Loosing my stacks (version sets) and my mind...

[magura99]

Hi,

I'm moving to a faster computer and therefore need to move all my PSE6 data. I have around 10.000 photos duly cataloged, tagged, sorted into albums, etc.

The thing is, I also have tons of image stacks from when I take 10 shots with slight variations to keep only 1. Also, I don't flatten these stacks, so I keep all the 10 pictures.

I will move the hard disk where I have the photos in their folders, but not the program, into the new pc.

For the tags, I have already written the information into the photo files and saved the tag structure into an xml file for retrieval later on. To keep the album groupings, I just created a tag with the album name and so I can rebuild them later on.

I think that if I just open a new PSE6 session in the new pc and import the photos from th hard drive, I will end up with the stacked pictures unstacked and the album groupings gone.

I don't want to just make a backup of the library and then retrieve it, because I want the files to be kept in their original folders where I placed them. I'm assuming that on recovery they will all be jammed into one folder, isn't that right?

How can I move to a new computer and keep everything just like I have it today? How can I keep my stacks together?

Thanks

[JanBo]

As far as I understood, when you restore from a backup, it does place the files back in the original folders. Never tried it though.

When you'll import them in a new catalog as you've intended, you'll lose the version sets and stacks. And there is no easy way to rebuild those...

Jan

[januaryman]

I had the same experience (new PC), and after getting a new catalog started, I needed to re-stack all my versions by (this time) giving keywords better attention and remaining consistent with the words. This let me more easily see what belongs in a stack and what doesn't.

I do not believe it is possible to recreate "version sets" which need to be created at the time you are editing the image. A shortcoming that should be addressed in future versions, Adobe, if you're listening. - But after re-cataloging over 7k files, I have a better catalog, can find photos with greater ease. Worth the effort, do it a little at a time, stop when you get tired.

Good luck.