I always liked the “synchronize folder” feature in LR library mode that would update the folder contents if changes were made in another application. E.g. if photos were added outside of LR, synchronizing the folder added or removed according to what was in the file folder.
The manual states: “When importing from disk, you can import either a single image or a folder. darktable will analyse its content, detect images that are already imported and only import new images”.
That approach works great. The problem is if photos are removed from the folder in another application, using Import Folder doesn’t remove the missing photos. They still show in the lighttable view but will say “unavailable” if you select them. I only see the images as skulls in the film roll if switched over the the darkroom module.
Is there a way that “Import Folder” can remove missing images if that folder is already imported? Would a “synchronize” button in folder view be a good feature?
If the images have been removed by an application other than darktable, you can select the missing images in lighttable view, then go to the selected images module and click remove. This removes the information from the database, so they don’t show up as missing anymore.
Thanks, and that is easy to do if the thumbnails/previews show as skulls, but what happens to me is if I remove images using another app, the previews/thumbs still show in lighttable mode. If I switch to darkroom mode, the missing photos show as skulls. The darkroom mode can detect the photo is gone, even if its not the photo I’m editing (in other words, it shows as a skull further along the filmstrip at the bottom if that photo is missing). Switch back to lighttable, and the preview/thumb shows as though the photo is still there and unless you remember that image is missing, you can’t tell unless you happen to click on it.
I’m not sure why darkroom can tell the photo is missing but lighttable can’t. Guessing because darkroom does a re-scan of all the photos in the collection.
Hence my thought about a “synchronize” function in lighttable.
Light table is using a thumbnail cache. After you remove the images, you can run darktable-generate-cache to regenerate your cache, then you should see skulls in the lighttable view
It’s there and working with Win10, but you have to quit, go to the command line and execute it. During that time you can’t work with dt.
I really would appreciate a simple refresh database button doing that in the background, many users organize their images in folders using the standard windows tools, so sometimes images are deleted or moved or renamed.
