Hi,
is there a way to move PL8 Windows Database to MACOS?
The two databases are NOT compatible so you will just have to start again! Sorry to be bringer of bad news 
The situation is not that bad though.
If youâve used PhotoLab in its default settings, development- and meta-data have been stored in the files or their .dop sidecars.
If the complete photo archive is left intact and copied to the new Mac, DPL can index the archive and loss will be minimal (history, projects). If the photo archive is on a NAS, it can be left there. If itâs (and should remain) on an external drive, Iâd recommend to copy it to a new external drive formatted with appropriate APFS file system.
If youâre into such things, you could write a data migration tool and populate the database with it. But I suppose that doing the above is done with less effort 
Yes. I just had a friend who wanted to use an external NTFS-formatted drive on his new Mac and got all sorts of permissions issues with Sequoiaâs enhanced security. We needed to copy everything off to another drive, reformat the external disk with APFS and then copy back. But watch out for trying to copy nested folders - we had to copy the contents as a separate step before we could copy the enclosing folder.
As said by others, there are all sorts of incompatibilities, including filename formats and path delimiters. Personally, I would got with @platypus and ensure that you all files have DOPs and/or XMP files where needed, then simply reformat the external disk and copy back again.
PhotoLab will take care of indexing as you access folders after a restart.
OK, thank you very much for the answers. In my case - I am still waiting for an answer from support. If it also means that I canât migrate the database, itâs game over with DxO.
OK, thank you very much for the answers. In my case - I am still waiting for an answer from support. If it also means that you canât migrate the database, itâs game over with DxO.
Can I just ask why you think you need the database ?
Of course you can ask.
The answer is simple - I donât need it - I want it because I can work much better that way. When I go into a directory, DxO doesnât need hours to scan it, but then compares whether there are any changes.
My primary RAW editor is and always will be Capture One. Iâm not willing to change my approach just because DxO doesnât even provide the basics.
(Sorry, my tone is certainly not very nice. You canât help what DxO does. Iâm sorry.
Iâm a little pissed off because now the hassle with the refund is starting)
⌠there is no need to migrate the database as it rebuilds itself as soon as you either index your archive or open your folders as needed.
âŚand there is no way around the database either. PhotoLab needs it and creates it if necessary. You neednât be concerned about the DB. Just use PL for what it does best and use C1 for everything else. That is what I do with my Lightroom Classic and DPL combo.
I tried to maintain the DB in good shape because I hoped to get out of Adobe subscriptions. Keeping DPLâs database in good shape is a fools errand though, therefore, I use DPL as a plugin to Lr
Neither is possible. This is where DxO short-sighted programming comes into play again.
My structure looks like this:
/Volumes/Pictures/DSLR/DSLR-RAW/Camera/Year/Month/Day/pictures.*
You canât go in DxO and click on the top layer and say âlook down, index everythingâ and Iâll go drink coffee.
Itâs too expensive for me. In addition to PL, I also bought ViewPoint and FilmPack.
Of course DxO will refuse to refund my money, so Iâll think about something else. In any case, the company will never get any more money from me.
But thank you for your suggestion.
I occasionally have DPL index the whole lot. Put the archiveâs root folder in the sidebar and let DPL do its work. My archive also has bunch of folders that are linked with aliases and those folders are indexed too.
Indexing a collection of about 29k images with 16k .xmp sidecars takes about 35 minutes on my Macs. With .dop sidecars, the process takes more time though.
DxO support refused to refund me because I bought the products in December. The fact that I havenât activated any of them yet doesnât matter to the company.
In such cases, I praise companies from the USA. Nobody ever makes a problem there but in Europe ⌠No, the company and software are dead to me.
I could of course try what you write. Maybe the whole thing wonât take sooo long and will work across the entire hierarchy. I donât need to be reminded every day what a bad company it is.
@platypus - Itâs really remarkable how you try to show me something to gain from the bad situation. Thnx
I have a question for you too, @RobiWann (with intention of being helpful);
I am asking this because;
Sidecar/.dop files are compatible between Mac and Win-PC
If you have sidecar files then you donât need the database to be fully populated with details of all images ⌠unless you have Projects defined (logical groupings of images) or you need to search the DB via Keywords (Neither of which, I gather from your post, are of any interest to you).
That is, the inability to convert the DB between Mac & Win may not be a show-stopper after all.
@RobiWann That statement is true and false at the same time. DOPs contain all the edit data and a large portion of the metadata that is either contained in the image and any xmp sidecar file.
What is doesnât contain if the fact that the image might have been part of one or more âProjectsâ and for Mac users, the âAdvanced Historyâ is also missing.
For Windows users the âAdvanced Historyâ doesnât survive a closedown anyway!
So for a DxO Tech to suggest that you can just use the database is neglecting the fact that DxPL offers an insurance policy against the loss of the database (accidental or deliberate) or for any user wanting to take the image to another system with the same OS or another OS.
Assuming you have NOT switched off the option (in Preferences) for sidecar/.dop files to be created for each image - then the presence of a sidecar file indicates that the associated image has been edited by PL (otherwise, the sidecar file would not exist).
This being the case;
You could copy across all your source-images AND any associated sidecar files from your PC to your Mac âŚ
And then initiate the process to âhave DPL index the whole lotâ (as suggested by @platypus, above). PL will absorb the details from any sidecar files into the database.
OR, you could just not bother with the database and delete it occasionally or regularly, as it suits you. PL will create a new DB for use within the current session if it finds one does not exist ⌠and it will use the details held in sidecar files to retain your editing history.
Youâre welcome. DxO is quite peculiar about things ⌠and I wonder why they refuse to refund products that havenât been activated yet. You could try to find whether DxOâs EULA provides an exit for your situation.
While you seem to consider the situation to be bad (and I can understand that because Iâve had similar situations with other providers), the products you bought are capable of a few things that no other software does equally well and easily as far as I know. Why not use those features instead? You can still decide to not buy any of DxOâs products anymore.
Not entirely. If an edit uses DCP profiles or LUTs then these are written as paths in dop files, and are either ignored or result in an error when opening the image after moving between Mac and Win. The dops arenât even portable across hosts with the same OS unless the paths are identical: they have to be edited to correct the paths.
Then why, I feel compelled to ask, are you using PhotoLab at all? The number one reason for using PhotoLab is for its RAW processing and denoising.
Since you say you are using Capture One for RAW processing, please explain why, exactly, you are using PhotoLab as well?
And, as for your wanting a refund, you had 30 days to try PL out for free and you could have installed another free trial on the Mac for the purposes of testing the transfer.
One question you have not yet answered - did you activate âalways use DOP filesâ or not? If you did, then only those files that have an accompanying DOP have been edited. All the rest have not.
For âspecialâ files with very-High-ISO or files with architecture where C1 doesnât quite have the capabilities of DxO + ViewPoint.
Thatâs what I wrote. I had it switched on at the beginning. Later I didnât
The idea that there are programs/programmers who develop software for both platforms that is only partially compatible with each other never occurred to me. And in December I asked about activations because I didnât have a Mac at the time, but it was already planned and didnât arrive until mid-February.
If I as a user really have to think about everything and also test everything, then as a company you could also completely dissolve the support. That would also save them a lot of money.
But thatâs not the topic here - so letâs not discuss it any further.
That will never happen
First I needed to know which images I have edited that do not have a DOP file. There wonât be that many, but at least between 20-100. Thatâs about it - but find themâŚ