How about the ability to export, share, or sync photo projects and groups between OS versions. My RAW files are spread across multiple folders, so I use projects and groups for this reason. If there is an existing solution for this, could someone please point me in the right direction? It would be much appreciated.
There is another problem with projects is that it is only saved in the database.
In the event of a database crashing, all projects are lost.
It is for this reason that I use keywords that have the advantage of being included in the XMP.
Better interoperability between computers has been requested repeatedly, but DxO has not, as far as I know, commented on such a feature (set) yet.
Using .dop sidecars will not work for transferring project memberships either. Sidecars do not contain project information, at least not in the .dop files exported by DPL 8.1 on Mac.
As @Franky noted above, projects only reside in DPLâs database and on Windows, projects are lost when DPL is restarted - if I remember correctly.
Donât forget to add your vote. It might not speed things up though.
In my opinion, apart from XMP data, all modifications and PL owner data must be included in the *.DOP file.
In this way, all the information should be found in the event of a database crash or a better interoperability between computers.
Your remember incorrectly 
. Projects on Windows are persistent across restarts!
Iâm thinking of purchasing a Mac in addition to my Windows machines. I work from a NAS, so with a shared folder between 2 Windows machines (one local and one for remote work when Iâm away).
Apart from the local database problem, would you advise against this method of sharing RAWs between MacOs and Windows?
@platypus we have had this discussion many times in the past and, although there is a convenient âAlbumsâ entry in the DOP which looks ready made for storing a list of the projects that the image is part of, plus their relative position in those 'Projectâs, DxPL does nothing about externalising the âProjectsâ data.
Lose the database and you have lost all âProjectsâ on both the Mac and Windows systems.
âProjectsâ remain intact in the database (for as long as that lasts), it is âAdvanced Historyâ that is lost across a program restart on Windows while it is retained on the Mac.
@Franky I like your idea on using keywords to âgroupâ images together and it could easily be used alongside âProjectsâ.
If you look at the section of DOP I included above you will see that there are sections for most of the data and all are used as required, except âAlbumsâ!
I believe .DOP files are not fully compatible between Windows and Mac but I am happy to me corrected.
If I am correct then sharing photos via a NAS would cause issues!
@KeithRJ I donât believe you meant exactly what you stated, sharing images on a NAS is fine, sharing images with DOPs on two or more machines with the same OS is fine, but obviously not at the same time.
There are large differences between the Win and Mac databases, not least the names of the columns etcâŠ
But the products have been made to read the DOPs created on a machine with the other OS and largely ignore the bits that it doesnât understand but the DOP that will then be created if a new edit is applied on the second machine will differ from the original DOP.
So a one way transfer was what the product was built to accommodate (I believe) but going backwards and forwards, particularly if the image and edits are already known to the database, may (or may not) be an issue and the spectre of unwanted VCs may
rear its ugly head (but should not if the user is careful!?).
Let me add my answer to explain my workflow.
Currently, I use 2 Windows machines with PLB 8.5 Elite to manage and edit all RAWs (1 dop per shared RAW file but 1 independent DB on each machine for PLB).
No concurrent acess to the dop (important) since iâm the single user.
My project is to add a new PLB under macOS (Mac M4 pro or similar). In this case, Iâll have :
- 2xPLB on Windows
- 1xPLB on macOS
All 3 will share the same RAW and its sidecar dop file, but the important thing is that there should be no concurrent access.
I still donât know if itâs a bad idea to mix PLB on Windows and macOS. Iâve seen the performance of PLB with Apple Mx. It seems fine, but as far as working with PLB is concerned, I want to keep a normal level of integrity with DOP files regardless of Windows or macOS.
What do you think?
Thereâs one big problem in moving between Mac and Win if you use DCP/ICC/LUT profiles: these are written to dop files as absolute paths, as I recently mentioned here. Having to edit dop files when moving between platforms is inconvenient at best.
This has been an issue since DCP/ICC support was added in PL2, and then the same design was used for LUT in PL7. Iâve complained about it for years, since dop files have been documented as compatible across platforms all along. Instead of actually trying to live up to the documentation, DxO instead removed the claim of compatibility from the PL8 documentation. Not very good form.
1 Like
I think that DPL was made for use on one single computer and that anything beyond that is anything than optimal., no matter if you mix OSs or not.
Background: On Windows, you can set the location of DPLâs database, on Mac, this feature is absent, although one can work around it - but the databases have different structures, which leaves the sidecars (dop and xmp) as the sole means to exchange metadata and image settings.
Moreover, and even though dop files can exchange info between Mac and Win computers, you need to be prepared for unexpected effects.
âŠwhich does not matter if you store said files on a shared drive.
And again, sidecars contain no info about projects, which seems to be a key need - if I understand the threadâs title correctly.
1 Like
Yes, it does. The path may be the same on the server, but itâs not the same on the client where youâre running PL: on Win the path contains the drive letter or server name, uses backslashes as separator, and is enclosed by brackets; on Macâs itâs the path below whatever directory the share is mounted on (typically /Volumes/something), with forwards slashes, and enclosed by double quotes.
Different paths to the same file on the server, written in the manner of the client OS, and not understood by PL on the other platform even if you try rigging server names (drive letters are a lost cause) or mount points so that the paths at least have the same components.
Open an image on Mac whose dop has been written on Win and a DCP profile is silently ignored. Open an image on Win whose dop has been written on Mac and the result is an error message: Internal error (SetFromUserParams fails). You can get around the error on Mac by manually changing the rendering again in the UI, but on Win the dop needs to edited manually.
Edit:
Itâs just another half-baked feature that DxO hasnât seen fit to address in 7 major releases now.
Iâve suggested to them that an absolutely minimal solution is to simply put a known directory on the profile search path into which the user can copy profiles on both platforms (like the directories containing workspace definitions, presets, and more; not ideal, but better than nothing) and then write paths to these known directories as filenames instead of absolute paths, but even this is more than theyâre willing/able to do. Instead they changed the documentation, and effectively solidified this Mac/Win incompatibility.
If youâre switching platforms entirely then itâs certainly possible to modify all affected dop files with a relatively simple command line, but if youâre regularly editing on both platforms, as I am, then itâs not very practical. Itâs also not reasonable for DxO to assume that all users of an image editing application are adept at the command line, to be able perform a migration like this.
Yes, that migration would require reverse-engineering and rewriting the database, obviously not something you want to have to do. Projects are useless to me for any long-term usage for this reason.
DxO isnât much for finishing their features. Itâs like you say, a single-computer program that doesnât always do what it should when making use of the more-than-one platform-agnostic activation weâre sold. However, eventually almost everyone has to move to a new computer, so ignoring migration/compatibility issues is an own goal.
Thanks all.
Ok it is not a real strong solution and yes agree, PLB is not a client-server software.
No more macOS now. 
and its gretaer performance with PLB.
1 Like
I do use PL from Mac and Win with my images on a server (over SMB, wired), and as long as you can live with the limitations (eg. no profiles), and any new ones DxO introduces, it actually works fine. If thereâs any slowness then it will be in reading/writing files, but itâs not a significant issue in my experience, I donât see any noticeable lag or anything. Differences in export speeds on different hardware is more significant.
A recent issue Iâve run into is with dop files not being written reliably. I canât remember if it was on Mac or Windows, but it was even the case that you could quit PL before it wrote the dop, so if you then moved to another computer the recent edits werenât available to be read. This was with PL 7.6 I think, and Iâm not sure if the problem has been addressed yet. Given DxOâs track record, these kinds of issues can linger for a long time before being addressed, if theyâre ever addressed.
Yes, forgot about that. Thanks for your comment.
1 Like
This is exactly my setup. I have a NAS set up for RAID 1. The advantage, at least for me, itâs that my RAW files, along with the sidecar files, are not stored in one particular PC or Laptop at the risk of a system crash. Having to access large RAW files over a network, slows down the file reading and writing time some, but I donât mind it. If you want to work on the road, youâd have to save the RAW files you want to edit on your computer. When you arrive back home, you can simply copy the sidecar files to your NAS. Also, donât access the same RAW files on two or more computers at the same time.
1 Like
Yes exatcly the same here!
The beauty is also to natively backup the raws (and jpeg) to some Cloud cold storage without any action on my side!
This is why it should be nice macOS and Windows coudl share the same dop file without any issue!
Thanks again for your feedback!