What an import copies
Safe to format is a statement about the card, so an import accounts for every file on it, not only the frames you will cull. This page says what is copied, what is only counted, and what the card is. Importing the same card again says what a second pass does.
RAW+JPEG pairs
A camera set to RAW+JPEG writes two files for each frame. In the cull the pair is one frame, with the RAW as its photograph, but the import copies and verifies both files: the JPEG lands beside its RAW in Originals under the same name, for example DSCF0100.RAF and DSCF0100.JPG. The card is safe to format only once both have their copies.
The review counts files, so a card of 100 pairs reads Start import (200). If the library already holds one half of a pair, the other half counts as already imported when the library has it beside its partner, and is copied there when it does not.
Clips and other files
Vixlo copies photographs. It does not copy video clips, XMP files that sit beside photographs on the card (the sheet calls them sidecar files), or files it does not recognise. They stay on the card untouched, but they count: while one of them exists only on the card, the card is not safe to format. FILES FOUND on the review includes the ones in the folders the photographs are read from, and Start import does not.
The last panel names what was not copied. With one destination it reads, for example, Every photograph was copied and checksum-verified. 3 videos and 2 other files on the card were not copied — copy them yourself before formatting the card. Add a second independent copy before erasing the card. With a backup it reads Every photograph reached two independently verified copies, but the card is not safe to format. followed by the same sentence about what was not copied.
Copying one of those files yourself does not change the panel. Vixlo never records a file it did not copy, so every import of that card names it again. Copy the files, open your copies to check them, and decide for yourself whether to format.
A file with exactly the same content as another file on the card is different. It is held back, counted under DUPLICATES HELD, and does not withhold safe to format, because the copy of its twin covers it.
A camera's own catalogue and settings files count like any other. A Sony card's PRIVATE/M4ROOT/MEDIAPRO.XML, the files in a Canon card's CANONMSC folder and a print order in MISC are each named as an other file that was not copied, and the card does not read safe to format while they exist only on it, although the camera writes them again when it formats the card. Copy them yourself if you want them, as the sentence says, and judge the card yourself: Vixlo has no way to mark them as dealt with.
What counts as the card
The photographs are read from the folder the scan starts at, but the claim covers the card. After the scan Vixlo lists every file on the card, reading names only, and counts each one that no import copies. What the card is depends on what you chose:
- A card's
DCIMfolder, or a folder inside it, stands for the whole card whenDCIMsits at the card's top level. A card button starts there: Start from the detected card · NAME, or Card · NAME in the wizard. Sony and Panasonic bodies keep video in aPRIVATEfolder besideDCIM. Those clips count, though FILES FOUND never includes them; the last panel names them. - A card's top level, chosen with Choose a folder… or in the folder panel, is that card.
- Any other folder, such as a copy of a card on your disk, is that folder and everything inside it. Its parent is your disk, not a card, and is never listed. A notes file or a layered image inside the folder is named as an other file that was not copied.
Only what the Mac and Windows write on a volume for themselves is left out: .Spotlight-V100, .fseventsd, .Trashes, System Volume Information, $RECYCLE.BIN, .DS_Store, and any file whose name begins with ._. Everything else counts, hidden files included. A clip's small thumbnail picture, which some cameras keep in PRIVATE, counts as a photograph that was not copied.
A part of the card the Mac could not read
If the Mac cannot list a folder on the card, or cannot read what a file is, Vixlo cannot say what is there. The review shows a row, Part of the card could not be read, with Part of the card could not be read (1 folder and 2 files) — nothing there has a copy, so the card is not safe to format. The last panel repeats it after whatever else it says about the card. With a backup chosen and every readable photograph protected, it opens Every photograph the scan could read reached two independently verified copies, but the card is not safe to format. With no backup it opens Every photograph the scan could read was copied and checksum-verified. and the sentence comes before Add a second independent copy before erasing the card.
A card the Mac could not read all of never reads safe to format. Once the Mac can read it, scan the card again with the backup chosen: what was imported is recognised, and the rest is copied.
Two files with one name
Cameras reuse names. Two bodies both write DSCF0100.RAF, and a card whose numbering was reset writes DSCF0001.RAF again. When Originals already holds a different photograph under a file's name, the new file is copied beside it as DSCF0100-2.RAF, the next free number, its JPEG as DSCF0100-2.JPG, and its XMP file is DSCF0100-2.xmp. A backup folder gets the same names. Nothing already in Originals is overwritten or renamed.
A name belongs to one photograph, whatever the extension. It is taken when anything in Originals shares its stem, unless that file is the same photograph. So a JPEG-only camera's DSCF0100.JPG is copied as DSCF0100-2.JPG rather than beside another camera's DSCF0100.RAF, where the two would share one XMP file and a decision on one would be written over the other's. An XMP file whose photograph is gone holds its name too. Going the other way, a pair never splits: the RAW and its JPEG always take the same number, and a JPEG whose RAW you imported and culled earlier is placed under that RAW's name.
A frame you deleted in the Finder or emptied from the bin keeps its place in the library, so the name it had stays its own: only the same photograph can come back to it, and any other is copied as the next number.
A file that is the same photograph as the one under that name is not a clash. It counts as already imported.