PE12 catalog file updated when I switch my pc on - why?

Report · Nov 21, 2017

Hi - We have our PE12 files in Dropbox so 2 users can access them (not at the same time!). The catalog.pse12.db file is updated whenever a user turns their computer on. Therefore every day we get a new conflicted copy. Anyone know why this file's updated on startup? There's nothing relevant in the Windows startup menu or msconfig. Thanks in advance

Report · Nov 21, 2017

martinj41837933 wrote
Hi - We have our PE12 files in Dropbox so 2 users can access them (not at the same time!). The catalog.pse12.db file is updated whenever a user turns their computer on. Therefore every day we get a new conflicted copy. Anyone know why this file's updated on startup? There's nothing relevant in the Windows startup menu or msconfig. Thanks in advance

Do you mean you have located the catalog folder in the synced Dropbox folder on both your computers?

The organizer catalog is not meant to work from the cloud or a network, only from the computer. The synchronization will react to any change in the catalog folder.

Therefore every day we get a new conflicted copy.

So, you get a new catalog copy in your synced Dropbox folder each time Dropbox updates the desktop from the Cloud?

Report · Nov 21, 2017

Thanks - Yes, we have located the catalog folder in the synced Dropbox folder on both pcs. I realise it's not supposed to work like this, but it does! But, no - the problem is not that we get a new copy when Dropbox updates the files - it's that the catalog date/timestamp changes every time a user switches on their pc - so A's pc is switched on - Dropbox thinks it's a changed file and uploads it. Then user B's pc is switched on - so Dropbox updates their catalog as well and - we get conflicted copies. This is with no-one using PE12 or the catalog - it's solely when a user's pc is turned on. If I switch the machine off and turn it on again, the catalog is updated, with no files at all changed (by us). The catalog file is not changed, just the date/timestamp.

Report · Nov 21, 2017

martinj41837933 wrote
Thanks - Yes, we have located the catalog folder in the synced Dropbox folder on both pcs. I realise it's not supposed to work like this, but it does! But, no - the problem is not that we get a new copy when Dropbox updates the files - it's that the catalog date/timestamp changes every time a user switches on their pc - so A's pc is switched on - Dropbox thinks it's a changed file and uploads it. Then user B's pc is switched on - so Dropbox updates their catalog as well and - we get conflicted copies. This is with no-one using PE12 or the catalog - it's solely when a user's pc is turned on. If I switch the machine off and turn it on again, the catalog is updated, with no files at all changed (by us). The catalog file is not changed, just the date/timestamp.

Interesting.

I'll have to experiment myself. I don't think the problem is specific with Elements; I think I have read that some users have found a way to share catalogs on Dropbox with Lightroom. Maybe post the question in the Lightroom forum?

There might be another problem than the date/timestamp.

You may think that moving or sharing the same catalog does not change its contents. That works when you move the whole catalog in your computer. However, in the present case, the catalog on one computer stores links to the location of the Dropbox folder in the same computer. Even if the path is the same, the drive is identified not only with the drive letter, but with the drive internal serial number... which is different on the second computer. I would have expected that a copy of the whole folder on the second computer would have shown all the files disconnected;

Report · Nov 21, 2017

Thanks again for that - there may well be unexpected problems with PE and Dropox that I'm not aware of, and there are several posts in the Lightroom forum re Dropbox which I'll check - but my original question is still - why does the date/timestamp on the PE12 catalog file update when I turn the pc on?!