Backing Up Images darktable 3.4

Software darktable
1

Being fairly new to darktable, I have a question regarding backing up my images.

  1. After I’m done with a shoot, I put those images on my hard drive and copy to a passport backup as well.
  2. I then import all of those images into darktable from my hard drive to work on.
  3. Now, if I’m editing an image, and then stop working on it for a day or two, does the original raw image contain my edits or the side car file that darktable creates? I assume if something goes wrong with my hard drive, and I have copied both the raw and side car file to my passport, when I go to work on that file again, my edits would be contained in one of those 2 files. Either raw or side car.
    Maybe I’m wrong altogether in how I save and back up. Any help would be appreciated.
    Thank you
2

Darktable never modifies your images. They are where you place them and so you can back them up accordingly like any other files. The edits are saved in the database if you use it which is sounds like you do and in the xmp files. So to back up your “edits” you need to manage/backup your xmp files and/or the data base file (library.db) Darktable creates references to your raw file locations when you do an import in that database and stores the related edits you make to those files…if you move your files outside of DT you will need to re-import your files to restore that relationship in the database. There are some details here darktable 3.6 user manual - sidecar files & non-destructive editing

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