digiKam stores the current state of the application in the ~/.config/digikamrc file. This file keeps track of pretty much everything: from the database connection profile and custom toolbar settings, to the last-used curve and sharpening parameters. So next time you install or reinstall digiKam, don’t forget to back up the digikamrc file. This way, you don’t have to configure a fresh digiKam installation from scratch. Simply copy the file to a safe location or external storage device, and drop the file into the ~/.config folder before you run digiKam.
Quick general tip: Backup up ~/.config, that way you can restore configuration for all your programs in case anything bad happens.
Ah wait, no, even more general tip: Back up everything except for the stuff you don’t need (cache and such), but if in doubt, back up.
Oh and while I am at it: Restore the backup, regardless of whether you need it already. Unless you have tested that you can restore, you don’t have a backup.
Any idea where MacOS keeps the digikamrc file. I can’t find it. Does it use the same name on MacOS?
Also, do you think it being (possibly) missing on my computer is causing the error message that has been plaguing me for months now on startup of Digikam, where a pop-up window warns that, “Error Message: failed to create tables in database.” If I click the OK button on the popup, Digikam proceeds to load and, superficially at least, looks normal to me. But I worry that I am going to lose all my work.
[edit: There is a file called digikamui5.rc in the Library/Application Support folder, but how do I know if that is the file usually called ‘digikamrc’? See screen clipping below.]
90% of my database of images are on a Synology NAS, but I wasn’t having any issues with Digikam for more than a year. Then suddenly this error message appears.
I have thought of going over to MySQL (I have 57305 Digikam database pictures on the NAS and somewhere I read that might be time to move from SQLite to MySQL) but that area is not my comfort zone. So many opportunities to get totally stuck.
The article is interesting, thanks. I have come across it, but Dmitri seems to be using QNAP NAS and Linux, and all the QNAP settings I can’t find on my Synology, and not much chance his Linux scripts can be dumped into Mac Terminal…
Thank you for posting the mac location of DigiKam app settings file: digikamrc. Indeed in my DigiKam v7.9 on macOS Catalina it is in ~/Library/Preferences/digikamrc and also in macOS Ventura.
I purchased a fancy Apple MBP-m1 laptop (big mistake) which came with, in my direct experience, a very unstable macOS = Ventura. This new macOS has cause myself and countless others no end of grief due to random OS instability and the flaky Rosetta app translator.
DigiKam v7.8 and v7.9 were working OK on my new laptop for maybe 5 weeks then DigiKam just flat out stopped opening. Many troubleshoot efforts failed to allow Digikam to open so removed every shred of digikam, rebooted and reinstalled. I preserved the Digikam database files, but these do not contain the app’s settings, which are inside “digikamrc”. Fortunately, when I copied the “digikamrc” file from my Catalina Hackintosh system over to the Ventura laptop it restored my Digikam app settings, even my album manual photo arrangement sequence. Really amazing. Lesson learned, Digikam is great, Apple development teams are horrid and getting even worse as time passes.
