Preserve labels when moving across HDDs

Hello
(hope I still have some goodwill left after my recent rant)

Under v11, I got help on how to set my labels so that they get carried with the files when moved from 1 HDD to another.
But, sadly, it was quite a while ago and I've forgotten where it's done (different to where labels are set up).
Can I have a reminder, please ?
That functionality doesn't seem to get transferred in my v12 upgrade, for some reason.

Thanks again
:slight_smile:

Files and folders.

Here's your old thread: Re: Preserving File/Folder Colours across drives.

Main two things:

[ul][li]Turn on Preferences / Favorites and Recent / Labels / Automatically store labels in the file system if possible (note that it only affects new labels)

[/li]
[li]Turn on Preferences / File Operations / Copy Attributes / Copy metadata (comments, keywords, etc) (note that this will slow down file copies slightly, when copying a large number of files)[/li][/ul]
That's it, unless you do something unusual like override either setting via command arguments, but you'd have to do that explicitly and with some kind of purpose, so you'd know if you were doing that.

Both settings are preserved when you upgrade from 11 to 12 so nothing should have changed if the new version was installed over the old config.

Hello, Leo
Thanks for the reply.
I had both those settings enabled already. But for the last 2 days it never worked and I'd have to set the label again after the file was moved.
Now that I must reply here and suffer the embarrassment, it started working again. I know it sounds like I've been smoking something illegal (and still am) but... arrrgh... I knew it... the universe is conspiring against me.
Anyway, I'll keep your solution in my "D'Opus... mysteries and marvels" notebook now, and will know if I have future problems.

Thank you again.

Is there a way of displaying all help queries that I asked in the past... so I don't need to ask the same question a 2nd time, after a couple of years? I put "Destry" in the search box but that just brings up a few of them.
Thanks.
:slight_smile:

Ahhh... scratch that last query. I see that "Posts : 107" and can click on that.
It lists them all.
"blush"

If you click the advanced search cog next to the forum's search box, the full search form also has an option for searching by both words and the user who write the post, so you don't have to go through all previous posts to find the right one.

Ahhh, thank you, leo. Good to know (because the way I'm going, I'll have 20,000 appeals for help in no time at all, and it will be useful to be able to zero in on a subset if need be, heh)
BTW, the label hasn't been carried with the file since I last posted.
It's erratic. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Maybe in the night time (now), it rests?
But don't worry about it now... I'll keep testing it for a week and see if there's any patern to it.
:slight_smile:

Well, one anomaly that applies to my v12 with this case is:
If I set the folder label (eg. colour yellow) storing a collection of a few files on drive Y and it displays correctly
then move (shift + drag) that folder to drive F: -- it gets moved ok but the folder label is then the default non-colour (ie. its lost its new colour).
then if I exit that drive or give focus to other folders on the drive and then come back to check the move folder, it is still the default non-colour when opened.
then if I apply a label (any colour) to another folder on the same drive that's been there for days or months or years, the properties of the moved folder suddenly get applied or recognized or set or whatever, and it displays the set yellow colour on the moved folder as well, without it being touched again. But I want it to work automatically, such as when a backup app backs up the contents from one HDD to another.
If I can't get v12 to work properly for me, I'll have to go back to v11.

So, yes, the properties get moved from one HDD to another HDD, with the folders/files, but don't actually work until there's another label operation applied to a different existing folder on that same target drive.
(maybe other operations - rename, etc - might also trigger the properties as well... I didn't explore it exhaustively).
"Believe it or not", said Mr Ripley.
:slight_smile:

(Of course, if I apply the label again to the moved folder immediately after it's moved, it changes then... because the label is being applied on drive F: where it is now resident)

As said, I'll continue with it for another week and see if any other patterns emerge.
But the thing is, I don't know if my implementation only of v12 is the problem.
Never had a problem like that with v11.

AFAIK nothing should have changed here between 11 and 12.

Which method are you using to move the files?

As I said in the previous post : Shift + drag
:slight_smile:

Shift+Drag from one Opus window to another, not involving Explorer or any other program?

What are your settings under Preferences / File Operations / Copy Attributes?

And, just to check, is shift+drag set to "copy move" under Settings > File Types?


"Shift+Drag from one Opus window to another, not involving Explorer or any other program?"
Yes ! Only Opus, no plugins (if any exist), nothing fancy.
Just : Click the folder to move -> Hold down SHIFT -> Drag to another HDD ->

"What are your settings under Preferences / File Operations / Copy Attributes?"

"And, just to check, is shift+drag set to "copy move" under Settings > File Types?"


:slight_smile:

I think all those settings are good... just needs something to "wake it up" in the destination HDD...?

Start with folder on Drive Y ( -- Test Case = LABELS -- ):

Move the folder (Shift/drag) to drive F (label isn't "activated") :

Do something on a different Drive F folder (the purple one) to get Opus to consider the label on the sleeping one :

Sorry for all the images... if I knew how to make one of those little GIF or movie thingies like have been shown in this forum by some guys, I'd do that (sweet and simple).

:slight_smile:

Thanks for the screenshots, they were useful. The key detail we were missing before is that it's happening only in the folder tree. Now we know where to look, we can confirm it. We'll look into making the tree update for labels automatically it in a future update.

ok, very much appreciated, Leo.
You rock !
:slight_smile:

I just realized... "A future update..."
Is that the next update... or not?
If not, I think I better revert to v11... "one day" is a bit vague for me, haha.
In that case, can you tell me how to roll back, please?

Cut us some slack, please. When updates are released and which fixes they contain comes down to a lot of different factors, and I cannot predict the exact number of updates before you'll get your fix. We only just got an understanding of what the problem is a few hours ago. The fix will go into the first update after the fix is written, assuming it does not require any translation work (which it shouldn't, unless there's something unexpected).

If you close & re-open the tree or window, the colors will appear. You could make a button to toggle the tree on and off to refresh the colors after moving labelled folders.

Hardly seems worth changing versions over, but if you really want to, uninstall Opus 12 (note that this wipes the config), install Opus 11, and restore your Opus 11 config backup, assuming you made one.

Well, Leo, I am not a computer person.
I have no clue how much work something takes. Or How often releases are made.
I have seen you solve many problems and I think you always say it will be fixed next update. Some you did TODAY were like that.
When you tell me "a future update", that means nothing to me. But I read it as a less important job, no urgency compared to others, but very important to me because my whole system is based on labels. All my folders (or filed inside folders) have statii represented by labels).

So I asked for clarification. Nothing more, nothing less.

"A button to toggle the tree on and off"... as I say, I have no clue.
I don't know what turning the tree off means... yes, people who studied Arts can be that dumb. I can't see how you can turn off the tree but I'm not keen to try because I might not be able to get back.
Yes, people like me are nervous about doing things that case more problems.
I'd say "cut me some slack because I'm computer challenged".

I know 3 ways to fix it :

  1. apply the label again to the moved file, on the destination HDD
  2. apply label to another folder
  3. restart Opus.

I work with tens of thousands of individual files and folders.
There's a lot of labeling every day.
Like any normal person, I'd like something to work immediately. Change it, see the change.
When I purchased v12, I didn't expect functions that worked in v11 to be broken, inadequately tested or the software to be prematurely released.
After fooling with this for 4 days, to be told "a future release", and in the meantime use some workaround that is beyond my abilities to create... doesn't exactly excite me... and I won't be apologizing for that !
Ok, I'm done with this thread.

Wow Destry, I understand your frustration, but you have to cut leo and jon a little slack.

To give you a few pointers...
The default 'hotkey' to make the "Tree" disappear, and reappear (that is, toggle) is F8. leo is simply pointing out that while you can refresh the file display easily, getting the Tree to refresh requires turning it off, then on again.

As for "future release", check the release thread here.

The last few releases were;
[ul]
[li]12.1 - Sep 5
[/li][li]11.19 Jun 10
[/li][li]11.18 Mar 17
[/li][li]11.17 Dec 15 last year
[/li][li]11.16 Sep 11 last year[/li][/ul]

And between each of these were as many as 6 "beta" releases, sometimes only a week or so apart.

Feel free to try out 12.1.1 "beta" when it is available. You may find your issue has been resolved.

Kind Regards

Also, Destry, the button to turn on/off the folder tree for the current lister is in your main toolbar's Lister menu. You'll find "Folder Tree" listed there and it toggles it on and off. As shown in the menu and as PerlLlama mentioned above, F8 is the keyboard shortcut to quickly toggle the Folder Tree on and off.


This is fixed now in 12.1.1.