Allow me to change the folder structure pattern via the Settings page

arlington · September 6, 2021, 1:40pm

I would like the Settings UI to allow me to change the subdirectory structure.

Background:

One of my favorite features of the “Plus” version PhotoStructure lies in its ability to organize photos into subdirectories with datestamps (e.g. YYYY-mm-dd).

Currently, I go into the settings.toml file and change the assetSubdirectoryDatestampFormat. (My personal preference is y/MM_MMM/YYYY-mm-dd but I realize each user may have a different organizational preference.)

Sometimes, I forget to do this and I end up starting over ( How to uninstall PhotoStructure. So when I choose the option to copy photos into a PhotoStructure library, my feature request would ask me to select my preferred folder naming convention before I save the new Settings.

PS… One of the main ways that I use Photostructure is to batch-process photos, including my parents’ digital photos that I wish to preserve. I do not currently maintain a single Photostructure library for everything; rather, I create a new library for each project I am working on at a given time. For example, after I exported all of my mother’s iPhone photos out of the iCloud / Apple Photos ecosystem, I re-organized them into a Photostructure library using my preferred folder structure, e.g. /2018/03_Mar/2018-03-22/photo.jpg

avdp · September 6, 2021, 1:50pm

I’ve also struggled with forgetting about the settings files each time I completely re-installed (which was often). I personally found that setting through environment variables to be much more durable than the settings file (at least if you use the docker install like I do). This particular settings can be set with PS_ASSET_SUBDIRECTORY_DATESTAMP_FORMAT

Having said that, a more comprehensive settings page would be wonderful.

mrm · September 6, 2021, 2:31pm

Howdy!

I agree, the best solution here would be proper UI support for editing advanced settings:

Until that’s implemented, the simplest solution is to use environment variables for your custom advanced settings.

If you’d rather edit the system and library settings files, just set this environment variable to true: PS_START_PAUSED=true

github.com

photostructure/photostructure-for-servers/blob/1f6d907769fd2b01900eb88ce64bf0d732998aa0/defaults.env#L2173


      
          # PS_SKIP_MODEL_UPDATES="false"
          
          
          # +---------------+
          # |  startPaused  |
          # +---------------+
          #
          # Should processing be paused by default when PhotoStructure starts? You'll
          # have the manually resume processing via the system tray or nav menu.
          #
          # PS_START_PAUSED="false"
          
          
          # +----------------------+
          # |  statTimeoutSeconds  |
          # +----------------------+
          #
          # Filesystem traversal can be dangerous business with scratched CDROMs and old
          # busted hard drives. To prevent PhotoStructure from getting "stuck" when
          # trying to read these devices, it will timeout directory iteration if reading
          # a directory entry exceeds this value. The default of 30 seconds should cover

After you go through the welcome and settings pages, shut down PhotoStructure, edit the setting files to taste, unset PS_START_PAUSED, and restart PhotoStructure, at which point sync will start for the first time with your desired settings.