Merging two changed copies of the same Catalog and Database

[sullins]

I've done something not smart. I have a duplicate catalog/database on a FW800 external disk that I carry around. Usually I keep track of whether the external or internal drive version has changed last and just overwrite the older one. Now I probably have changed both versions separately. Is there a way to merge the two very similar but different versions keeping the most recent changes from each?

[peterkrogh]

Ken, (Please sign your posts)

The basic steps are these:

Find when the two catalogs diverged.
Determine What files have been changed since the divergence
Export catalog of changed images from satellite catalog and import it into the master catalog.
You can use "replace settings" for the satellite catalog import if you're sure that the images you will import have not been changed in the Master Catalog.

To find out what images have been changed in each catalog, make a Smart Collection where the criteria is "Edited Date" and the date range is the length of time since the Satellite catalog was made. 
Once you have the images in the Smart Collection, select them all and "export as Catalog"
In the Master Catalog, select "Import from catalog".  If will ask you what to do about images that are already in the catalog.  Tell it you want the incoming settings to overwrite the existing settings.

If you think that some images have been changed in both catalogs, and you want to save each version, then you could import the new settings as virtual copies. Only do this f there is the possibility that you would be overwriting settings that represent some real work in develop, or in captioning.  Adding the Virtual copies brings its own overhead.

Let me know if you have any questions about this.
Peter

[sullins]

Thanks
What if I'm not sure about when it started? I don't think there are new images in the main database, so I believe my only real risk is losing some changes in images.
Is there a way to compare the databases to identify different files in one or the other?
Ken

[peterkrogh]

You can also use the smart collection options to find when something was added.  Use this to find what was most recently added to each.

Alternately, if you try to import the whole catalog, it will let you know if there are any new images, or if everything in the catalog you are importing is already in the other catalog.

Peter