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A file may have moved, been renamed, or been deleted

Symptoms

A catalogued file will not open even though its drive is connected; or you know you reorganised a folder and ArchiveMind still shows the old structure.

What this usually means

The catalogue is a snapshot from the last scan. ArchiveMind does not watch your drives continuously — if you move, rename, or delete files after a scan, the catalogue keeps describing the world as it was until you rescan. This is normal, and nothing is lost: the originals are wherever you put them.

Safe steps to try

  1. Confirm what actually happened on disk. Check the catalogued path in Finder / File Explorer. If the file is not there, search for its name where you think it went.
  2. Rescan the repository. A new scan updates paths, drops entries for files that no longer exist, and picks up new ones.
  3. If you moved files between two catalogued repositories, rescan both.

Duplicate detection helps here

Because ArchiveMind fingerprints file contents, a rescan recognises moved files by their content — the same bytes under a new path hash to the same fingerprint.

What not to delete or change

  • Do not delete the catalogue database to "start fresh" — a rescan of the affected repository is enough.
  • Do not try to hand-edit anything in the application-data folder.

Information to collect for support

Only needed if a rescan does not bring the catalogue up to date:

  • What you changed on disk (moved / renamed / deleted), roughly when.
  • Whether the rescan completed without errors.
  • The newest archivemind.log — see Finding logs.