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Permlink Replies: 2 - Pages: 1 - Last Post: 18 Feb 18, 17:59 Last Post By: JeffTucker
msand42

Posts: 33
Registered: 12-Feb-2006
what is the lifeboat file?
Posted: 18 Feb 18, 17:36
 
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I noticed today that when uploading an album (created with Matrix skin) there is a rather large file lifeboat.zip that took several minutes to upload. I don't remember seeing it in older jAlbum releases. What is this file for? Under jAlbum Preferences there is a checkbox Include lifebook file, so is file is not really needed?
RobM

Posts: 3,815
Registered: 4-Aug-2006
Re: what is the lifeboat file?
Posted: 18 Feb 18, 17:41   in response to: msand42 in response to: msand42
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The lifeboat file backs up all album project settings, including image captions, titles and applied filters. It makes it easier to recover your project should you lose your original files. Note, it does not backup images, you still need to keep a copy of those, otherwise you would have to download and use the album images as originals in your restore project.

See http://jalbum.net/help/en/Play_safe_with_jAlbum
JeffTucker

Posts: 8,039
Registered: 31-Jan-2006
Re: what is the lifeboat file?
Posted: 18 Feb 18, 17:59   in response to: RobM in response to: RobM
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If you're truly religious about backing up your PC to an external drive, you can do without the lifeboat.zip file, but over the years we've seen quite a few posts in here that start like this: "My hard drive crashed and I didn't keep backups. Can I recover my projects from the albums on the server?" And the answer, without a lifeboat file, is "No. You're screwed."

In the case of Matrix (and a number of other skins), the lifeboat.zip file can get large if you've done things like adding music to the project, or adding background images (i.e. images other than the ones that you add in the main jAlbum Explore window), or using WOFF files for fonts. Those files get stashed with the other inputs to the album-building process, so they get swept up when the lifeboat file is created.

If you've changed things like music tracks, the ones you used to use are still lurking in the album project files, so it might be worthwhile to take a quick look, and delete any that you're no longer using in the album. Open the image directory - Tools, Open directories, Image directory - then take a look in the .jalbum subdirectory. If you see any MP3, JPG, or WOFF files that you're not currently using in the album, you can delete them. Just don't delete the ones that you are still using, or the album build might fail.
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