: Error..: at one point in time I get: "Database failure. Database was exported with a different version of ACDSee. It cannot be imported."
    • 8. Go to Database->Convert, Select ACDSee v.2.0 as database version and tag 'rebuild EXIF, IPTC and database optimize" - click on next - warning "Information for images in the incoming database will overwrite..."  click on OK
    • 9. ACDSee starts of converting
    • 10. In my case: after some time Error...: "ACDSee has encounterd an error and will close down" - what error, why and how to solve it... no idea.  But I went on to step 11.
    • 11.Go to Database maintenance - here it gets critical -  I had 30(!) "Unmounted" drives, CD-ROMS, 2 USB-flashdrive and a camera listed. I went through EACH drive checking out the contents. If the drive is not essential to the new situation, then click on "Remove all DB info".
    • 12. Somewhere in between there was an 'Unmounted' drive containing a folder and subfolders marked with a green button indicating "Folders contains thumbnails in the database". Donot delete that drive. I have deleted all other drives (Remove all DB info).
    • 13. Select the drive with the green folder buttons - the button "Change bindings" can be selected, click on that button. In my situation, that specific drive and folders showed up twice in the database maintenance panel. Both identical... So I took 1 of them not knowing if that would be okay...
    • 14. Next window, point to the new folder on the new pc where the photos have been transferred to from the old pc
    • 15. Bindings starts - after relaunch - IF everything goes well - database info is available again.
    • 16. Click on "Optimize database"

    Donot know if this all is 100% correct, but it worked with me.

    =

     

    Posted On December 25, 2008 - 11:30 AM (11 months ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • Marc Sabatella
    Moderator

    mrwul said:

    Bottomline, my conclusion is that the transfer of the database is far from userfriendly and ACDSee developers should address that (they will not, I know).

    I'm glad you got it working.  It's not *supposed* to be as difficult as it was for you, and most of us had no such problems.  Hopefully your work will help anyone else who is having difficulty, though.

     

    Posted On December 26, 2008 - 12:40 AM (11 months ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • mrwul
    Member

    It would not surprise me, whilst considering all forum-threads, the one involving the database is by far number 1. 

    Developers might consider to make users' life easier... E.g. In tools/options/when pointing the database to another (new) location, point 3 and 4 above, when closing down, ACDSee should offer an option to relocate and delete the old location (under c:\docs+settings). Also this incoming drive and binding stuff, there shd be a more userfriendly (=foolproof) solution. I think this cud be addressed in the initial setup: users to be asked where their images are located. Users to select/add multiple folders. Then the database-location. Thereafter ACDSee shd take care of everything, bindings, removing unmounted drives, etc.

    Well anyway ...  

    Posted On December 26, 2008 - 07:04 AM (11 months ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • mrwul
    Member

    Okay, all the above was on my 2nd pc (that I also use for some testing). I now went on to install 2.5 on the PC I am usually working on and went through above steps. After all, I now know what to do, right ..?

    After ACDSee was installed, it invites me to convert the 2.0 database. ACDSee autodetected version 2.0 and where it was located. That was okay. Note, I cleaned up [Unmounted]-drives already earlier.

    Oh oh ... Conversion: Could not be converted.

    Okay, no problem (?), I also made a backup just before installing 2.5. So, I selected the backup. Oops, that did not work either. "Could not read the selected backup file" Now, I am running out of options. 

    For what it's worth : I also exported the database to a different folder (database-export), let's import the database from there then. Result: "Import database failure"...

    Go to Database maintenance: folders were there, with the 'grean' folderbuttons indicating "Folders contains thumbnails in the database". But when selecting _each_ drive/folders, the 'Change bindings' button remained greyed out. Also the ones with folders containing thumbnails in the database.. There are no 'Orphaned' and/or 'Unmounted' folders there.

    Now what ?

    ...

     

    Attached Files

    1. SnagIt-26-12-2008 9.02.12.jpg
    2. SnagIt-26-12-2008 9.04.22.jpg
    Posted On December 26, 2008 - 08:38 AM (11 months ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • Marc Sabatella
    Moderator

    It's hard to say, since you've been through so many different versions and machines and attempts at converting, it's hard to keep track of.  But I've yet to meet the situation that exporting the db to a text file and then importing can't handle, with possibly a little massaging of the text file to get the version numbers to match.

     

    Posted On December 26, 2008 - 10:01 PM (10 months ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • mrwul
    Member

    Actually I did nothing else than from 2.0 -> 2.5 (Note: I did the testing on the other machine, so my present database wud not be messed up and see what came out).

    Then I got all these errors of 2.5 nót being able to import or convert or whatever the 2.0 database.

    As said, before upgrading, I did optimize database, removed all unmounted/orphaned drives and all, kept thumbnail info etc. So, all in all, the database was in perfect condition. Need to build up the database from scratch, or uninstall 2.5, re-install 2.0 and try to import the 2.0 database again.

    =

     

    Posted On December 27, 2008 - 10:35 AM (10 months ago) (Permalink to this post)

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