Photos: consolidating them and changing the relative path

[reggoboy]

Then what's the point of the Reunion > Settings > Folder > Media setting?

[Bob White]

1. Reunion has never had an automatic feature for moving media to any other folder.

2. The System Library is not a place for storing regular files.

3. Putting the photos in a folder within the Reunion Files folder retains the same path always. That is why I never lose photos.

4. Settings does not include any files. It is only designating the location that you want your media to reside. Settings is actually just a text file buried in the System Settings. Most apps query such a text file upon launch in order to present your previously chosen settings.

5. Am I missing something? e.g. myself and Miss Myrtle are responding to a different question from what we see in your posts?? That's possible.

[reggoboy]

Thanks for your reply.

1. Reunion has never had an automatic feature for moving media to any other folder.

Okay. I'm proposing it should.

2. The System Library is not a place for storing regular files.

Correct. I think you're responding to "is there a way, like with Apple Music, Logic, and other apps, to have all media, by default, copied into the library folder". I was using the term "library" like Apple does for Music, Photos, etc: wherever the media are consolidated. In this case, I should have called it the "media folder".

3. Putting the photos in a folder within the Reunion Files folder retains the same path always. That is why I never lose photos

4. Settings does not include any files. It is only designating the location that you want your media to reside. Settings is actually just a text file buried in the System Settings. Most apps query such a text file upon launch in order to present your previously chosen settings.

5. Am I missing something? e.g. myself and Miss Myrtle are responding to a different question from what we see in your posts?? That's possible.

Here you're definitely missing the point, but I appreciate the effort. I think if you focus on my last question, we can make progress:

what's the point of the Reunion > Settings > Folder > Media setting?

[Miss Myrtle]

Thanks for your reply.

Here you're definitely missing the point, but I appreciate the effort. I think if you focus on my last question, we can make progress:

I see what you are asking. I cannot find an answer in the manual. Perhaps support can help?

[DrJJWMac]

> Most apps that manage media offer this option to solve this very problem. Maybe Reunion has a way to do it, but I haven't found it.

I also see no immediate way to do this now. FWIW, RootsMagic (another genealogy app) has the same problem -- Media are brought in as links, and no method exists from within the app itself to import/embed/move the linked files.

> Then what's the point of the Reunion > Settings > Folder > Media setting?

Well .... in this case it seems ... Only to provide a generally immutable folder location where you can know to put all your media files in advance before you open Reunion to work with them. :-/

> Okay. I'm proposing it should [have an automatic way to change copy files into the default media location].

I agree that Reunion should consider providing a way to (bulk/automatically) import/copy linked media from locations that are currently outside the selected default Media folder. I know that database-type apps such as Devonthink, Bookends, and Curio offer a reasonably clear way to do so (to convert from indexed/linked files to imported/embedded files by copying or moving the files from their locations to the internal database location).

Devonthink is strongly adamant that users should import files instead of indexing them for exactly the reason that you are facing ... indexed (linked) files can and will (and apparently often do) get lost. With this in mind, as a first step, the user manual for Reunion could be improved with explanations about the pros and cons of the current approach to make links to media files where there are located, followed by a (strong) recommendation that users should move/copy their media files at the Finder level into the default Media folder for Reunion first before making any links to those files from within Reunion.

--
JJW

[reggoboy]

> Most apps that manage media offer this option to solve this very problem. Maybe Reunion has a way to do it, but I haven't found it.

I also see no immediate way to do this now. FWIW, RootsMagic (another genealogy app) has the same problem -- Media are brought in as links, and no method exists from within the app itself to import/embed/move the linked files.

Yea. I'm actually a software engineer and build carrier-size systems that manage terabytes of media (voicemail, audio recordings, faxes, etc). There are certainly good reasons NOT to move/embed media: tons of I/O, for starters. But the reasons I mentioned earlier are exactly why apps like iTunes/Music, Logic, Final Cut, and others offer ways to consolidate your media into a central place: it ensures links don't break and all dependencies are encapsulated. You can grab one folder and move it to another Mac and know with confidence that everything will work.

> Then what's the point of the Reunion > Settings > Folder > Media setting?

Well .... in this case it seems ... Only to provide a generally immutable folder location where you can know to put all your media files in advance before you open Reunion to work with them. :-/

Yea, that can't be right :-) It must serve some function. How do we tag the developer to get them to chime in??

> Okay. I'm proposing it should [have an automatic way to change copy files into the default media location].

I agree that Reunion should consider providing a way to (bulk/automatically) import/copy linked media from locations that are currently outside the selected default Media folder. I know that database-type apps such as Devonthink, Bookends, and Curio offer a reasonably clear way to do so (to convert from indexed/linked files to imported/embedded files by copying or moving the files from their locations to the internal database location).

Devonthink is strongly adamant that users should import files instead of indexing them for exactly the reason that you are facing ... indexed (linked) files can and will (and apparently often do) get lost. With this in mind, as a first step, the user manual for Reunion could be improved with explanations about the pros and cons of the current approach to make links to media files where there are located, followed by a (strong) recommendation that users should move/copy their media files at the Finder level into the default Media folder for Reunion first before making any links to those files from within Reunion.

I do what to respond to Bob White 's comment:

> 1. Reunion has never had an automatic feature for moving media to any other folder.

This isn't strictly true. ReunionTouch actually handles this perfectly. If you import an image to a card (from Photos), it doesn't leave it in place and link it. It makes a COPY of that image in Reunion > Settings > Folder > Media. And that's EXACTLY what I'm saying Reunion should be doing on the Mac, but it doesn't.

[DrJJWMac]

If you import an image to a card (from Photos), ... It makes a COPY of that image in Reunion > Settings > Folder > Media

Well, could part of the distinction here be that you IMPORTED from Photos? Whereas in Reunion/macOS, you did a drag+drop from an image/file in your downloads folder into Reunion OR you chose the image/file within your downloads folder as the media content. Both macOS cases are not IMPORTing the file, they are therefore making links to the file.

Of the three apps that I mentioned (Devonthink, Bookends, and Curio), I think Curio handles this embed versus link issue the best. Drag+drop embeds. Option drag+drop links. I also believe Curio that has a superuser setting to define the modifier key for either case. And Curio has a menu open to export the database as a self-contained (ZIP) archive. All linked content is pulled in as embedded content for the archive.

Finally ...

How do we tag the developer to get them to chime in?

There is a Wish List forum.

--
JJW

[reggoboy]

Well, could part of the distinction here be that you IMPORTED from Photos? Whereas in Reunion/macOS, you did a drag+drop from an image/file in your downloads folder into Reunion OR you chose the image/file within your downloads folder as the media content. Both macOS cases are not IMPORTing the file, they are therefore making links to the file.

Using the "+" feature isn't "importing"? And if it's not, are you suggesting that there is another import feature in Reunion that I'm not aware of that actually moves the media file into Reunion > Settings > Folder > Media that I should be using instead?

[reggoboy]

I made a post under Wish List. Hopefully devs will see it.

https://www.reuniontalk.com/forum/wish-list/101996-can-imported-media-actually-be-placed-into-reunion-settings-folder-media

[DrJJWMac]

I do not use Reunion Touch so I cannot comment on what + is doing. In this respect, my comment was a question to suggest a direction for you to investigate further.

—
JJW

[Bob White]

.........Correct. I think you're responding to "is there a way, like with Apple Music, Logic, and other apps, to have all media, by default, copied into the library folder". I was using the term "library" like Apple does for Music, Photos, etc: wherever the media are consolidated. ........

Just for the record: When I use the term Library, I am referring to the Library in the Finder which is a collection of all the files that make a computer run. I am not referring to music or photos or user made files.