Thanks for your help with this, I did that about 24 hours ago, will await to see if response is forthcoming
Moving flagged (stored) clips to a new machine
- Thread starter CamCrazy
- Start date
If you Protect Alerts via the clips list (right-click context menu), the script can then create the necessary JPG files by extracting frames from the associated *.bvr files.
The resulting JPG files will contain the flags and alert memo data that the database will import during a regenerate action. This is what allows the Alert survive a database corruption.
OK, do you think it is still worth me running the script, flagged *.bvr clips are in the 'Stored' folder currently.
I haven't personally tested this on protected Alerts whose clips have been moved to the 'Stored' folder. But it should work if he clips were moved by Blue Iris (not manually).
I'll do some testing to confirm.
Thank you, clips were certainly placed in the 'stored' folder by Blue Iris, soon as I flag/protect they get moved to that folder. Once I get this resolved I can finally stop running Blue Iris on the existing machine which is quite overloaded now, just be nice to keep these flagged clips for future reference.
After copying the clips of interest to the new machine, you will need to reapply the flags after regenerating the database. The new machine will not know that they were previously flagged/protected.
EDIT: Oops. Just checked and I have this wrong, Blue Iris does not automatically protect the associated *.bvr file when an Alert using it is protected. However, I think Blue Iris retains clips for as long as they have at least one protected Alert.
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Damn, I never thought to regenerate database on the new machine, they should get moved to 'new' folder I assume, then can be flagged and protected? hopefully.
Blue Iris will not automatically move any files to New, unless by chance you've configured one of the folders to do so (Settings > Storage).
And any item in the clips list (bvr, alert, snapshot) can be flagged/protected via the right-click context menu.
BTW, BI's Folders can be modified so that they are managed differently by Blue Iris, or not managed at all. This was introduced in 5.8.1.
OK, progress! I manually moved to 'new folder' regenerate DB and they show in the 'All Clips', then I can flag on the new system. Question, I quite liked the older system where it seemed to move 'flagged' items to the 'stored' folder, do you think that is possible. Seems like the new versions just leave flagged/protected in 'new' folder. Now I just have to manually move and then flag 250 clips 
but worse things happen as they say.
Also thank you very much for your help with this, I know the grabs and replies all take time, I am very grateful
but worse things happen as they say.Also thank you very much for your help with this, I know the grabs and replies all take time, I am very grateful
How do you have the 'New' folder configured?
If it's set up to move to 'Stored' (mine is not, as shown in the screenshot) , it will do this only when the New folder is full and BI needs to make room for new files.
As you have a new system, my guess is that you have not yet reached this point.
Totally understand, the odd thing is though, on earlier releases it must have moved them to 'stored' automatically, is that possible, it must have been?!? I have no 'flagged' or 'protected' clips in my new folder, never have done.
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Are you saying the *.bvr clip in 'New' was immediately moved to 'Stored' when you flagged/protected it?
I'm thinking this might be possible only if the 'New' folder was already at full capacity.
I'm not an expert on this topic. You would have to ask Ken.
That is an excellent point and makes total sense, chances are that when I started flagging clips the 'new' folder was at capacity, I will wait until that happens on the new system then to test. In the meantime hopefully my method of moving the older clips will work, if I then set the new folder to move items older than 30 days to the 'stored' they should get moved? do we think?!? again, appreciate the help with this, it goes a long way, I am very grateful. Classic case of not seeing the wood for the trees often!
After flagging two new moved bvr clips to test, I then set 'new' folder to move items older than 7 days to 'stored' but it doesn't seem to want to play ball with those, they are much older, maybe it does not see them as old for some reason. I also regenerated and compact/reindex but they stayed in the 'new' folder. Not the end of the world if those flagged clips stay in 'new' until it fills up but. In theory, if I put the old clips in the 'new' folder and it begins to hit the limit, maybe then the older files will get moved to 'stored'. Then I can switch it back to delete 'new' files past the usual storage limit, see if it starts putting flagged clips straight into the 'stored' folder going forward.
If any of that makes sense you probably deserve some kind of medal
Again, thanks for sticking with me, has been a big help.
If any of that makes sense you probably deserve some kind of medal
Again, thanks for sticking with me, has been a big help.
In have just been testing letting BI move the older clips to 'stored' folder, when this happens they drop out of the clips/alerts index and presumably become am 'external' bvr file. Looks like flagged clips need to stay in the 'new' folder.
A couple things...
- It is strongly encouraged on this forum to disable 'Limit clip age' pruning and let Blue Iris manage pruning solely based on the folder size.
- It is also strongly encouraged to not let Blue Iris move large BVR files to folders on the same disk, with the argument being that it wastes resources and CPU cycles.
That makes total sense, I do not use the clip age and depend on size only normally, just testing this for the older clips. I think to be honest, I will just save these flagged clips in a folder elsewhere, access them if I need to. Probably not worth bringing them all in and flagging, maybe I will, shall give it some thought. I wouldn't worry much about the second point either, the two clips I was just moving around total 8GB and they are gone in a blink of the eye. My day job is IT Support (yes, I should know better!!!) and so long as the storage drive is good quality 7200rpm then point two is indeed mute. I am running a 14TB 7200 WD drive in the new build and it is as fast as I would expect. The CPU will barely break a sweat moving files around, if that is causing problem then an upgrade is likely on the cards
Be cautious to not expect instant recognition. The Help PDF states that routine database maintenance is performed only every 5 minutes.
In my experience, full recognition of file changes occurs only after a database Delete & Regenerate action. Do you do this? or just a Repair/Regenerate?
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Thanks, I did not carry out a Delete, just a Repair, will keep that in mind.
Something else just occured to me, the test clips I moved and reindexed, simply show me the whole 4GB clip, they do not start playing from the 'flagged' point so to speak, or more accurately the 'alert' point of that bvr file
which is annoying. I am going to experiment with latest version and exporting the alerts to bvr, see where that gets me!Is this when you double-click a bvr, or an alert. This behavior is normal for the former. If it's the later, it appears that the database has lost the offset for the alert.
If an Alert has a JPG file in the Alerts folder, then Blue Iris can recover a variety of database entries from the EXIF data - if needed - when regenerating the database.
You can examine the the JPG's EXIF data from Windows File Explorer via right-click > Properties > Details tab.
In this example, the offset value is embedded in the 'Comments' field value, which I've highlighted.
Other Alert properties embedded in EXIF data are revealed by looking at the Alerts JSON
clipstats command response...