Sometimes Shozam files can get corrupted or misplaced. This can happen if you move files around on your computer, move from one computer to another or pass on a gallery to someone else to be modified. To ensure you find correct solutions to any issues you encounter in such situations, this primer is useful in identifying how Shozam works with various files. Basically what Shozam needs to work correctly with a gallery is:

1. The WebGallery.xml file (if your computer system is set to hide filename extensions, it will display as only 'WebGallery') in the root of the gallery folder on your computer - this contains all the settings you have for your gallery and is the file used by Shozam to be able to create your gallery
2. The gallery folder on your computer (by default in 'My Documents\My Shozam Galleries\[Gallery_Title]') - this contains your offline gallery (and the xml file mentioned above). The gallery is generated by Shozam based on the settings in the xml file. The numbered folders each contain one album. Numbers are assigned by Shozam automatically as you create each new album in a gallery.
3. The original source media files (images, audio, etc.) that are used in Shozam. Note that once those files are added into Shozam, the program will expect to always find them there and will try to access them as needed.

Here are potential problems and how to deal with those situations:

WebGallery.xml Missing

If your local gallery project file (WebGallery.xml) is missing, you typically can find it online. Each time Shozam uploads changes to your gallery to your server, it also uploads this project file. This way, if the local version of the file is missing or damaged, you should be able to FTP into your server, grab it from there and place it in the correct location on your local computer. If you do not know how to do this your webhost should be able to assist you with getting files from the server to your computer.

Local Gallery Folder Missing

If the gallery folder is missing, this typically means both the local gallery AND the WebGallery.xml are not available. If you have all the original media in the correct location on your folder, you can re-create the gallery completely by grabing, as detailed above, the WebGallery.xml from the server and placing it in the local computer at the path where it should be. This is typically 'My Documents\My Shozam Galleries\[Gallery_Title]\WebGallery.xml'. If the gallery folder the folder with the gallery title name is missing, you will need to create it and then place WebGallery.xml in there. If you are not sure of the exact path, it is good to confirm by opening WebGallery.xml file in a program such as Notepad or Word. DO NOT make any changes to the xml file! But you can open the file to see the paths it expects. Then close the file without re-saving it to ensure no changes are made to it

Original Media Missing

Shozam expects to find the original images, audio, etc. at the same location from whre you originally added them into the gallery. The program cannot know where these files are if you have moved or deleted them. If Shozam is unable to find those originals there, it will try to use the processed files that are available in the generated gallery folder. Please note this means that media will not be re-processed. For example, say you have some images that you watermarked using the Protect tab in Step 5 of Shozam. If you want to modify the gallery at a later date and change the watermark of the image, Shozam will need to re-process those image files. The program will go to the location it expects to find the original source images, to get the pristine image file and process the new watermark. If it cannot find the original, it cannot re-process it and hence it will leave it alone. So unless you keep the source images at their original location, Shozam cannot change a watermark or change the compression quality level, etc.

If both the gallery folder is missing and the original media is missing (or moved) you will need to re-create the gallery from the beginning.

MORE DETAILS ABOUT WHAT SHOZAM DOES WHEN ORIGINAL IMAGE FILES ARE NOT FOUND

Some operations in Shozam benefit from continued access to the original image files. When you add images into Shozam, the program makes a note of the path/location where you added your image(s) from. If you later want to change things like type of image crop, image compression level or watermark protection settings, Shozam will try to get a fresh image copy from that location and process it with your new settings. If the program cannot find the image with that name at that location, it has no choice but to revert and use the image that is available in the processed gallery folder.

If Shozam has access only to the already processed image in the gallery folder, setting changes may have partial effect or none at all.

For example, if you try to improve the image quality and change compression level to a higher number (which means you set it to compress the file less so it has a larger file size and that looks better ) then Shozam will apply those settings on the already lower-quality image. This means the image file will increase in size but it will not look noticebly better. To see improvement, Shozam will need to have access the original image.

As another example, if you want to change the watermark settings and the original is not available, Shozam will ignore the request completely since reprocessing the file in the gallery would have unpredictable effects (since it cannot access the pristine original, it cannot remove a previous watermark and applying a new one would produce undesirable results).

It is also important to understand that once a link is severed, it cannot be re-established. This means that once Shozam cannot find the file at the location it expects to find the original, it will re-map to the fallback location - the processed image in the gallery folder. So even if you later place the original image back to the initial location, Shozam will no longer look for it there. If you require an operation that needs the original image, you will need to delete the image from your gallery and add it again into Shozam in Step 2.