Comment 8 for bug 682118

Yep, I have the same issue, but with another test case :

I wanted a fresh install for 11.10, so this is what I have done:
1. Upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10 (in order to have the same version of shotwell),
2. Save my "./shotwell/data/photo.db" file and install Ubuntu 11.10,
3. Do not save the ".shotwell/thumbs" directory as it takes me more than 500 Mo and I think shotwell will generate it again (!),
4. Install Ubuntu 11.10,
5. Launch Shotwell to initialize the ".shotwell" directory than does not exist yet,
6. Close shotwell,
7. Copy my backup of "photo.db" to the now existing "./shotwell" directory,
8. Open shotwell and discover that the thumbs are not generared !

I think there should be a simple way to back up Shotwell's database.