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Participating Frequently
July 11, 2017
Question

Duplicate an Elements 14 album for another Elements 14 computer, without losing anything from the "donating" computer: both computers to have the complete workable album files.

  • July 11, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 466 views

When I try to accomplish creating the album for the other computer (both Windows 10) on a flash drive, I lose hard disk files - all of the associated ones - or my relative doesn't get them.  I hope I'm making some sense...

- Norm.

(I don't know if my request is going anywhere or not.)

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    MichelBParis
    Legend
    July 12, 2017

    starroute  wrote

    When I try to accomplish creating the album for the other computer (both Windows 10) on a flash drive, I lose hard disk files - all of the associated ones - or my relative doesn't get them.  I hope I'm making some sense...

    - Norm.

    (I don't know if my request is going anywhere or not.)

    Norm,

    It's ok to post here.

    You don't say how you are trying to 'create' the album for the other computer.

    Is it another computer with the same version of the organizer?

    How to share the photo files stored on your computer:

    - they are 'registered' in your catalog which is a database storing the link to the real location of the photo files on the disk together with a lot of information about those files. The files are NOT in the catalog, only LINKS.

    - you have created an 'album', that is a kind of 'playlist' containing its own list of links to the records in the database. That list has no meaning except within your catalog.

    That means that you can't do anything with the album definition in your current catalog, but you can select the files in your organizer.

    - You open the organizer and select the album

    - You select (highlight) all the thumbnails

    - You use the shortcut 'Ctrl W' to write metadata to files. That means that the information (keywords, captions, ratings, notes etc.) which are kept in the catalog will be written in the photo files themselves and available to other softwares or other catalogs.

    - You use the menu File >> Export as new files to create a copy of each selected file in a folder on your flash drive.

    - You copy those files to the destination computer

    - If you want to add those files into an organizer catalog on the other computer, you 'import' the files into its own catalog.

    starrouteAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    July 12, 2017

    Thank you, Michael, for your directions.  I will try your suggestion again; I used the Export As New Files once, and it seemed to work but when we removed my flash drive (it having much more capacity than needed, so all the expected photos were there) from her computer something changed.  We could view the files, couldn't move them into the new album...  Does a copy of the hard disk files get exported also, leaving the original hard disk files alone in the exporting computer?   

    As you can tell, I'm a novice  and I appreciate your patience.

    - Norm.

    MichelBParis
    Legend
    July 12, 2017

    When you 'Export', nothing is changed in your photo files on your disk or in your catalog. It's a simple copy of new files.

    You problem may come from the fact that once you have exported (copied) the files on the flash drive, you have possibly set the organizer to 'import' directly from the flash drive, not to 'Import' that is to copy the files on the flash drive to the destination computer.

    When you import from your flash drive while selecting 'from files and folders', the downloader dialog offers a checkbox to copy the files on the new computer. Otherwise, the catalog points to the flash drive, not the destination computer.

    The simplest way to transfer the images in your new computer is to first use your Explorer/Finder to copy the files from the flash drive to the new computer, in the folder of your choice. Only then use the organizer with the 'Import' button , option 'from files and folders' and to browse the folder on the destination drive.