Restore Picasa people tags

Question

I have loaded Windows 7 to my laptop. Before doing this I backed up all my pictures using the Picasa backup utility. I then ran a restore on the clean Windows 7 install. I then installed Picasa 3.5 and none of the people tags showed up.

I then went and deleted what I thought was the Picasa DB and then tried running the restore again. Now each folder shows up twice in Picasa but only once under the Windows Pictures folder.

How do I get rid of the duplicates in Picasa and get my people tags back?

Answer 1

Since you are so early in the process, I would probably opt for re-doing the restoration rather than trying to "fix" the duplicates. Just to avoid any potential side effects.

I found this "list of common questions" about backing up and restoring name tags here:

How to Back up Name Tags and copy to an another compter

Thanks for trying out Picasa 3.5 and thank you for your posts! We've put together this list of common questions on the topics you've addressed that we hope will be helpful to you.

Q: Is face tag data stored in the photo itself?

A: We currently do not store face tag data directly inside the photo but this is functionality that we hope to have in the future.

Q: Since my face tag data is not stored in the photo itself, where is my face tags data stored?

A: Face tag data is stored in the Picasa database and also in the .picasa.ini file in the folder where your tagged photo sits. To see the location of the photo on your hard drive and the .ini file where the information is stored, right click the photo and select "Locate on Disk".

Q: How do I transfer my face tags from one computer to another?

A: There are a few different ways to transfer your face tags:

1) You can perform a Backup of your photos and restore them on your new computer. This process will preserve your face tags. ("Tools" > "Backup Pictures") 2) You can copy your files and the .picasa.ini file from your hard drive to the new destination 3) Upload your face tag albums to Picasa Web Albums and download the album to the new destination

Answer 2

To remove the duplicates, right-click the duplicate folder and select Remove from Picasa.

Now did you back up using Tools -> Backup Pictures ? If you did, this should work correctly, else you may have encountered a bug. If you didn't, you need to use one of the proper methods of backing up people tags.

Answer 3

I believe that your names are stored in the following file:

Vista / Windows 7:

C:\Users\<myaccount>\AppData\Local\Google\Picasa2\contacts\contacts.xml

Windows XP:

C:\Documents and Settings\<myaccount>\Local Settings\application data\google\Picasa2\contacts\contacts.xml

I don't think tools>backup pictures backs up that file, unfortunately. If you happen to have a backup of that file, try restoring it and then rebuild your data base by deleting the db3 folder located in the Picasa2 folder. Better still, restore the entire Picasa2 folder if you have it.

Answer 4

In more recent versions of Picasa (e.g. 3.9), you have the ability to now store People Tags inside the photo itself. This means even if you uninstall Picasa and re-install Picasa without saving the meta-database, the tagged individuals will eventually appeare again in the People tab on the left side of Picasa.