How to use Codex to migrate a family photo archive
Codex helped migrate a 3 TB family photo archive with resumable copies and hash checks; originals stayed available and uncertain files awaited human review.
frankstall.one
Suggested prompt
Suggested prompt written by Agents In Use, not the source author. Replace bracketed inputs and review tool permissions first.
Inventory this authorized photo archive before changing it. Distinguish originals, Lightroom previews and exports using path and metadata evidence, then propose rules and an old-to-new mapping for approval. Copy with collision checks and resumable logs, retain originals, verify SHA-256 content and place uncertain files in a review queue before manual Lightroom relinking.
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Sourced account- Source author
- Frank Stallone
- Original account
- Read the source ↗
- Published
- Source link checked
- Reported result
- The source reports 119,995 files in 310 event folders with hash verification; originals were retained and some Lightroom work remained manual.
- Human involvement
- Stallone approved classification rules, preserved original sources, reviewed uncertain material and retained manual Lightroom reopening and relinking.
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How the agent did it
- Stallone and Codex inventoried the archive and agreed how to distinguish originals from previews and exports.
- Codex prepared collision-aware, resumable copy scripts and path mappings while NAS workloads were adjusted.
- SHA-256 checks verified copied content, with uncertain cases and Lightroom relinking left for human review.
Frank Stallone worked with Codex to organize a three-terabyte family photo archive spanning 1988 to 2025. A previous mistaken folder deletion made preserving the originals central to the process.
Codex inventoried source folders and distinguished original images from Lightroom previews and exports. File extensions alone were insufficient because previews could use the same DNG extension as originals. The pair agreed on classification rules before applying a migration plan.
The agent prepared old-to-new path mappings, collision checks and resumable copy scripts. During copying, Synology thumbnail processing and other services created memory pressure; stopping those workloads helped the migration proceed. The reported result was 119,995 migrated files organized into 310 event folders, with original filenames preserved and uncertain cases separated for review.
Content verification used SHA-256 hashes and took about twenty-seven hours. The final folder-layout change was quick, but that is not the duration of the whole project. Originals remained available, and Lightroom projects still needed manual opening and relinking. The result is a verified-by-the-owner archive migration, with ambiguous classifications and application-level repairs intentionally left as human work.
Prompt
Suggested prompt (written by Agents In Use, not the author's)
Source: Personal blog · Frank Stallone
Frequently asked questions
Were original files deleted during migration?
The described migration preserved the original sources rather than relying on destructive moves.
Why was extension-only sorting insufficient?
Lightroom previews and original images could share the DNG extension.
Did the entire process take two minutes?
No. The final layout change was short; content verification alone reportedly took about twenty-seven hours.
More details
About this account
Stallone and Codex inventoried the archive and agreed how to distinguish originals from previews and exports. Codex prepared collision-aware, resumable copy scripts and path mappings while NAS workloads were adjusted.
Original article fully read and exact publication date verified in primary HTML metadata. File counts and timings are author-reported. Two-minute layout work is not represented as total migration time; Lightroom follow-up remains manual. Suggested prompt written by Agents In Use; no verbatim original task prompt was supplied.
Credit: Frank Stallone — Personal blog
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Tools and topics
Codex · Synology NAS · SHA-256 · Lightroom · Migration scripts
photo archive · copy verification · uncertain files
Editorial completeness: 100/100. Measures documented fields, not agent performance or verified outcomes.