@platypus because I am testing and want to know as much as possible about the state of the files being copied I use Beyond Compare so that I know if the receiving directory is empty or use BC to create a receiving directory with a chosen name and then fill it with the designated images.
So for the initial test I used BC to copy from M(ain) to T(est} and then continued with a refresh after changing the images on T(est) and captured the Uuid differences (and other changes)!
For the “strategy” test I think I copied from T(est) “<…>” selecting all to M(ain) "<…>-NEW.
But my original strategy is slightly easier if the users doesn’t have access to a product like BC so
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On destination system (Main) change the name of the target directory with DxPL.
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Copy the original directory from the sending system (via a LAN using mapped drives, in my case) or via a USB stick or drive retaining its name (the original name).
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Navigate to the newly copied directory on the target system and re-discover the original named directory
To check it out I did the copy in the opposite direction taking from Main to Test via a USB3 stick
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Copied the original directory to the stick using File Explorer (I actually have about 6 additional File Managers and a FileMenu add on but I did it the “hard” way - copy and paste), dismount USB3 drive from Main and unplug.
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On Test, open PL5 and navigate to “Test - 02” and change the name with PL5 to “Test - 02 - Original”.
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Plug in USB 3 drive and copy “Test - 02” from USB3 stick and paste to the correct location on the mirror disk structure on Test using File Explorer
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Navigate to “Test - 02” with PL5 (which was open all the time) all good and no Virtual Copies
But I missed the ease of the LAN and the convenience and insight of Beyond Compare but the procedure is just fine (if you have the space for two directories of images, DOPs, xmp sidecars etc), the temptation with Beyond Compare is simply to copy the changed DOPs etc. and the consequences will be Virtual Copies!
EDIT:-
@platypus As we both know the procedure I am suggesting is a work-around for other things that we have both asked for, in your case since December 2020 Database Maintenance in my case a little later than that since I only started posting in early 2021 during the PL5 Beta testing.
Essentially we (and others) have variously asked for the following in relation to this issue of using DxPL on two systems, e.g. a laptop while on field assignments and a main PC back at “base”:-
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The ability to “clear” or “expunge” database entries for an image or a selection of images (it would be useful to add such a command to include an entire directory). This would resolve a number of issues that have been encountered from time to time and would make it easy to clear the way to re-receive images with updated DOPs that the user wants to replace images and DOPs currently residing on the system and present in the DxPL database.
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A mechanism to “promote” a Virtual Copy to [M]aster status, either “swapping” the original [M]aster to VC[1] for example or replacing the existing [M]aster completely for one or more images or swap/replace the [M]aster with a designated Virtual copy! The mechanism should be able to handle a selection of images that contain only [M]aster (single images) i.e. by simply ignoring them while searching the selection for items with both a [M]aster and VC[1].
Manually “promoting” a Virtual Copy to [M]aster status (or swapping the [M]aster):-
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Potentially create a copy of the [M]aster (just in case) by executing ‘Create Virtual Copy’
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Select the desired VC[ ] for the swap and ‘Copy correction settings’.
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Navigate to the [M]aster and ‘Paste correction settings’/‘Paste all correction settings’
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Select the desired VC[ ] for the swap and ‘Copy metadata’
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Navigate to the [M]aster and ‘Paste metadata’/‘Paste all metadata’
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Verify that the [M]aster is identical to the VC[ ] before deleting the VC[ ] (and the security copy, unless executing a swap) as required/desired
What about Projects etc.!?:-
The detour strategy cannot handle projects etc. but currently they cannot be copied out of the database anyway (?)