Moving to new PC using Google Drive (Elements 2018{

[Jjono]

Can anyone help? My entire Elements 2018 Catalog is automatically backed-up to Google Drive, and as such is right now automatically downloading to my new PC. Can I import those into Organizer  somehow to re-establish all my catalog complete with cataloging albums, star ratings etc?

Otherwise, if I do a Backup / restore I'll end up with  completely unnecessary duplicate of the entire catalog on my new Pc, which I'd then have to upload into Google Drive. Many thanks if you can help!

[Greg_S.]

If you are talking about the Catalog folder which is downloading to your new computer, it will only work (easily) if your new computer has the same drive/folder configuration as your old one.  All you need do is locate the catalog.pse16db file within the folder on your new computer and that catalog should open in the Organizer.  If you have changed the folder structure, then it would be best to use a backup and restore to the new computer.  (Delete the current media files on your new computer to avoid the duplicates from the Restore process.)

[Jjono]

Thank you Greg - I do have exactly the same drive etc configuration, and
I have a catalog.pse9db file (but not a 16db) - do I need to do anything
to 'connect' the catalog (won't be able to try anything till this
afternoon as I need to sort out a licence issue with Adobe first, but
that's another matter!) - Cheers, Jon

[MichelBParis]

@Jjono 

You did not get answers from PSE users using the Google software 'Backup and sync' which I think lets you 'sync' your Google Drive on the Cloud to a dedicated folder on your computer. I have not tested it but I imagine it does work exactly like solutions like OneDrive or Dropbox. Every change in this folder or in the Cloud is automatically reproduced in the other site.

So, to be sure, check where the dedicated and synced folder is located on your computer. According to Google help, you can change its location.

Your catalog folder is not located in that Google folder, it's in a hidden location on your original drive. Use the menu Help>>System Info from the organizer to see its location. You should find such a folder containing a 'catalog.pse16db' file. That catalog folder could be manually moved elsewhere, but I doubt it would work well if placed in the Google folder mentioned above.

@Greg_S. 

If you are talking about the Catalog folder which is downloading to your new computer, it will only work (easily) if your new computer has the same drive/folder configuration as your old one.

Keep in mind that the same config means not only the same media files tree, but also the same identification of the drive serial number. The backup and restore method takes care of that by updating the catalog database, but if you only recover the original catalog folder to store it on the new computer, it will still point to the original computer and all your files will be considered 'disconnected'.

I would recommend the backup and restore solution, knowing that it would restore not only your media files, but also the catalog folder in the destination folder.

I expect the restore process to find the already synced back photo files and prompt you to skip if already there. After the restore, I would immediately close the organizer and move the restored catalog folder outside of the Google folder (either in the default location or elsewhere) because I can't imagine the catalog working well with the automatic syncing.

To start the organizer with the new catalog, double click on the 'catalog.pse16db' file.

It may be good to disable the syncing from the Google app before the restore and re-enabling it after you have tested the catalog.