How to fix F-Spot tags for renamed files on Ubuntu Hardy

The photo manager F-Spot stores all picture file names in the SQLite database ~/.gnome2/f-spot/photos.db. This blog post explains how to update the database manually if picture files were renamed or moved. Without the manual update, F-Spot would not recognize the moved files, and it it will not see the tags and other information attached to them.

To view what files F-Spot knows about, install the command-line SQLite tool:

apt-get install sqlite3

Then get the list with

sqlite3 ~/.gnome2/f-spot/photos.db "SELECT uri FROM photos"

Please note that newer versions of Ubuntu have the database file as ~/.config/f-spot/photos.db instead, so you may have to change the command above.

Create a backup of the photos table in F-Spot database file:

sqlite ~/.gnome2/f-spot/photos.db ".dump photos" >f-spot.table_photos.sql

Copy the backup before modification:

cp f-spot.table_photos.sql f-spot.modified_photos.sql

Modify the file f-spot.modified_photos.sql in your favorite text editor to rename the files, and update the table with

sqlite ~/.gnome2/f-spot/photos.db "DROP TABLE photos"
sqlite -init f-spot.modified_photos.sql ~/.gnome2/f-spot/photos.db

As an alternative, if you don't want to use a text editor, run something like

sqlite3 ~/.gnome2/f-spot/photos.db "UPDATE photos SET uri=REPLACE(uri, '/OLD_DIR/', '/NEW_DIR/')"

If F-Spot doesn't notice the changes, restart F-Spot.

References

Another solution to the same problem: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=394241