Where is the catalog data stored?

[cabrackett]

Seems obvious, but I am not so sure. I am writing to this forum because I suspect no one is watching the iView forum, but I posted a bunch of problems to the iView forum labeled iView unstable.

Now I am in the process of recreating my entire catalog structure, from scratch, by opening a new catalog and doing the import from file thing on my entire collection. Needless to say, it will take me a great deal of time waiting for all those thumbnails to render. However, I am surprised to see that the entire catalog is recreating itself from that file structure. All the Catalog Fields and sets, etc. How can this be? I realize that synching annotations will put certain metadata back in the original files, but where is this catalog field information coming from?

Chuck Brackett

[johnbeardy]

Haven't you tried an import from catalogue file? That can flush out problems.

John

[cabrackett]

John
I do have big problems. But no, I have not tried an import from Catalogue File. Are you suggesting I just open a new catalog and then import from the earlier file (which is the one that crashes)? How does that flush out problems?

But still, when importing image files into a new catalogue, all the old Catalog Fields come along and I don't know where they come from. They must be constructed from data that is either in the archive or in the image files themselves. But knowing that would help sort things out.

This image collection is about 28,000 images, and about 900 MB catalog. Is that big enough to cause the problem?

Thanks for the reply but I am pretty much out of commission now until I get this cleared up. It is also possible it is a Mac OS problem, but not yet.

Chuck

[cabrackett]

John
It worked. But why? Anyway, back in business and I thank you for helping out.
Chuck

[johnbeardy]

Great - it's a miracle cure. I suspect that the fresh catalogue simply ignores the small elements of corruption. 900mb shouldn't be a problem - 1.5mb is where I worry.

John

[peterkrogh]

Chuck,
The Catalog Sets are written back to the file as XMP data when you sync annotations. That's why they show back up on reimportation.
Peter

[cabrackett]

Thanks Peter

Let me see if I understand. I import a file into the catalog, and establish some catalog sets for it to appear in. Then I sometime synch annotations and the catalog sets for that particular file get written into the XMP data which stays with the file. All types of files?  Then later I modify the catalog sets, add the file to another set, or refine the sets it is in. No new XMP data written. But then need to synch annotations again to get the changes written back to the xmp data.

My mind is confused on the sync annotations function. Whether or not to do it. I have seen arguments both ways and I usually try to do it but it is one of those things that can easily get lost in the workflow.

Chuck

[peterkrogh]

Chuck,
Yes, you've got it right.  Try this.  Sync a JPEG (or open a JPEG that has previously been synced and has Catalog Sets information).
OPen in Bridge or Photoshop and Go to File Info > Advanced.  You'll see the iView/Expression Media "namespace", and if you open it up, you'll see the catalog set information.

This works for JPEG, TIFF, DNG, and PSD. Not so good for raw + Sidecar. (If you export the data out as a sidecar, it will overwrite the existing sidecar data, losing any information the catalog does not keep, such as ACR settings).
Peter