Best practices for moving DxO Photolab to new PC?

I am setting up a new PC, and wondering (besides installing it and coping the images) what I should do to migrate DxO from the old PC.

Do I export/import the database? What if the image file paths are not quite the same? I think all my edits are in sidecars. It looks like my ratings, picks and presets are lost if I don’t do this.

Is there a way to migrate all the optics modules without having to click on every folder using a different camera/lens combo?

Looking forward to Prime denoise on 8 cores:)

Thanks

Tim

I am not sure about license and new windows( new pc) if the licence key needs to be " free-ed" unlocked for new install. ( wel you got two so that’s no real issue for the moment)

presets: you can export them and save in a folder and import them later in your new pc setup.
sidecars: there is a “export” “import” in tab “file” - “sidecars”
manual:
Sidecars: Exports the individual settings file of the selected images to the same directory as the original images, or imports the sidecars (the individual settings file for each image) of currently-selected images from the same directory as the original images in .dop format. Sidecars allow you to transfer all correction settings of an image from one computer to another or share them with other users. Note that Mac and PC sidecars are compatible with one another.
nothing about exporting keywords.
edit: just tested this feature: its just a manual command for making a dopfile, same as the automated one.
if you check out the automated preferences and you change rating to ***** export, change back to 0 stars, and import sidecar it reset the rating to ***** again. so rating is inside sidecar.
i don’t have keywords in my raw files but i suspect they are also inside sidecar:
you can test by making a jpeg edit in keywords, load in dpl, export sidecar, delete jpg, replace by one without keywords and import sidecar. , i think in this way you can find out if sidecars are storing keywords.

about optical modules: users, user (you), appdata ,local,dxo, dxo photolab 2:
here you find the presets/ updates/modules/ workspaces
and:
• The folders like DxO…StrongName… contain the user config file which stores your personal preferences/settings.

i think if you copy the database and it has wrong c:\path information it keeps the keywords connected to the filename, but i don’t know if its reconnect properly.
dxo staf can answer that i hope.

On MAC

  • you can copy a few folders to move the licenses, database and preference files:
    search the /Library and ~Library folders for “dxo”.

Tim,

The DxO License information for a Windows installation is stored here:

C:\ProgramData\DxO Labs\Licenses

You can copy this folder to move the licenses to a new PC.

Joseph

1 Like

I had the license saved so that was fine. It’s great you have it on 2 computers at once or the migration would be sink or swim.

I was wrong about the ratings, they did come in with the sidecars. It’s just I only rate the good ones, and there is no way to search a dir hierarchy.

The DB import did not work right as the paths had changed, at least the “projects” just showed file not found errors. I backed up the new db before the import, so restoring it was a quick 2nd import.

To migrate the optics modules (assuming same versions of Dxo PL) you need files under AppData\Local\DxO\DxO Photolab2. The easy way to find this folder is to pick a preset and select “export”. The default dir for that is “Presets” under the aforementioned dir. This is also where you can copy your custom presets from.

Anyhow under the “DxO Photolab 2”, copy the file “CAFList2.db” and the whole “Modules” dir to the new installation. Restart that DxO and all the modules should show up in the “Installed modules…” menu report.

90% done I think.

Tim