How to Control Which Folders Picasa Scans Automatically
Based on my personal experience with Picasa and the feedback I have received from visitors, Picasa’s initial auto scan of ALL pictures located in your computer can be annoying and sometimes embarrassing. There are two remedies to this issue, the first is after the initial installation of Picasa. Once you have installed Picasa and you run it for the first time you will be given the option to search your computer for pictures, by selecting No Picasa will only scan your ‘My Documents’ and ‘My Pictures’ directories. However, if you agreed to the prompt when you first ran Picasa and would like to control which folders Picasa constantly scans for changes, the guide below will show you how to manage these settings. If you have any comments or questions, post them below.
NOTE: Picasa 3 was used for this tutorial, but instructions for previous versions should be the same.
1. While Picasa is open, click on Tools > Folder Manager… (the Folder Manager window will open)
NOTE: In the the Folder Manager window there are a couple of things you should take note of;
Folder List: The Folder List on the left pane lists all of the folders on your computer
Options: The available settings for each folder on your hard drive.
- Scan Once (This option will only scan a certain directory once, meaning if you add new pictures they will not be scanned)
- Remove from Picasa (this option will prevent Picasa from scanning the directory and if present in Picasa it would be removed)
- Scan Always (this option will allow Picasa to constantly scan the specified directory for new folders and files)
Watched Folders: These are the folders in your computer that are set to Scan Always in Picasa
2. Now that you know what all these settings mean, select the directory whose visibility settings you want to change, select an option on the right (Scan Once, Remove from Picasa, Scan Always.) Repeat for other folders, click OK when you’re done.
i have my folder manager settings set to not scan. however, when i edited a photo out of a new folder i created on my desktop, it scanned it. so i set the settings to not scan that folder but everytime i start picasa up and try to edit a photo from that folder, it scans it. this can’t be right. is there a way to set the default to never scan anything?
Carrie,
Where is the file being edited? What program are you using to edit the file? I believe that Picasa places edits in another directory which would probably explain why it is being scanned. Let me know exactly what you are doing so we can resolve this mystery. Thanks.
Gil, can you help to find some apps or programs to make multifolders for documents in ipad.
Ignatius, what are you trying to accomplish? If you wish to have somewhat of a files structure for documents, you can use GoodReader () or are you trying to be able to browse the documents stored by all apps in the iPad? If this is the case I'm not aware of any app yet that can do this and it is my understanding that OS 4.0 for the iPad later this year will support what you are looking for natively. Hope this helps.
I also found tons of duplicates. I had to go thru all of them to delete them. It sucked. I also have a problem sending more than on photo per e-mail. Each time I clicked on a photo a new e-mail opened. How do I send picasa photos thru my regular e-mail which is thunderbird. The photos I send thru my e-mail have the picasa logo by them but the receiver of the photos tell me the photos are gigantic.
Why do I have doubles of the same picture after the scan and if I delete one, how do I know where it was deleted? Warning says all places it is found ? I assume pictures on my external backup are being pulled up.
Picasa 3 just caused another problem. I chose pictures to have madde into an album and when I reviewed the photos, I found Picasa had also uploaded all the copies of some of the pictures. I only chose ONE original. I have also found that if you do not examine the whole ID for a photo to find out if it is one of Picasa’s copies it will not transfer to a photo printing company. ??
THANK YOU
that was so annoying when it autoscanned everything XD
Tell me about it, I had the same problem. Glad it was helpful.