Importing the same card again
A card often goes through Vixlo more than once. You add a backup afterwards, an import stops, a copy goes missing, or you come back to a card you formatted in the camera and filled again. Vixlo decides what a file is by what it contains, never by its name or by where it was found. This page follows that through each case; A card imported twice sets the same rules out in short.
Files the library already holds
A file the library already holds counts as ALREADY IMPORTED and is not copied into the library again, whatever its name. It counts only when the library really has it: a copy in the working library's Originals folder, the same size as the file on the card and with the same first and last megabyte. A copy that has been deleted, cut short or replaced since is no copy, and the file is offered as NEW and copied in again.
Adding a backup afterwards
A card imported once without a backup can be made safe to format by importing it again with one.
- Open the library and scan the card again (Adding a card to a library you already have).
- Press Choose… beside Backup — a separate drive and choose a folder on another drive. Start import now counts the files the library already holds: Start import (10) for a card of ten files already imported, where without a backup it reads Start import (0) and stays dimmed.
- Press Start import. The import checks each library copy and copies it to the backup under the same name. Nothing in
Originalsis copied again.
When every file ends with its two copies, the last panel reads Import complete — safe to format with Every file on the card reached two independently verified copies — the 10 already in the library were found there unchanged and copied to the backup. The card is safe to format in camera.
If a library copy has gone or changed since, that file fails the check, and the safe-to-format panel does not appear. The panel reads Import complete with Some files could not be verified — the card is not safe to format., followed by 1 file the library already had was missing or changed there. Scanning the card again offers it as new. If you cancel while the backup is being made, the panel is titled Import stopped (If an import stops). A second pass with the backup chosen finishes it.
Without a backup the files the library already holds are checked and left as they are, and the panel says so, as in Every new file was copied and checksum-verified, and the 10 already in the library were found there unchanged. Add a second independent copy before erasing the card.
A file that failed
A file that did not verify, because the reader dropped out or a backup folder could not be written, is not counted as imported. The next import of that card tries it again from the start, so Scan the card again to import them does what it says. That holds after Continue to culling too: a frame whose backup copy failed is already in the library, and the next import with a backup makes its backup copy.
An interrupted import
If Vixlo quits in the middle of an import, the next import of that card skips the copies it had already verified, but only after checking that the file on the card is still the one it copied and that each copy is still the file it verified. An import that finishes leaves nothing to carry on from.
A different card in the same reader has every file copied. That includes a card you formatted in the camera and filled again, which comes back under the same names as before: the second card's DSCF0001.RAF is a new frame beside the first card's, because each new frame is identified by its contents, and never the first card's frame again.
A copy that was deleted or replaced
If a copy in Originals has been deleted, cut short or replaced since it was imported, the file on the card is offered as NEW and copied back. Press Continue to culling and Vixlo does not add a second frame. The frame the library already had for that photograph is pointed at the new copy, with its decision, rating, label, notes and group as they were. When no XMP file is beside the new copy, and the frame holds a decision, rating, label, keywords, caption or note, Vixlo writes them into one, so a rebuild from the folder keeps them.
The match is by contents. A different photograph that happens to carry the same name is a new frame.
Frames from an earlier version of Vixlo
A library started with an earlier version of Vixlo can hold frames whose entries point at files on the card they were read from, with no record of what those files contain. When you scan that card, Vixlo gives such a frame its contents back, but only when the file at its place is plainly its photograph: the same capture time and camera, the same settings where the frame recorded them, and the same name. The frame then comes in like any other. The card's file is copied in, the frame points at the copy, and your decisions are kept.
If the card in the reader is not the card those frames were read from, the files there are other photographs. A card formatted in the camera and shot again comes back at the same places with the same names. The review shows a row, Frames that do not match this card, and the last panel repeats it: 2 frames an earlier version of Vixlo catalogued on this card do not match the photographs now at their places (capture time, camera and settings), so they were not merged: they keep your decisions and still point at the card. Those frames are left exactly as they are, and the card's photographs come in as new frames beside them. A file with no capture time or camera in it cannot be told either way and is treated the same. To bring such frames inside the library, scan the card they were read from.