Move Pictures Without Rescanning

If you have spent hours and hours getting all your Facetags and Labels and Albums just right you will want very badly to save all that work when you move your pictures to a different location or drive. If you have tried to move the My Pictures folder you will notice that it is not movable because it is a system defined folder.

When Picase Moves folders it instantly updates the database, and you don't lose albums, captions, etc.

Caution:

  • When you move folders in Picasa or Windows Explorer they move everything in the folders, so move folders containing only (or mostly) pictures.

  • Work carefully and make sure you have backups for the pictures (My Pictures folder and any other locations), and the database, so If you screw up you can recover.

  • If you have Collages and you move the photos that made up the collages, the Collages will no longer be editable because Picasa does not update the Collage photo paths.

Step 1 - Arrange the Folders for easy moving

Note:

We use Windows Explorer to move folders in these steps. Be sure you don't move folders out of the folder path watched by Picasa or the database may not update successfully.

    1. Start Picasa

    2. Picasa must be running to keep the database up to date, but you can minimize it.

    3. Set the Folder View to Tree view by going to the View menu -> Folder View -> Tree View.

    4. In the folder tree view, open a Windows Explorer (WE) window by Right-clicking on the "Pictures" folder ("My Pictures in XP") and selecting "Locate on Disk".

    5. In WE, create a new Subfolder inside My Pictures called "Pictures New" or whatever name you wish.

    6. Still in Windows Explorer, drag one photo that is in My Pictures to Pictures New, otherwise Picasa won't see it as a picture folder.

    7. Note: if My Pictures doesn't contain any photos, copy a photo from any other folder into Pictures New.

    8. In Pictures (My Pictures in XP) select all folders except the "Picasa" folder, the "Pictures New" folder and any ".picasaoriginals" folder.

    9. Do not select any pictures or hidden files. The "Picasa" folder must remain in My Pictures.

    10. Move all the folders into the "Pictures New" folder by dragging and dropping them (Make sure you move them, don't copy them).

    11. Go back into Picasa and in the folder view, make sure all the folders that were in Pictures (My Pictures in XP) are now in the "Pictures New" folder you made..

    12. In the Picasa folder view go to the Pictures (My Pictures in XP) folder. If there are any photos in this folder, go to Edit menu -> Select All to select all the pictures in Pictures (My Pictures in XP).

    13. Drag the pictures from Pictures (My Pictures in XP) into the "Pictures New" subfolder.

    14. It is best to have at least one photo in My Pictures, so go back into WE and copy any photo from Pictures new back into My Pictures.

    15. The "Pictures New" subfolder is ready to move.

    16. Exit Picasa and WE to be sure the database is updated.

Step 2 - Move the Folders to the New Location

    1. Decide what drive or folder you want to move the "Pictures New" folder to.

    2. Start Picasa

    3. Set the Folder View to Tree view by going to the View menu -> Folder View -> Tree View.

    4. Look in the Folders collection In the left column and find the "Pictures New" folder we created above.

    5. - It will be in My Pictures in XP, or in Pictures in Vista / Win7 / Win8.

    6. Right-click on the "Pictures New" folder we created and select "Move Folder ..."

    7. In the Move Folder "Browse for Folder" Screen, select the Drive and Folder you want to move the Photos to.

    8. - If you select only the drive letter, the Pictures folder will be moved to the DriveLetter. (Example: P:\Pictures New)

    9. - You can create a new folder in which case the "Pictures New" folder will be in that folder. (Example: P:\MyNewFolder\Pictures New)

    10. Click OK and the Pictures will be moved to the new location.

    11. You can double-click the Pictures New Folder in the new Location and give it whatever name you wish.

    12. Go into Tools menu -> Folder Manager and make sure Pictures New in the new location is set to "Scan Always".

    13. Exit Picasa to make sure the Database is updated.

Additional Folders:

If you have additional folders Picasa is watching they can be moved using the same steps as above. Call the new Pictures folder something different like "Pics from Docs" so they don't attempt to merge with the Pictures New folder you made earlier.