Likely I am using it wrong. I need to have all files in a folder in a collection, and it seems to work only partially. Let’s assume I have 85k photographs in darktable. Now I select /media/ in the folder collection, it narrows down to 35k. Selecting /media/name/disk/photo_root_folder/ I still have 35k. So far so good. But now I select /media/name/disk/photo_root_folder/actual_photos/, I have 85k again, and not the 5 that are in the folder as can be seen on the screenshot. What did I misunderstand and how can I get only the images in that folder? I did not find a topic or github issue regarding this topic, so it seems to be a misunderstanding on my side. Darktable 4.8.0 on linux (obs build).
How do you have the recursive setting set??
In the collections settings? I don’t find such an option. Neither did I find one in the general settings.
Anyway, I discovered that it does work as expected if I add it to another selection before the folder selection. In my case, it’s “capture date” which is narrowed down by the folder selection like this:
Sounds to me more and more like a bug, but maybe you or others could confirm first that it is not on my side?!
For the example you gave I really don’t bother with collections… you just want all your photos in that folder and or the ones below it…if you simply go to import and be sure recursive is selected then you should get all your photos below any root folder you select…they are already in the database so it won’t reimport anything just open with all your photo’s… I would have to read more carefully what the issue might be with filters in your collections…some can be on be default I think at the top of lighttable and that could impact what you are seeing…
OK, I think we have a misunderstanding. This is not about import. I have a database with almost 100k pictures, which are physically organized in folders, most of them in subfolders of a dedicated photos folder, some of them in other places. The problem is only in the collect module that it did not show all files in a selected folder but at a certain depth just showed all files.
However, I can no longer reproduce the issue, it seems to work now in general and not only when I have a second line active. I’ll have a look if the behavior comes back, but I rarely need the folders selection … Thanks for having a look anyway.
Forgive me if I am not understanding your issue here. But for me I copy and import my photos using DT to place the folders into dated folders including a jobcode such as Japan. I have no trouble locating that folder in DT and only opening that folder. If it helps here is the setup I use to locate the folder of interest. The collections with the line through them are on an external drive which is not connected in this instance.
Seems this is very difficult to explain (for me). I do exactly the same as you are doing, but if I do not select by “film roll” but by “folder” in the collections module, it sometimes shows all images instead of only the 286 photos from Japan if I select that physical folder (not film roll) in the collections module. Is this more clear?
To give an idea why I cannot use “film roll” for my task: I wanted to give all 10000 photos of my son’s soccer team from 2024 a common tag to make finding them easier. However, the film rolls are either sorted by import date or by folder name, which both does not represent my 2024 folders in the correct order to quickly browse through them (I typically have one folder per match, but also many other folders not related to soccer). However, I found a workaround and now I cannot even reproduce the issue. However, I’ll have a look in the future if I can reproduce it again.
Folder or film roll works for me. Is your issue more about trying to find tagged images across multiple folders shot in 2024?
No, nothing to do with tagging, what happens is that when I select “2024-10-25-Japan” like you, sometimes all 85k images are shown on lighttable and not only the 286 that I would expect. And no, I do not have a second selection that adds these, it’s only one line as in your case.
Hopefully the problem doesn’t return for you. Cheers.
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Np I understood mostly. File import in DT is really file open when your images are all imported… I simply use it that way like any other programs doing file open and open a folder. I rarely group and filter using collections… so I just thought you had an urgent need to see such a group of files… seems like you sorted it out