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Question

Best Way to Import New Files from Folders Previously Imported

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
February 16, 2021
5 replies
560 views

I have my photos organized in folders by Decade, Year, Activity - e.g. .../2010/2018/20180810-Family-Vacation (which contains individual photo files). I mention this only so that I can refer to it im my questions below.

Over this last year I have added photos to my watched folders that I have *not* imported when Organizer found them and offered to do so. I don't have a record of which photos or what folders. Having passed on the opportunity, it seems that Organizer remembers my disinterest and does not offer to import them again. Here are my questions:

1. ==> Can I 'poke' the Organizer or the Watched Folders feature so that it will ask me again?

2. Unfortunately, I've added 'a bunch' of files across a large number of folders. I'd prefer not to have to import them all at once. I'd like to import them in batches (as I should have) so that I can tag and process them in logical groups.

3. ==> If I can do (1), is there a way to encorporate (2) into the process in some way?

4. Another option is that I could 're-import' folders that I have already imported in order to pick up new files that I have added there. For instance, I could re-import from folder .../2010/2018 to get any new photos added in 2018. Or from folder .../2010 to get any new files added to any year from 1/1/2010 to 12/31/2019.

5. ==> If I do (4), how smart is Organizer to ignore files already in the catalog? NOTE - most *all* of the files are already in the catalog. Will I be swamped by error messages for each one of those? Such that I won't easily see the ones it finds to add? Will that cause memory problems? And will Organizer find all the files not already in the catalog?

6. As a test, I'm going to pick an early decade in which I have very few photos in the catalog and see what Organizer does. But I'd certainly appreciate feedback from anyone who has anyexperience doing #5.

Thanks!

-ceej

This topic has been closed for replies.

Greg_S.

Community Expert

@cj02139, here is a Help article that discusses the Bulk Import.

MichelBParis

Legend

5. ==> If I do (4), how smart is Organizer to ignore files already in the catalog? NOTE - most *all* of the files are already in the catalog. Will I be swamped by error messages for each one of those? Such that I won't easily see the ones it finds to add? Will that cause memory problems? And will Organizer find all the files not already in the catalog?

Thanks!

-ceej

By @cj02139

All the files in the selected file tree will be scanned and at the end of the process, you'll get a message stating how many files have been skipped because they are already in the catalog. Same filtering criteria as when importing from camera or card reader (mainly same date_taken and file size in kB). Visual duplicates may be imported if those criterias don't match, especially for scans. Rare exceptions such as duplicates you have created from the organizer will be imported, as expected.

Please report back after your first trials.

cj02139Author

Known Participant

OK, I'm back.

(1) - watched folders. They use a (Win) feature (whose name I cannot remember) that 'marks' or otherwise indicates that a file is new/changed. This allows a program to query the filesystem for those files. But once the flag is turned off, it's off till it gets changed again. That is not precise, but close enough I think to answer my question #1.

(2) - re-importing from folders already in the Organizer. Here is what I did:

First test:
Single folder (1950s), no sub-folders, three files already in Organizer, 20 new files. I got a dialog box saying: 20 media files were imported and 3 media files were skipped because they are already preent in the catalog. A list of the skipped files was shown.
I clicked OK and got what appears to be the usual page/display showing just the newly imported files (so they can be tagged, etc.).
This is all good.

Second test:
A decade folder (1940s) with two single-year subfolders with individual files. One folder and its 4 photos are new. The import found the new folder's 4 images and reported that the 12 images from the other folder were already in the catalog.

So far, so good.

Third test:

I repeated the first test several more times in several places in the tree where there was likely new files but the number of existing files was manageable. All worked OK.

I have to move on to something else right now. When I get back to the Organizer I'll see if I can find a decade with 2 levels of folders and a larger (but not scary) number of files and report that experience.

Thanks again everyone.

-ceej

Greg_S.

Community Expert

I don't think you can use a Watched Folder to see what you have done retroactively. In other words, setting a watched folder only affects files that you add to the watched folder.

You can use the Bulk Importer to look at your entire folders and sub-folders and it should import only files that are not yet in the catalog. You can use this on a piecemeal basis by specifying (adding) folders one at a time, or several at a time. Or you can allow a complete master folder search and uncheck the sub-folders you do not want to import in that batch.

cj02139Author

Known Participant

Bulk Importer?

Oh, I see that as the bottom/last option in the Import drop down.

Do you by any chance have a good link to a description of its use and how it works?

Thanks,

--ceej

MichelBParis

Legend

Just do your test. I never use watched folders because reimporting does the same, when I want..

You can use the import batch sort order to review what has been imported.

cj02139Author

Known Participant

Sorry, forgot. I have PSE 2020.

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