Random Musings of Technologist

 Picasa  Stores the Album information in files which are updated by the picasa database. Recently I upgraded my laptop to Vista and Picassa 3 and started the process of moving the albums from picasa 2 and XP. Assuming that picasa3 stores the information in the same pattern as picasa does.

Picassa Albums information are stored in

•  “C:\Documents and Settings\asuri\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Picasa2Albums” for XP
• “C:\Users\asuri\AppData\Local\Google\Picasa2Albums\” for Vista.

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The structure inside the Picasa2Albums is the same. It has a strange folder I will name it [random_picasa_folder] and which contains the pal files.

The [random_picasa_folder] has a unique name on each computer, that is why i call it random..

Albums are stored in PAL files (.pal)  in this [random_picasa_folder] Local directory. Each of these pal files is corresponds to single album in picassa.These are named funny and you cannot tell which pal file is which album by looking at file name. I will call these file  “random_picassa_album.pal”.

The directory name are long so I using the following conventions.Directories like backup path, will be different for each pc , please make suitable changes to the path.

{NEW PC}/[random_picasa_folder] = C:\Users\asuri\AppData\Local\Google\Picasa2Albums\3f9c889e112c9faff013b381c76abd92
Format of Pal files

{OLD PC}/[random_picasa_folder]  = K:\backup\RHEA\2008\month\Documents and Settings\asuri\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Picasa2Albums\b0b695bf62adae90c381c7ded23f63df

{NEW PC}/[Picasa2Album]=C:\Users\asuri\AppData\Local\Google\Picasa2Albums

They are XML files saved as .pal extension. You can use any XML tools or Text editor to open these files in text editor I am using  TextPad .

Basic Format of file is

<picasa2album>
 <DBID>b0b695bf62adae90c381c7ded23f63df</DBID> - This is random_picassa_folder Name�
 <AlbumID>2507378f2ca28291aa444cfb019e0a72</AlbumID> is the random_picassa_album.pal
 <property name="uid" type="string" value="2507378f2ca28291aa444cfb019e0a72"/>
 <property name="token" type="string" value="]album:2507378f2ca28291aa444cfb019e0a72"/>
 <property name="name" type="string" value="Random Album"/> - This is name of the album
 <property name="date" type="real64" value="39456.907500"/>
 <property name="category" type="num" value="0"/>
 <files> - This contains the files in album
  <filename>[F]\memories\Documents and Settings\asuri\My Documents\My Pictures\2008\2008-01 (Jan)\Picture 002.jpg</filename>
   <filename>$My Pictures\2008\2008-01 (Jan)\Picture 004.jpg</filename>  <filename>$My Pictures\2008\2008-01 (Jan)\Picture 017.jpg</filename>
</files>
</picasa2album>

Moving Albums from Old Computer.

1. Step 1. Start Picassa and Create a new Album on the New Computer.
2. Step 2. Add any Picture to the New Album. Picasa Does not create PAL file for Empty Album. We want picassa to create pal files so we can edit it.
3. Step 3. Close Picassa. Picassa will create Albums(.pal)
4. Step 4. Open {NEW PC}/[random_picasa_folder] directory to see if any  new pal files was created.
5. Step 5. Open Backup {NEW PC}/[random_picasa_folder] to see all pal files.
6. Step 6. Copy the folder {OLD PC}/[random_picasa_folder] into the  {NEW PC}/NEW PC}/[Picasa2Album] Directory. This directory should now have two [random_picasa_folder]s in it.
7. Step 7(Optional) :Follow Only If the destination address of pictures has changed follow these steps

• (a) store my pictures on external hard drive. It was mapped as  “F” but now is mapped as  “K”.
• (b) Open each Pal from PC/Picasa Album/[random_picasa_folder]  in editor and change al references of “[F]“  with “[K]“
• (c).Save the Pal File

1. Step 8. Launch Picassa. Picassa will start to create new albums. Be patient and all your albums will be recreated.

Note:Always backup your {NEW PC}/[random_picasa_folder].

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Tags: Picasa