Short answers. For the actual steps there is the step-by-step guide, which walks you through whichever situation you are in.
NanoTracker keeps a list of what is on your disks. By default that list lives on the computer it is installed on: if there are two of you, each of you only sees the disks they catalogued themselves.
With a shared catalogue the list is one single list for the whole studio. Anyone can search for a job and find out which disk it is on — and if that disk is plugged into a colleague's computer, it says so, with the machine's name.
If you work on a single computer you do not need this: what you have is fine.
MariaDB is the program that acts as the warehouse for the shared list. It sits on something that stays switched on — a NAS or a computer — and everyone else asks it for information over the network. It is free, very widely used, and has no interface: once it is running you never open it again.
On your computer you install nothing: NanoTracker simply talks to it. It only goes on the machine acting as the warehouse, once.
On a NAS it is a ready-made package, installed with two clicks from the NAS's own store. On Windows it is an ordinary program to download.
No. What you need is something that stays switched on while the others are working, and a Windows computer in the studio will do perfectly well. If that computer is off, the others cannot see the shared catalogue (but they carry on working — see below).
A NAS is the most common choice because it uses little power and is always on, not because it is required.
No. NanoTracker copies no files at all. The catalogue holds only the names: what the folders are called, where they are, how big they are and when they were last changed. Your material stays where it is, on your disks.
That is why a catalogue covering dozens of disks takes only a few megabytes.
No. The shared catalogue works over your studio network: the computers and the NAS need to see each other, they do not need to reach the internet. From outside the studio, on a laptop, the shared catalogue is not reachable (unless you already have a company VPN set up).
Yes. The same catalogue is used from both sides.
Windows and macOS identify disks differently, so the same physical disk can end up catalogued by both: NanoTracker notices and shows it as a single entry, noting underneath which computers have seen it.
It depends where you want it, and those are three different routes. The step-by-step guide opens with exactly that question and then shows you only the steps for your situation: on a NAS, on a computer, or connecting to one that already exists.
In short: you install MariaDB on whatever will act as the warehouse (that part is manual — it is its own package), and then NanoTracker does all the rest — it creates the database, the user and the permissions by itself.
Settings → Database → Shared → +
The address is a number like 192.168.1.101. You will find it in the NAS's own program on your computer, or in your router under connected devices: the guide has a dedicated box with four ways to find it, and the same for everything else it asks you for.
The port is almost always 3306 and you can leave it alone. NanoTracker
has a "Check NAS" button that tries it for you and tells you whether the
NAS answers, before it even asks you for a password.
If the warehouse is on a NAS: no — you just switch on the network connection in the MariaDB package's settings (one tick box, it is in the guide).
If it is on a Windows computer: yes, port 3306 has to be
allowed. NanoTracker offers to do it for you during the setup.
You need four things: address, database name, user and password — the same ones chosen when it was created. On every other computer:
Settings → Database → Shared → + → Connect to an existing one
The "Test the connection" button tells you straight away whether it works, so you do not find out about a typo two days later.
No. The catalogue on your computer stays where it is, and NanoTracker can copy it into the shared one. You do not have to plug in or rescan a single disk.
Settings → Database → Copying the catalogue
Step 3 is there on purpose: with a studio catalogue nobody should press a button without first knowing how many rows will move. It costs one second.
Never. The copy only knows how to add and update. If a folder exists at the destination but not at the source, it stays exactly where it is.
That is deliberate: if something is missing from one side, it almost always means that computer never catalogued that disk — not that the folder is gone.
Yes — same command, direction reversed. It is useful if you are about to take a laptop out and want the studio's full list with you even with no network.
That is the normal case, and it is handled: the two catalogues merge, they do not duplicate. NanoTracker recognises the same physical disk even if it has been renamed or reformatted.
For folders present on both sides, the more recent version wins: an older one never overwrites a newer one.
No. The second time it finds nothing left to add, and says so. You can run it again without worrying — it is built precisely for people who are not sure the first attempt worked.
The name of the database in use is always shown at the bottom left of the NanoTracker window. In Settings → Database the green dot marks the active one.
No. If the shared catalogue stops answering, NanoTracker switches by itself to the one on your computer and carries on. When the shared one becomes reachable again it goes back to it on its own and brings the disks touched in the meantime up to date.
There is nothing to do, and nothing to remember.
3307 rather than 3306.That is a different answer from "no reply", and it is good news: the warehouse is running, it just has to be allowed to accept other computers. On a NAS that is the network-connection tick box; on Windows it is the "enable access from remote machines" tick box shown while MariaDB is being installed.
Yes, at any time, from Settings → Database → Local. Your computer's catalogue is never deleted when you move to the shared one: it is always there.
Did not find your answer? Write to support@nanotracker.pro. If the problem is in the program, Settings has "Having problems?": it prepares a technical report and shows you what is in it before sending.