thumbnail database follow external drvie

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asanga
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thumbnail database follow external drvie

Post by asanga »

I have some external hd and my question is: is there a way that thumbnail database can be put in the external drive so that when plug into another computer, the thumb nail is there right away instead of a need to regenerate?

Also, if it is an external USB drive, some time it might be E: and some time it might F: (or other). Therefore, if the database is following the external drive instead of the "fixed" database in the roaming profile, it would be able to reuse directly.

klownboy
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Re: thumbnail database follow external drvie

Post by klownboy »

Yes, you can assign the drive/path and have it portable. Look in the help file under Configuration | Configuration Dialog | Preview | Thumbnails. From the Thumbnails Configuration Help also look at "Named drives" as well.
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asanga
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Joined: 20 Sep 2019 01:03

Re: thumbnail database follow external drvie

Post by asanga »

Thank you for your reply. I took a look for your suggestion and still couldn't figure how. Can you elaborate more? e.g.

I have external volume1, which is my family pictures and external volume2, which is my scenery pictures.
And computer1 at home and computer2 at work.

If I index (w/ thumbnails) my external volume1 & volume2 at home, how do I change the configuration so that when I go to work, the thumbnails will be instantly available?

Thanks.

klownboy
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Re: thumbnail database follow external drvie

Post by klownboy »

In this situation you would have to use a "named drive" for both of your external drives. Both external drives would be called the same name, like "Pictures", or whatever you want. After installing the external drive, you have to change the names of the drives using the right click context menu on the drive itself. Click on properties and change the name in the top box. Do this for both drives using the same name.

Now go into XYplorer's Thumbnail Configuration menu - Tools | Configuration | Preview | Thumbnails. In the path box under "Cache thumbnails on disk", enter the path but enter it with the drive name on your external drive. It should be something like Pictures:\Thumbnails\. You could also use the ... (with one of the drives installed) to properly point to the folder on the external drive, but you would have to substitute the your drive name, Pictures for the drive letter.

That should do it, but the speed may not be as fast as having the thumbnail database on the computers' fixed drives. A better option may be to have the same thumbnail database on both fixed drives on both computers, computer1 and computer2 (i.e., the thumb databases on both computers include the thumbnails for both external drives). I assume you have "Include removable media" already checked in the thumbnail configuration.
Last edited by klownboy on 22 Sep 2019 18:09, edited 2 times in total.
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admin
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Re: thumbnail database follow external drvie

Post by admin »

Interesting topic. Please let me know if this really works (no time now to check myself). If not I will make it work.

asanga
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Joined: 20 Sep 2019 01:03

Re: thumbnail database follow external drvie

Post by asanga »

Hi klownboy,

Thanks again for your reply. I tried what you were suggesting. Yes, it works. However, I lost all my thumbnails, which I had already generated in my hard drive for my local C: files. Also, the two computers I have needed to configure the same to utilize the plug and play HDs.

Since an external HDs, usb drives, CDs, DVDs are always interchangeable. I guess the ideal situation for me is the program can have multiple thumbnails database where it looks for the default position within the drive, and, if it has writable permission, create the thumbnails in the external HDs, usb drives. Otherwise, to fall back to create the thumbnails in the user profiles.

Then, I don't need to (slowly) regenerate thumbnails for each computer I have with xyplorer. And, I can have drives with the different name to enjoy the thumbnails. I have labelled them as "family pictures" & "scenery pictures" instead of "Pictures" for both.

admin
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Re: thumbnail database follow external drvie

Post by admin »

Wouldn't that only work if each image files has a unique name? In that case we could completely skip the path information and just make one big database for all images no matter where they are.

PeterH
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Re: thumbnail database follow external drvie

Post by PeterH »

admin wrote: 24 Sep 2019 07:36 Wouldn't that only work if each image files has a unique name? In that case we could completely skip the path information and just make one big database for all images no matter where they are.
Sorry, but would you trust on system-wide unique names?

I don't use it, but for me / for my system the answer would be "no"!
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Re: thumbnail database follow external drvie

Post by admin »

Sure, me neither. But IF you could trust on system-wide unique names, it all would be very simple. Although, such a gigantic database would create other problems. Maybe we just forget that route...

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Re: thumbnail database follow external drvie

Post by admin »

asanga wrote: 20 Sep 2019 08:47 I have some external hd and my question is: is there a way that thumbnail database can be put in the external drive so that when plug into another computer, the thumb nail is there right away instead of a need to regenerate?

Also, if it is an external USB drive, some time it might be E: and some time it might F: (or other). Therefore, if the database is following the external drive instead of the "fixed" database in the roaming profile, it would be able to reuse directly.
OK, that sounds like a good idea. So XYplorer could use (read and write) an "external database" on some removable drive, and in this database the thumbnail data should be stored independently of the currently assigned drive letter. Yes, that would work I think.

Only 2 questions:
1) How would XYplorer know that it should use that external database?
2) How would XYplorer find that database?

Maybe like this in Configuration | Thumbnails:
[ ] Use external thumbs database on external drives.
Path: ____________________________ (e.g. XYThumbs would point to E:\XYThumbs on drive E, to F:\XYThumbs on drive F.

highend
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Re: thumbnail database follow external drvie

Post by highend »

Maybe like this in Configuration | Thumbnails:
[ ] Use external thumbs database on external drives.
Path: ____________________________ (e.g. XYThumbs would point to E:\XYThumbs on drive E, to F:\XYThumbs on drive F.
It would be cool if you could use |/;-separated paths here
E.g.: XYThumbs|Pictures/Thumbs|etc.
That would be an approach that should fit in almost all possible cases...
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Re: thumbnail database follow external drvie

Post by admin »

You mean as alternative paths, first existing match wins?

highend
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Re: thumbnail database follow external drvie

Post by highend »

Exactly
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klownboy
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Re: thumbnail database follow external drvie

Post by klownboy »

Sorry asanga, I neglected to mention an important step. That would be to copy the thumbnail cache files from the hard drive folder to the folder pointed to on the external drives. The thumbnail cache files themselves don't care where they are (i.e., there is nothing in the cache file itself that refer to their location). The cache files refer to the image or photo location not the thumbnail cache location. You could still do that now. No need to regenerate the cache files. The only thing that refers to cache location is the folder designated in Configuration.

If you do need to do large amount of cache building use my Thumbnail Maintenance script. to make it much easier and quicker. Just go get a coffee while it works.

Don, what you and asanga are suggesting makes sense but why not call it simply an "alternate thumbnail database location" it doesn't have to be external. Ideally it would be nice if the user could switch to the alternate and back again with a command ID toggle on the fly.

Edit: Now I see highend's comment. Makes sense to allow at one alternate anyway though what would provide quicker access for normal everyday use? Would it be to have XYplorer checking for the existence of the thumbnail cache every time it enters a folder and moving to the alternate if it doesn't exist in the primary. Or have the location directly pointed to via a toggle (primary <> alternate)?
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Re: thumbnail database follow external drvie

Post by admin »

If XY enters a folder on a removable drive and the external thumbnail database feature is enabled then XY would have to look whether the thumbnail database folder exists and whether that folder is cached.

Would it fall back to the fixed thumbnail database in case it does not find anything useful on the removable drive? Don't know... :eh:

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