Dear experts, being new to Photolab 4 (MacOS version, OS MacOS BigSur) I need some help with the index of my photos folder. After I did a first index I moved my 25k photos (distributed over lots of sub folders) to a different location with MacOS Finder. Now I know this was a bad idea (I have 25k fotos in my index which lost the link to the originals). How can I delete the index database and/or forcing PL to delete and re-index again? Is the only way forward to delete PL4 with all configuration files and containers and start again from scratch? Thank you for your support!
Are you using .dop files to save changes?
If you are not using .dop files, I’m not sure what to do but, provided you are, and provided you haven’t added any keywords or projects, or want to keep the edit history, simply close PhotoLab and delete the database…
… and the cache …
1 Like
Yes, that’s sound advice from Joanna … additionally, tho; if you’re not doing any of those things then there’s not really any need/purpose in maintaining PL’s database … you can simply ignore it.
For more info, see this thread.
Regards, John M
Wow, this is really very fast help. I didn’t expect the experts to respond within that short time. Thank you! - @Joanna I will follow your advise. Switching over from LR classic I am trying to find my workflow with PL. I am testing Adobe Bridge with PL as RAW converter. Is that in principle a recommended approach? May be you have some advise for that combination.
I take it you really need a DAM tool? And that is why you want to use Bridge?
If all you want to do is to add keywords and other useful tags for later searching, all you have to do is to use Finder tags…
Then you can use Spotlight search in Finder to retrieve files that match…
If you want to preview the pictures from a search, simply swap to the thumbnail view…
Once you have created a search, you can save it. Then you have the equivalent of a project, which can be added to your Finder sidebar…
Or, if you wish, you can add the search to your Dock…
If you want to preview or compare selected images, just press the spacebar…
1 Like
Thanks Joanna, I will try with the MacOS on-board tools.