Catalogue and media in Dropbox - acces from both Windows PC and Mac

[Doisrie]

Hello,

I've stored all my media and catalogues in the dropbox, accessing these files with a WIndows-10-PC. This works fine. Path d:\dropbox\etc.***

At home I use my PC, while travelling I use a Macbook.

Therefore I would like to ALSO edit my catalogues and media with my Macbook while travelling (and on the PC when I am back home). My Macbook has Dropbox access. Media are stored locally on the Macbook. I purchased and installed a second Photoshop Elements license on my Macbook.

Opening the Elements catalogues with the Macbook works fine. However, since the Dropbox on the Macbook is stored in the path \user\dropbox rather than d:\dropbox\ the catalogue (generated with my PC) won't find the media.

Any suggestion on how to handle this?

Thanks

[MichelBParis]

Unfortunately, if that were possible, the solution would be known and a lot of users would use Dropbox (or other similar web hosting sites like Google or OneDrive).

What prevents Elements users to sync catalogues like this is the way catalogues work.

While Dropbox is able to sync media files from the cloud to other personal media, if you sync catalogue folders, you only keep the links to the original media files (drive and path). The synced catalog folder will point to the original drive and path.

Even if you wanted to sync two PCs, that would be true.

You would have to 'reconnect' all files in your other devices, which is extremely  irrealistic.

I have thought about syncing two PCs with the same folder structure. That requires editing the sql database with an sql utility. Also not at all realistic for practical and common use.

So, I would recommend as has been advised for years to use an external drive to keep your library and catalog. You only have to plug in the drive alternatively to two PCs (I have no experience with PC and Mac).

[Doisrie]

Well, it works perfectly with 2 windows computers. I own a windows desktop and a windows notebook. Both are connected to the Dropbox. Both have full local copies of the Dropbox content. Media and catalogues are thus stored on 2 computers plus Dropbox 

If I work on my desktop any changes to media and catalogs will be synched with the cloud and thus with my notebook. Of course I have identical path structures on both devices.So I can shut down the desktop and continue to work on my notebook 

This works perfectly.

Problem is that the mac has different path structures so the pointers in the catalogue end up not finding the media.

[MichelBParis]

Extremely interesting!

I can't test it now (my second PC is not available=.

My understanding is that for a catalog to work the same with the photo files on two different PCs, it's not enough to have the same folder tree. You have also to have the same internal serial number for both drives.

This is generally not true but It could be true with a cloned drive.

To check the serial number, we can use the DOS command prompt "Vol C:" for instance.

[Doisrie]

Well, thanks, this information helps.

What I actually did - and it worke - was using Dropbox for synchronization only, i.e.

- stop synchronisation with dropbox on my desktop

- work with Elements on local media and local catalogues on my desktop

- close Elements

- start uploading changes to the dropbox

- synchronize changes with my notebook

- stop synchronisation on my notebook

- work with Elements on local media and local catalogues on my notebook

etc.

What I will do no is leave everything on my desktop (locally) with backup in the Dropbox. While travelling I will use Remote Desktop Software to acces my desktop at home and work there.

[Somya_Agarwal]

Hi,

Creating the catalog at network location is not recommended as various processes like Face Analysis and Autocreations(in Elements 2019) write information in the catalog database, and this operations breaks mid-way in case network gets disconnected.

Which version of Elements do you use? Elements 2019 gives the following warning message regarding the same when you attempt to create a catalog at network location.

Also the thumbnails generated in People room for faces are specific to the resolution of the PC they were created in.

Back-up Restore is the correct way to move a catalog across different machines.

You can find more information about backup-restore at: Back up or restore catalogs in Elements Organizer 2018

Thanks,

Somya