How to copy, then rename catalogue without duplicating the files

@sylvia1152 said:

Is renaming as simple as just renaming the top-level folder once I have copied it?

Yes.  But you will have to navigate to a custom location if you don't use the default location.  And the OS will require a new name if you simply copy the catalog folder to the default location. 

You can also use the Manage Catalogs dialog to Rename a catalog.  This will rename the folder.

@sylvia1152 said:

I'm guessing I could then create two identical catalogues with different names and eliminate photos from one and videos from the other so I only have to keep drives plugged in when I'm working with the video catalogue.

That strategy will work as long as you follow the other advice given by Michel.  But, as he suggests, the better solution is to move the videos to an external drive (using the Organizer's Folder panel) and connect the external drives when you need them.

Hi @sylvia1152 ,

Answer to the question in the title of your post:

Yes, a catalog is a folder which you can move or copy elsewhere in the Explorer without changing its contents. Its location is found under the menu Help >> System information of the organizer.

Running out of space on my laptop so I decided to move all videos to external drives. I would like to make a separate catalogue for these to preserve the tags, etc, while avoiding the complications of working on the existing catalogue with drives not attached. I'm guessing I could then create two identical catalogues with different names and eliminate photos from one and videos from the other so I only have to keep drives plugged in when I'm working with the video catalogue.

By @sylvia1152

The issue with separating the photos and videos into different catalogs is that you are losing the ability to organize and search from common criteria (album, events, captions or notes...)

I suggest to take the time to examine other solutions to the lack of disk space of the laptop:

- moving all the videos and photos to a small USB external drive as well as the catalog (optional) by backup and restore.

- Keeping the main catalog as well as the most recent and/or important part of your files in the laptop and other files moved to external drives as 'archives'  managed in the same catalog. You don't use backup and restore, you move folder tree branches to the other drive from the organizer by drag and drop of folders in the left folders panel.

Also, deleting a big number of files from a catalog may take very long and even abort, so you may have to delete by many batch deleting session.

I'm afraid if I do backup and restore I will end up with duplicates of all the images and their folder structure and have a big mess. But I can't find instructions for how to copy only the catalogue informatin without the files. And if I can manage to make a duplicate, can I rename it?

By @sylvia1152

As mentioned above, copying just the catalog information is just a copy of a catalog folder from the Explorer.

Indeed, a backup and restore does backup both the media files folders and the catalogs (keeping the folder structure if you want). If photos and videos are in different catalogs, whatever their disk location, the contents will be totally different. No mess, no way for combined searches or albums either...