The on-line manual, under the ‘Work Smart’ heading, says:
“Files that have already been downloaded are remembered. You can still select previously downloaded files to download again, but they are unchecked by default, and their thumbnails are dimmed so you can differentiate them from files that are yet to be downloaded.”
Well, that doesn’t seem to be the way if works on my installation: I am unable to select images that have previously been imported (for instance when testing custom presets) UNLESS I delete them from the destination folder structure. That’s simple to do of course, but it suggests there is something I am not understanding here.
By design, Rapid Photo Downloader has no idea if you have deleted images from your computer that you have previously downloaded. All it knows is when it encounters files that it previously downloaded, because it recorded them in a database. This is the exact code where it determines if a file has been seen before.
To select images you can use the mouse and/or keyboard. If you want to then mark them for download, then place a checkmark in one of the selected files to toggle the mouse. I should clarify that part of the documentation, because I can see that as you quoted it, it could be misleading.
I clearly didn’t explain my problem well; please let me have another try:
My SDHC card has a number of images on it, taken on 4 different days, covering 6 different subjects. Once RPD has ‘seen’ the SDHC for the first time (It can’t see it when it is in the camera - the subject of a different topic) I can select a range of images, from none to all those on the card and have them downloaded. In my case, applying custom presets to create a required folder structure and perform file-renaming.
Because I’m old and clapped out, some part of the either or both of the folder structure definition or file renaming specification is not to my liking, so I edit the presets and try again, on the same selection of images as used in the previous ingest task. But I find I cannot select those images again in the main RPD window - if I click on an image, which is shown by RPD to have been previously downloaded (which is what I assume the small green down-pointing arrow in the little box below the bottom left corner of every image in the main RPD display means), nothing happens. The ‘clicked on image’ is not selected. Any other image, which had not previously been downloaded CAN be selected
The only way for me to download those images again, and hence test my newer crafted edits to the presets, is to both close/restart RPD and to delete the previous ingest which did complete. If I don’t delete the previously ingested images, then RPD generates entries in its log and does not download the images - because they already exist (an action by RPD which one cannot really disagree with).
I trust this better explains the difficulty I am having.
When you download files their thumbnails are not removed from the display. This is so you can see what you have downloaded.
Important: when you no longer need to see these files, from the program’s main menu select “Clear completed downloads”. Their thumbnails will no longer be displayed in the window.
To get the program to again show you what you can download from your memory card, right click on the memory card name under the Devices section and click rescan. I will need to add this feature to the documentation.
I’m having difficulty with this; do you have time to continue to handle posts from me, most of which amount to ‘operator error’ ?
Firstly, the “program’s main menu” : I spent about 15 minutes looking for this, without success. I resorted to doing a text search on the word ‘main’ in the on-line documentation, quickly finding a very clear illustration of where this ‘hamburger’ button is. Trouble is on my monitor, with the default Mint theme, that button is invisible! Is it possible to change the graphic to make it more visible?
Secondly, the discovery of the re scan button, while interesting, does not solve the problem of being able to successfully download images which have previously been downloaded. Yes, after re-scan I can select those images, but RPD still does not download them, posting an error message as previously stated.
And, as discussed before, I can download those images again ONLY by deleting them from the destination folder and closing/restarting RPD. That seems awkward.
The section on ‘Miscellaneous Preferences’ that you have pointed me to says “When a download device is inserted while completed downloads are displayed: … Prompt for what to do”
I have selected that option; I have inserted an SDHC card while completed (greyed out) downloads are displayed and … there is no prompt.
The function of clearing completed downloads does not appear to address the issue of being able to ‘re-download’ selected images.