If you’re going to use Picasa for organizing and uploading pictures you need to use it to move images from folder to folder so it can keep track of where things are. If you are using file explorer to move/delete images then you break the link between your hard drive and what Picasa has in its database.

Using your “Try this” example above, you have to use Picasa for step 5 (go to Finder or Explorer). You do this within the tree view by right-clicking on your “S” folder and selecting “move folder” then navigating to the folder you want to move it to.

Just try this:
- get a sub folder S inside any given folder F with photos
- create an album
- set to tree view
- add some photos in the album from the folder S
- go to Finder (or Explorer) and move sub folder S from F to any other new folder N
- there you go, your album is now empty

Plus, doing that also screws up picasa “unsaved” edits and, above all, web albums.

Since I’d like to pre-select what to go into web albums without messing my photos original folder and without needing to make copies, I thought it’d be a good idea to create an Album and sync it.

It’s specially bad to get an uploaded album to sync with a local one. It can’t identify you’ve already have the photos, delete or re-organize properly. If I try a new sync of same photos, it frequently thinks it’s a new album or folder and do it all over again. (already awful to organize with just my 50 photos sample, even worst with my aimed 500 photos album)

I’m writing this in hope you tell me I’m wrong. And there’s some glitch or some way to go around those issues.