shotwell doesn't support using removable storage devices for managed photos

[Craig Magina]

Shotwell doesn't allow me to add multiple locations where my photos are stored. The usecase for this is I have a laptop that only has 128 GB of storage, so storing my 80 GB of photos on it doesn't work. I instead store all of my photos on a 320 GB external USB drive. As a result I cannot use shotwell to work on my photos as it only supports one location for your photo collection. An example of the functionality I am looking for can be found in digikam. Digikam allows you to add multiple collections. A collection can be located on a removable storage device, a local system path, or even a network device. It then indexes the entire collection and stores information about that collection in its database.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: shotwell 0.13.1-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-22.34-generic 3.5.7.2
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-22-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu9
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Jan 19 21:33:10 2013
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-01-10 (9 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.5)
MarkForUpload: True
SourcePackage: shotwell
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Craig Magina (craig.magina)]

This is a feature request (wishlist item).

[Jim Nelson (yorba-jim)]

Shotwell will allow you to import photos from any location either via drag-and-drop or by using File -> Import From Folder. You are correct, you can only specify one directory as your "library" directory, which Shotwell can monitor for additional files via auto-import.

One possibility, since most of your media is on your external drive, is to make that your library directory via Edit > Preferences. We also have a ticket outstanding to allow for multiple directories: http://redmine.yorba.org/issues/3449

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[nAndrade (bugsubuntu-nicoandra)]

I workarounded this by creating a soft symlink to my exernal drive.

~/Pictures/BigBackup/ links to /media/BigBackup/Photos

What's good of Shotwell is the auto-conversion of filesystem to library in the interface, and the recursive viewing (ie standing in 2010 I get full of nice memories :) No other software has that awesome feature that I'm aware of.

But the problem is how long it is to rebuild the root when the media is plugged back in. I'd suggest something like keeping an index on the removable media.

Shotwell is a great tool, thanks.