Re: Moving thumbnails.db to an external drive

Thomas <[email protected]> Sat, 1 Aug 2026 17:28:35 +0200
Newsgroups gmane.comp.kde.digikam.user
Message-ID <[email protected]>
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Another approach might be the following:

 1. Stop DK
 2. Move thumbnails.db to new location
 3. Inside the original folder, create a symlink to the new location.
    (command: cd old/path && ln -s /new/path/thumbnails.db)
 4. Start DK, verify it works. It ought to work.


BR


On 2026-07-31 18.45, Andrew Goodbody wrote:
> I do not see a way to do this from within digikam so I would try this:
>
> 1) Exit digikam
> 2) Copy thumbnails.db to new location.
> 3) Find your digikamrc file (on Linux it is ~/.config/digikamrc but I 
> am not sure where it would be on a Mac but this is documented 
> somewhere) and take a backup copy.
> 4) Edit digikamrc in a text editor and alter the path for the entry 
> 'Database Name Thumbnails', which is in the section headed '[Database 
> Settings]', so that it points to the new location of thumbnails.db
> 5) Start digikam and ensure thumbnails are working OK, maybe add an 
> image so that the thumbnails database will be updated.
> 6) Exit digikam
> 7) Check access time or just the size in bytes of thumbnails.db in new 
> location to ensure that was the one being used.
> 8) If all is OK delete thumbnails.db from original location.
>
> I am not sure how stable this is and whether anything would cause 
> digikam to overwrite the change to digikamrc but I think it should be OK.
>
> Andrew
>
> PS Not tested and you should proceed at your own risk. YMMV
>
> On 31/07/2026 14:58, Ronald Orenstein wrote:
>> My thumbnails.db file is now 35GB in size, and I would like to move 
>> it to an external SSD.  I run Digikam on a mac, and the SSD is 
>> formatted in ExFAT.  Can this be done, and if so, how?
>>
>> Thanks in advance for any help!
>>
>> Ron Orenstein
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    <p>Another approach might be the following:</p>
    <ol>
      <li>Stop DK</li>
      <li>Move thumbnails.db to new location</li>
      <li>Inside the original folder, create a symlink to the new
        location. (command: cd old/path &amp;&amp; ln -s
        /new/path/thumbnails.db)</li>
      <li>Start DK, verify it works. It ought to work.</li>
    </ol>
    <p><br>
    </p>
    <p>BR</p>
    <p><br>
    </p>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2026-07-31 18.45, Andrew Goodbody
      wrote:<br>
    </div>
    <blockquote type="cite"
      cite="mid:161010da-b8ab-43ce-b1f1-f334604a7ee5-ptaI7qVW217I2b3xV5v0FQ@public.gmane.org">I
      do not see a way to do this from within digikam so I would try
      this:
      <br>
      <br>
      1) Exit digikam
      <br>
      2) Copy thumbnails.db to new location.
      <br>
      3) Find your digikamrc file (on Linux it is ~/.config/digikamrc
      but I am not sure where it would be on a Mac but this is
      documented somewhere) and take a backup copy.
      <br>
      4) Edit digikamrc in a text editor and alter the path for the
      entry 'Database Name Thumbnails', which is in the section headed
      '[Database Settings]', so that it points to the new location of
      thumbnails.db
      <br>
      5) Start digikam and ensure thumbnails are working OK, maybe add
      an image so that the thumbnails database will be updated.
      <br>
      6) Exit digikam
      <br>
      7) Check access time or just the size in bytes of thumbnails.db in
      new location to ensure that was the one being used.
      <br>
      8) If all is OK delete thumbnails.db from original location.
      <br>
      <br>
      I am not sure how stable this is and whether anything would cause
      digikam to overwrite the change to digikamrc but I think it should
      be OK.
      <br>
      <br>
      Andrew
      <br>
      <br>
      PS Not tested and you should proceed at your own risk. YMMV
      <br>
      <br>
      On 31/07/2026 14:58, Ronald Orenstein wrote:
      <br>
      <blockquote type="cite">My thumbnails.db file is now 35GB in size,
        and I would like to move it to an external SSD.  I run Digikam
        on a mac, and the SSD is formatted in ExFAT.  Can this be done,
        and if so, how?
        <br>
        <br>
        Thanks in advance for any help!
        <br>
        <br>
        Ron Orenstein
        <br>
      </blockquote>
    </blockquote>
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