I have had it with PICASA! RANT and asking for advise

[Carl]

Hi Mr. Groove and all others familiar with Picasa. I have used Picasa before... the 2. something version but a lack of understanding and insistent duplicating of pictures drove me crazy. I then deleted it swearing never to use it again. I just read your article on Picasa and Gmail security.http://www.groovypost.com/howto/security/how-to-lose-face-with-google-picasa-literally/. I am essentially paranoid about any of our pictures on the net (TO MANY SICKO"S OUT THERE LOOKING UP KIDS) so have always steered cleared of Facebook and the likes and will decline using web based albums.

I decided to give PICASA 3 a go again as i had so many duplicate pictures etc on my HD and recently got me a new External HD. I need to sort and get rid of duplicates ETC. I created a "Picture folder" in my external HD. I then did a WINDOWS EXPLORER search for all pictures in all drives, copied all and place it in my newly created "Picture Folder". I sorted the lot and created dated folders etc.

Then i installed PICASA and MAHEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Old memories rushed in. keep on updating/creating duplicate folders never stopping. Went on the net for advice..had to uninstall making sure that my internet connection is off?? I never had it on!. Blah blah it just went on and on... man i am just to busy to read and to make sense of all of that BLAH BLAH... so asking is there not a simple Groovy type tutorial out there You getting the HINT.... SIR's MR GROOVE , DEXTER, Shockresh

Any ways the end of it is that 3 GIG worth of pictures disappeared from my external drive (YES I DID BACK IT UP WITH THE PICASA BACK UP TOOL) (That by the way caused Picasa to also make duplicate folders!) I got very scared then and decided to do a System Restore to a earlier date.. still no pictures in my folders! Did System Restore back to current date .. still no pictures in my folders.

I downloaded RECUVA Same guys that made CCleaner here is the link...http://www.piriform.com/recuva/download/standard and Hey Presto find all the pictures in my External drive stating it was not deleted but recoverable! The path was never completed...?

Ok now i am still sitting with a huge amount of images..uninstalled Picasa using REVO UNINSTALLER but it still have little data files in every image folder. Did a W.E. search for .Picasa and found thousands. Deleted the lot.

Please anybody have a tutorial on Picasa for us.... not so nimble two finger tap computer users ?

It will help so much.

Thanks for taking the time to read my rant.

[Beyond_Life]

Right.... I looooooove Picasa

I think you have a issue with what you allow Picasa to scan for pictures. If you install Picasa, its not giving you the option what or what not to scan for pictures. You can change this option after installation. If you selected the folder, let Picasa scan that folder and you are done. Its something you could do when you have put all your pictures on you external hdd. But before that, take the time to go through your collection of pictures and sort it out. Trust me, its worth it once you are done. After that, its you that needs to be consistent in what you do with the pictures.

 

When I moved al my pictures to my external hdd I started using one way of labeling them. And all the pictures (over 50000 now) use a label like this:

2011-06-30-12-12-12 (year-month-day-hour-minute-second)

So I never get any duplicate file and I can find anything back, when ever I want.

Steps for you to take:

 

1- Take your time and clean up your database of pictures

1.1- Put everything in folders by subject (Kids, birthdays, bloopers, etc etc)

2- Look through every folder when you are done, and make sure its the way you like it

3- Make sure you have a method in you head for future renaming, so you can be consistent in how you do it, not only with the folders, but also with the files.

4- Install Picasa. When you are done, dont let it scan and walk through all the options, nice and calm. Same here: Take your time and do it the way you want it. Make sure that you select the right folder that Picasa is allowed to scan.

5- If you let Picasa scan your whole computer it wil find duplicates. But it can also remove dublicates.

6- Move the pictures around in Picasa. Moving them around in Picasa also means you are moving them around on your hdd.

7- Batch resize in Picasa if needed. Here is the link

http://www.groovypost.com/howto/how-to/ ... le-picasa/

8- Batch rename if needed. Here is the link

http://www.groovypost.com/howto/how-to/ ... esolution/

[Carl]

Hey Beyond Life. Thanks for the comments. I am busy sorting the ext, HDD and had move most of all my pictures there. My camera has a specific way of dating all my pictures and automatically store it in a folder. That makes it a lot easier. I just have to now move all the "loose" pictures from earlier years into folders dated the same.

Right by the way i found this software for sorting out duplicate pictures ( I had 11000!)http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/duplicate-file-finder/ I really worked well and it has a backup feature for deleted files in case you made mistakes and want to retrieve the files.

By the way which version of Picasa do you use?

Cheers

[Beyond_Life]

I always use the latest version of Picasa. I see no reason to use an early version.