Is it possible to move protected alerts to anoher BI instance?

[Molbo]

I'm planning to move my BI instance to another box.
I have some protected alerts on my current BI setup that I would like to keep for historical reasons.
Is there any way to do that?

 

[Bruce_H]

You could just export them!

If you absolutely want them to be part of the new BI system, then you will have to have the same short camera names as BI uses them to build the database and link the videos to a camera, I also suspect that they would not be protected after you copy the files to the new server, you would have to go and reset the protected flag on them on the new system (I have never used the protected flag so I am not 100% sure)

I have changed the short camera names on one of my systems (I have 3) and there was a lot of file renaming that I had to do, but once I rebuilt the database all the videos were still there, but the old camera name was still in the recorded video when I looked at them.

 

[jaydeel]

To ensure the alerts are correctly added to the new computer's Blue Iris database without manually resetting the database flags and reapplying AI-generated or custom memos, the protected alert JPG files must have the correct metadata. This feature was not introduced until 5.6.0 (Aug 2022); therefore, older alerts JPGs will not have the necessary metadata.

My bi_alert_protect Powershell utility will identify all database protected alerts that are lacking the necessary JPG image metadata, and optionally add the metadata. It can also identify protected alerts alerts that are missing a JPG file and optionally re-create the file by grabbing the necessary image from an existing DAT or BVR file. Furthermore, it will ensure that protected alert files have the read-only attribute set.

Protected alerts should have JPG, DAT, and BVR files that have the read-only attribute set. You can use this fact when selecting files that should be copied to the new PC.

 

[Molbo]

To ensure the alerts are correctly added to the new computer's Blue Iris database without manually resetting the database flags and reapplying AI-generated or custom memos, the protected alert JPG files must have the correct metadata. This feature was not introduced until 5.6.0 (Aug 2022); therefore, older alerts JPGs will not have the necessary metadata.

My bi_alert_protect Powershell utility will identify all database protected alerts that are lacking the necessary JPG image metadata, and optionally add the metadata. It can also identify protected alerts alerts that are missing a JPG file and optionally re-create the file by grabbing the necessary image from an existing DAT or BVR file. Furthermore, it will ensure that protected alert files have the read-only attribute set.

Protected alerts should have JPG, DAT, and BVR files that have the read-only attribute set. You can use this fact when selecting files that should be copied to the new PC.

It looks like alerts JPG files are stored inside clips.dat file in my BI setup. I also cannot find any individual alerts DAT files, so I assume they are stored as part of clips.dat file as well.

 

[jaydeel]

It looks like alerts JPG files are stored inside clips.dat file in my BI setup. I also cannot find any individual alerts DAT files, so I assume they are stored as part of clips.dat file as well.

These database images are thumbnails. If a JPG file is not detected in the Alerts folder, these thumbnails are displayed instead in the clips list.

I don't think the database stores DAT files.

The database thumbnail images are permanently lost during a database rebuild action. Only JPG files in the Alerts folder - with the necessary Exif metadata - ensure the recovery of alerts in a rebuilt database. This is the reason why I created my bi_alert_protect Powershell utility.

However, during a database rebuild action -- if a DAT files exists without a JPG file -- Blue Iris apparently can get the information it needs from the DAT file... I think it might also recreate a new thumbnail image from the DAT file, but I'm not sure without testing. It's been awhile since I experimented with this.

 

[Molbo]

These database images are thumbnails. If a JPG file is not detected in the Alerts folder, these thumbnails are displayed instead in the clips list.

I don't think the database stores DAT files.

The database thumbnail images are permanently lost during a database rebuild action. Only JPG files in the Alerts folder - with the necessary Exif metadata - ensure the recovery of alerts in a rebuilt database. This is the reason why I created my bi_alert_protect Powershell utility.

However, during a database rebuild action -- if a DAT files exists without a JPG file -- Blue Iris apparently can get the information it needs from the DAT file... I think it might also recreate a new thumbnail image from the DAT file, but I'm not sure without testing. It's been awhile since I experimented with this.

Aha, thank you jaydeel! Now I understand better how it all works. Thank you for the script, I'm going to try it soon.