A library that will not open, or will not keep adjustments
A library is a folder on disk, and the launch screen lists every one Vixlo knows about. This page is for a library that is not in the list, a folder that Open existing library… will not take, the rows that will not open, the libraries that refuse to keep an adjustment, and the two things that look like a lost library but are not.
A library missing from the list
The launch screen lists the libraries Vixlo can read when it reads the list: at launch, and each time you close a library. A library whose drive is not plugged in — an external disk, a card, a network volume — or whose folder has moved or been deleted is left out until its folder can be read again. It has not been forgotten, and nothing about it changes while it is away.
- A drive that was unplugged: plug it back in. The library returns the next time Vixlo reads its list, or at once through Open existing library….
- A folder you moved: press Open existing library… on the launch screen and choose the folder at its new place. If nothing happens, see Open existing library… does nothing.
- A folder in the Trash: put it back, then open it the same way.
- A library you made a moment ago: pressing Cancel, or
Esc, on the import review before any photograph has been copied takes back the library the wizard had just made. A library that holds copied photographs is never forgotten by closing a sheet. See Closing the sheet before the end. - A folder that is gone: Vixlo holds no other copy of it. Importing never deletes from the card or the folder it read, so the photographs may still be there, and in the second destination if you chose one when you imported. Those copies hold the photographs, not your decisions.
Open existing library… does nothing
Open existing library…, on the New library card, opens a folder picker headed Choose an existing library's folder — the one that holds its library.sqlite3., with an Open button. When the folder is a library, the cull page opens and the launch screen's list knows where the library is from then on.
When Vixlo cannot use the folder you chose, it says nothing. The picker closes and the launch screen is exactly as it was, with no message and no new row, the same as if you had pressed Cancel. A silent return means Vixlo looked at the folder and turned it down.
What decides is a file named library.json, the library's own record, in the folder you chose. The picker's wording names the index, but the record is what Vixlo needs. The folder is turned down when:
- It has no
library.json. The usual cause is the wrong level: the folder that holds the library's folder, theOriginalsfolder inside it, a card'sDCIMfolder, or a folder of photographs that was never a library. In the Finder, the library's own folder is the one holdinglibrary.json. A card is imported into a library rather than opened: see Importing from a card or a folder. library.jsonis damaged, and cannot be read.library.jsoncannot be written. Opening a library records when it was opened in that file, so a folder or a disk that is read-only is turned down. Make it writable first.
If a library's own library.json is gone, its photographs are safe in Originals and its decisions are still in the XMP files beside them, but Vixlo 0.1 has no other way to open the folder. Put back the library.json from a backup of the folder if you have one, and otherwise write to support.
Not connected and Not found
On a library of your own you will seldom see these two rows, because a library whose drive or folder is away is left out of the list in the first place. Each row checks its folder once, as it first appears. If the library's drive has gone by then, the row says Not connected — plug in its drive to open this library. If the drive is there and the folder is not, it says Not found — its folder may have moved or been deleted. Either way its button reads Unavailable and cannot be pressed. Once the cause is fixed, quit and reopen Vixlo and the list is read again.
The three Earlier library rows are a case of their own, and where most people first meet Not found; Earlier libraries that will not open or develop has them.
A row does not notice a drive pulled out after the launch screen has drawn. It goes on looking ready, and pressing its button does nothing. Plug the drive back in and press the button again, or quit and reopen Vixlo; the library then returns to the list once its drive is back.
This library can't store adjustments
The three Earlier library rows open for culling but not for developing: their develop panel and edit page show this notice, and no adjustment is kept. Earlier libraries that will not open or develop has the notice in full and Import this library…, the way to a library that does keep them.
Forget removes the row, not the folder
Forget… in a row's More menu takes the library out of the list and nothing more: the folder, its photographs and its decisions stay exactly where they were, and no disk space is freed. Deleting a library's files is something you do in the Finder. To get a forgotten library back into the list, press Open existing library… and choose its folder.
A library whose index is missing
A library's index is one file in its folder, and a library whose index is missing entirely is rebuilt from the folder when you open it. The library then opens on the cull page, and the notice waits on the launch screen: you see it when you close the library. It begins with the library's name, had no index, so it was rebuilt from the folder, says what was kept and what was not, and has a Dismiss button. If a library opens with decisions or adjustments you know you made missing, rebuild the index yourself: see Rebuilding the index.
Opening waits for that rebuild, and nothing on screen says so. No sheet or progress appears, and the window does not respond until the rebuild is done. Vixlo reads every XMP file and every photograph in full, so on a large library the wait can run to minutes. Leave it alone; the library opens on the cull page when the rebuild ends.
The rebuild reads the folder's Originals folder. If that is missing too, there is nothing to read: Vixlo opens the library with no photographs in it and shows no notice. Put Originals back, then rebuild the index from the library's row on the launch screen.