How does Tonfotos work with multiple devices?

thesharps6210

We will have at least two laptops, two phones, 2 or 3 Google Photos and one connected shared hard drive. The bulk of our photos are on the hard drive in Google and on the hard drive, but we are looking to consolidate on the hard drive where possible.

If I made changes on one of the devices (delete, add location, add face etc.) would the other devices (laptop, Phones) see those changes?
a. Does each device count as a Tonfotos user or just the laptops and phones?
Can we move the main Tonfotos library (main archive) on the shared hard drive to make sharing easier?
If we move the main library to the shared drive does that mean that Tonfotos will only work if the shared drive is connected?

Andrey

thesharps6210 Planning ahead is very wise decision, especially with such things as family archive.

Every time you start Tonfotos it does quick scan for changes of all connected devices. This way it will identify actions with the files and also with people and faces that will be stored in ini files. Please read this post: https://community.tonfotos.com/d/186-version-150-people-data-synchronization
a. Only devices where Tonfotos is installed are counted, not the shared drives or phones.
Sure you can. Are we talking about network share (like NAS)? This is most convenient way to work with archive, actually.
Tonfotos can work even if some sources are offline. You even will be able to work with face suggestions, but surely won’t be able to view full photos or change metadata on them.

Hope that makes sense.

Also please think about regular backups of your archive. Backup is a must, even if your files are stored in the cloud, that does not shiled them from human error and accidential deletion. There has to be separate copy stored somewhere else, and you should do backups regularly.

thesharps6210

Andrey Thanks for quick, clear response.

for #2 our shared hard drive would be connected via USB 3.0 not a network as we use it for back up and plug and play.

Does this suggest that we should look into moving the main library to that hard drive?.

Regards
Steve

Andrey

thesharps6210 Does this suggest that we should look into moving the main library to that hard drive?.

I can’t advise anything here, especially when I don’t know anything about your setup.

thesharps6210

Andrey Looking at 2 laptops (devices with some photos) and one external USB hard drive (bulk of photos).

Currently have one device up and running.

Next steps
1) add hard drive to the mix
2) add 2nd device (with new license) to mix with tonfotos loaded
3) have both devices share external hard drive as needed and pickup changes from either device.

How do i put main Tonfotos database onto the external hard drive to be used by either laptop,

Thanks
Steve

Andrey

thesharps6210 How do i put main Tonfotos database onto the external hard drive to be used by either laptop,

I’m afraid this is not supported. There should be separate database for each copy of Tonfotos.

thesharps6210

Andrey Thanks for the response.

So how would updates from one of the devices be seen by the other device? For example I add photos and capture tags from device 1 for photos that are on the external drive. When device 2 connects to the external drive would they pcik up the changes through the .ini files in the photo folder?

Steve

Andrey

thesharps6210 Changes are picked up when archive is connected to the program. It will scan for changes in the archive and will pick it up. Tags are stored inside files metadata, so image modification date attribute will be changed and program will detect it, index the file again and read all tags from it.