Move folders to another drive without rescanning

This is similar to "Move photos to an external hard disk" but with an option to consolidate all folders before the move.

If you have spent hours and hours getting all your face tags, captions, and albums just right, you will want 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 before, you will have noticed that it is not movable because it is a system defined folder.

When Picasa "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, everything in the folder gets moved, 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), so if you screw up you can recover.

• Move entire folders and their complete contents from the old drive to the new drive. Do not merge folders as part of the move, otherwise you will loose picture edits!!!

Step 1: Preparation

In the preparation step, we will set up the external drive to hold the pictures and assign a drive letter and picture folder. We will also configure Picasa to watch the drive and view folders in a tree view.

First you will change the drive letter of the external drive to a letter near the end of the alphabet. The reason for assigning a drive letter is that if you disconnect your external drive with photos and then connect a different drive such as a USB stick, the drive letter could be taken when you reattach your external drive to another port. Windows will give the external drive another drive letter. Picasa will be confused and it won't find your pictures because the drive letter is wrong. Follow these directions to assign a drive letter to an external drive:

1. 1. Attached the external drive to the computer (USB port)

   2. Right-click > "Manage" on your "Computer" (or "My Computer") icon

   3. Click on "Disk Management"

   4. Right-click on the drive and select "Change driver letter and paths..."

   5. Set the drive to be another letter such as P:\ or whichever drive letter you want the pictures to be moved to.

   6. Using "Windows File Explorer" or "My Computer," create your picture folder on the external hard disk. Example: P:\Photos

      1. It is best not to name the folder "My Pictures" to avoid confusion with your My Pictures folder on the C: drive.

   7. In Picasa, enable tree view by clicking the menu View > Folder View > Tree View.

      1. This lets you easily see which drive your folders of photos are on.

   8. In Picasa, enable scanning of the Picture folder by clicking the menu Tools > Folder Manager...

      1. Browse to P:\Photos folder and set it to "Scan Always"

Step 2 (Optional) - Arrange the Folders for easy moving

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

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

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

  3. In the folder tree view, open Windows File Explorer by right-clicking on the "Pictures" folder ("My Pictures in XP") and selecting "Locate on Disk"

  4. In File Explorer, create a new subfolder inside My Pictures called "Pictures New" or whatever name you wish.

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

  6. Do not select any pictures or hidden files.

  7. Move all the folders into the "Pictures New" folder by right-click then drag and drop. Make sure you select "Move" to move them - don't copy them.

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

  9. 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).

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

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

  12. Exit Picasa and close Windows File Explorer to be sure the database is updated.

Step 3 - 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

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

  5. Right-click on the "Pictures New" folder and select "Move Folder ..."

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

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

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

  7. Click OK and the pictures will be moved to the new location.

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

  9. Exit Picasa to make sure the database is updated.

Additional Folders:

If you have additional folders that Picasa is watching, those folders can be moved using the same steps as above. Name the new Pictures folder something different, such as "Pics from Docs" so that folder doesn't attempt to merge with the "Pictures New" folder you made earlier.