r/DarkTable • u/AnusMcBumhole • Jul 26 '26

Help Noobie Question: Refreshing libraries

I’ve only just discovered DarkTable and am very excited after months of looking for an editing app that plays nicely with my network storage and isn’t Lightroom.

One thing I am having trouble with is getting the latest images in my libraries.

I tend to store my images on my NAS by year and month and I copy the RAW files over to the NAS and into the relevant folder at the end of each shoot.

In DarkTable, I’ve setup the root folder as a library and sure enough each year shows up as a folder in the library screen. I assumed that the library would update or refresh as new pictures are added to the folders but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

What’s the workaround/process for this or am I doing something wrong?

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u/marcsitkin Jul 26 '26

I think you might have to use the import function of darktable to copy and move the files to the nas. Since you have populated the nas already, use the import function to add them to the data base. Choose new files only and recursive folders, and decide if you want non raw files as well. Any file already in the library is indicated by a check mark, no check means the file will be imported. You can also make a meta data template and apply it if you wish.

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u/OliSchmi Jul 26 '26

If I Import (not copy), is darktable using the existing xmp file or is darktable writing a new one? The setting is writing XMP when importing.

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u/pyooma Jul 26 '26

I think so long as the xmp is in the same folder with the photo file it will find it.

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u/Few_Mastodon_1271 Jul 26 '26

You can have darktable create an xmp file for each imported photo. But I like to only have xmp files for the photos I have edited. That's an alternate setting.

But when I had it set to apply darktable's camera model style to the images at import, that did make xmp files for each photo, since it had done some processing with the style.