Frequently Asked Questions

Before submitting a bug, have a look here.

It's also advisable that before reporting a bug you check the output of F-Spot run from command line.

Q: Database problems

A: Many misbehaviors of F-Spot can be headed to database problems. F-Spot uses a Sqlite db, usually placed in ~/.gnome2/f-spot/photos.db. Since latest releases (> 0.3.5) there have been problems with version 2 of the db, so v3 is required.

This error can be tracked by the following command line output:

 Unhandled Exception: System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Index is less than 0 or more than or equal to the list count.

To check the version of your db issue the following command (the location of the db can vary depending on your installation):

 file ~/.gnome2/f-spot/photos.db

The output of a v3 db is

 .gnome2/f-spot/photos.db: SQLite 3.x database

If it's not like this, run the upgrade script

 f-spot-sqlite-upgrade

which usually can be found in the path or in the tools/ directory of the source tree. Beware that

there are no known faluire cases, but a backup is always a good idea
the script will only update the db in the default location above

To better track this issue (Sqlite v2 support) watch bug 467011

Q: Fullscreen/Slideshow doesn't work with Compiz enabled

A: The Legacy fullscreen fix setting in Compiz should be disabled. (ref: bgo#361031)

Q: How can I backup my archive?

A: As said before, F-Spot uses a sqlite3 database, which is normally placed in ~/.config/f-spot/photos.db. This DB holds all the tags, photo, photo versions and such. Backup this file and you won't loose all your work. Don't forget to backup your photos too!

Q: Other issues

A: Always have a look at bug list before submitting a new bug!