macqgis
I have multiple QGIS projects that need to go to different computers. I put all the files on a USB and loaded it under "Documents" on the other computers like it is saved on my own computer.
However, when opening the projects on another computer the "Handle bad layers" window pops up. There are hundreds of files for each project.
I am wondering if there is a way to get around this without having to click on each file individually and finding the new location?
I'm not sure what version of QGIS you are using, however in v>2.0.1 you may use the "Handle bad layers" dialog like this:
This will batch update file based layers by directory (not database layers):
The best way, if the data doesn't move and you always mount that same drive/folder is the use relative project paths in the project file. This should be the default however you can check it in the project properties:
So you could have this setup:
|- DATA
|-GIS_DATA
|-PROJECTS
Store you projects in the Projects folder and load the data from the gis data folder. The relative paths will mean that in the project file you will have something like this:
layer = ./GIS_DATA/mylayer.shp
and it will work on any platform.
Pro Tip: If you start QGIS with the --optionspath and --configpath you can move all your settings to the DATA folder to in order to share settings as well:
qgis --optionspath /media/DATA/qgis --configpath /media/DATA/qgis
Best Answer
I think all the answer has been given with several clues. Either your target project and data paths do not match the source locations or you haven't changed the path setting and saved the project file before moving the whole project.
Note if the general properties tab says that the setting is already relative, then try changing the drop down to absolute and save your project again. Go back and then change it to back to relative and save once more before moving the project file and data.