Importing an Earlier library
Every Mac lists three rows named Earlier library on the launch screen. Their photographs are bundled inside Vixlo, so once they open you can cull them but not develop them. Import this library… copies one into a library of your own, with your decisions. You need it only if you want to develop in one of them. The launch screen says what they are.
Before you press the button
An Earlier library makes its database the first time you open it, and until then there is nothing to copy from. Press Import this library… on a row that has never been opened, choose a folder, and the run ends at once, copying nothing and making nothing, with a sheet headed Couldn’t read this library. So open the row once first:
- On a Mac that has never made a library, the rows read Not found — its folder may have moved or been deleted and cannot be opened. Make a library of your own first, then return with File ▸ Close Library (
⇧⌘W). - A row never opened reads EMPTY and No photographs yet, and its button says Add photographs. Press that button to open the library once, come back with File ▸ Close Library, and then import it.
If this Mac also has sessions from the earlier build, open one of your own libraries first, because the first library you open raises Decisions from the earlier build and answering it ends that offer for good.
Choosing where it goes
- On the row, press Import this library…. It sits where More sits on a library of your own.
- A folder panel opens. Its message reads Choose where “Earlier library · event” becomes a real library. Its photographs are copied in and verified; the earlier library is left exactly as it is unless every one copies cleanly.
- Choose a folder, or press New Folder in the panel to make one.
- Press Import Here. Cancel closes the panel, and nothing is copied.
The folder you choose is the library itself. That differs from the new-library wizard, where the folder you choose is the one the library's own folder is made inside. Vixlo puts the library's index and its Originals, Trash and Exports folders straight into the folder you choose, and names the library after it. Choose a new, empty folder, not one that already holds other files.
If the folder already holds a Vixlo library, Vixlo adds the photographs to that library instead of making a new one. That is how a run that stopped part way is finished, further down.
While it copies
The row's button reads Importing… and is disabled, and so are the Import this library… buttons on the other Earlier rows. There is no progress bar, no count and no Cancel. Wait for the result sheet.
It is the same verified copy every import uses (Importing from a card or a folder), into the new library's Originals folder. There is one copy and no card, so nothing here says safe to format. The Earlier library itself is only read, never changed.
Every photograph arrives with its decision, its stars, its favourite heart, its colour label and the group it belongs to. If a photograph has an XMP file beside it with adjustments in it, that file is copied beside the new copy.
The result sheet
When the run ends, a sheet opens over the launch screen. Its heading is one of three, and the line under the heading names the Earlier library, here Earlier library · event:
| Heading | The line under it | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Every photograph is in | Earlier library · event now stores its own adjustments, and won’t be offered as a library to import again. | Nothing failed. It is the new library that stores adjustments; the Earlier library is unchanged, and its row has left the list. |
| Copied 7 of 10, for example | 3 couldn’t be copied this time. Earlier library · event stays listed so you can finish later — nothing already copied will be copied twice. | Some photographs failed. The first number is copied now plus already there (below), the second is total. They count frames, and a frame that duplicates another counts as there, so the first can exceed the number of photographs the new library holds. |
| Couldn’t read this library | Earlier library · event’s database couldn’t be opened, so nothing was imported. It’s untouched — try again once it’s reachable. | Nothing was copied; see the caution above. |
Under the heading are four counts:
- total is the number of frames in the Earlier library.
- copied now is the photographs copied and verified in this run.
- already there is the photographs whose exact content is already in the new library, from an earlier run into the same folder or from an identical photograph copied moments before in this run.
- failed is the photographs that could not be copied: the original could not be found or read, the copy did not verify, or the folder already holds a different photograph under the same file name. This import refuses that file, where a card import would copy it under a new name.
A box tinted red, headed COULDN’T BE COPIED, lists the first six file names that failed, then and 3 more. Under it is the new library's path, and Done closes the sheet. If Vixlo could not use the folder at all, because it cannot be written to or the drive is full, every photograph is listed as failed and no path appears.
Several frames in an Earlier library can be the same photograph. It is copied once, the other frames count as already there, and the new library holds that photograph once, with the decision of the first frame. A library imported from an Earlier library can therefore hold fewer photographs than the Earlier one had frames.
Finishing a run that stopped
When something failed, the Earlier row stays in the list, and the new library is already there, holding what did copy. Press Import this library… again and choose the same folder. Photographs already copied are not copied twice; they show as already there. Choose a different folder and Vixlo makes a second library and copies everything again.
A photograph whose original cannot be found fails every time, and while it does the row stays. When a run finishes with nothing failed, the Earlier row leaves the list for good.
After it finishes
Open the new library from the list like any other: Opening, switching and closing. It is named for its folder, and More ▸ Rename changes the name. Its photographs take adjustments, which the Earlier library could not.