Images showing in wrong folder?

richard49 · May 15, 2020, 05:48:51 PM

I have found that there's a lot of my images which are showing in iMatch as being in a certain folder on my hard drive but are actually in a different folder.

For instance...
An image shows its it folder 2015-10-15 when if I right click on the image and select 'open in windows explorer' it shows that the same image is in folder 2015-10-11

This has happened for quite a few images and I don't know how to tell iMatch to correct it.

The images concerned are in the correct folders, iMatch is telling me they're not.

Mario · May 15, 2020, 06:27:30 PM

I have no idea how this could happen.

IMatch records the physical path and file name of the image in the database.
If an image does not exist at the location IMatch has recorded in the database, it shows a yellow off-line icon in the File Window.
If you can open it in Windows Explorer from inside IMatch, the file does exist in the location recorded.

Do you perhaps have moved or renamed images outside of IMatch and then used relocate?

QuoteAn image shows its it folder 2015-10-1 (...)

What do you mean by that? The name shown in the Media & Folders View? Or in the Caption Bar above the File Window?
Open the Var Toy App and add this variable:

{File.FullName}

Then select some of your files. Do they show the folder you expect? The same folder the File Window Caption Bar shows?

richard49 · May 23, 2020, 01:01:09 PM

Mario,
When I e-opened iMatch the folder concerned had returned to normal in that I didn't have the wrong folder dates showing but... it's happened again and this time I took a screen shot of it to show you.

Mario · May 23, 2020, 01:19:03 PM

You are showing folders with hierarchy (including sub-folders). See The Hierarchical Display Mode (Displaying files in sub-folders, child categories etc.)
Check the toolbar of the file window.

This means you see files from "D:\Sync\Master Catalogue" and one or more sub-folders.
The file you have selected is from such a sub-folder ("2011").

1. Make sure you understand what the hierarchical display mode does. Or turn it off (which is the default).
2. If you are confused, make sure you let the File Window group the files by their folder (disable in the Don't group by folder option - which is disabled by default).

richard49 · May 23, 2020, 01:42:27 PM

I have tried all iterations of the hierarchical display mode and the only one that gives me what I want is as shown in my attached files.

In one image you can see that the date is correct but the other image shows the date is incorrect, without me hanging anything.

Now I'm confused as iMatch shouldn't be awkward to use.

Jingo · May 23, 2020, 02:37:01 PM

Curious - does the correct file show in the preview window when you are displaying the image that shows the incorrect file date? I had an image awhile back where my thumbnails did not match the preview... so, even though I was looking at a thumbnail - the incorrect thumb was shown... what happens if you perform a thumbnail refresh on that image?

richard49 · May 23, 2020, 02:43:39 PM

Jingo,
Yes, if I right click on the images shown (Open in Windows Explorer) as being in the wrong place Windows Explorer shows the correctly matching image as in iMatch.

It show the image as being in the same folder as shown in the VarToy panel, not the date shown above the image.

Jingo · May 23, 2020, 02:46:57 PM

Quote from: richard49 on May 23, 2020, 02:43:39 PM
Jingo,
Yes, if I right click on the images shown (Open in Windows Explorer) as being in the wrong place Windows Explorer shows the correctly matching image as in iMatch.

It show the image as being in the same folder as shown in the VarToy panel, not the date shown above the image.

What about in the IMatch Viewer Panel though... does the thumbnail match the image shown? Just curious - if it does.. then that is not the same I was seeing...

richard49 · May 23, 2020, 02:52:12 PM

If I right click on one of the images showing in the wrong folder and select 'Send to Viewer' it shows the same image (the thumbnail matches the shown image) ; I hope that's what you were referring to?

Jingo · May 23, 2020, 02:53:27 PM

Quote from: richard49 on May 23, 2020, 02:52:12 PM
If I right click on one of the images showing in the wrong folder and select 'Send to Viewer' it shows the same image (the thumbnail matches the shown image) ; I hope that's what you were referring to?

Yes... sorry... can't help I guess...

Mario · May 23, 2020, 03:43:11 PM

Your screen shot shows that you are displaying two levels of sub-folders.
And that you don't group them by folder.
And you sort by Capture time.

This will mix the files of multiple folders together.

As I said above, disable the hierarchy mode. Or at least re-enable the option to group the files by their folder.

thrinn · May 23, 2020, 03:45:38 PM

Quote from: richard49 on May 23, 2020, 01:42:27 PM
I have tried all iterations of the hierarchical display mode and the only one that gives me what I want is as shown in my attached files.

In one image you can see that the date is correct but the other image shows the date is incorrect, without me hanging anything.

Are you sure that we are not mixing up two different things here? The thumbnail display shows a date in the top left corner. But this is the date recorded in the file, not a folder or file name. The Vartoy app shows that _DSC0031.NEF is stored in a sub folder 2011-09-24. This does not necessarily mean that the date information as part of the file metadata is also the 24th.

Could you please try to show also {File.DateTime} in the Vartoy app?

richard49 · May 23, 2020, 03:57:50 PM

Using VarToy with {File.DateTime} the file shows the same date as shown on the top left of the image whereas the file is in a different folder on my computer.

richard49 · May 23, 2020, 04:03:01 PM

So the all of the files for this date (2011-07-31) are actually in a separate folder (2011-09-24).

File structure shown below.

richard49 · May 23, 2020, 04:06:02 PM

Better screen shot than the last one

Mario · May 23, 2020, 04:09:46 PM

Point the mouse cursor at the (I) icon in the top-right corner of each thumbnail panel to see the full name of the file.

richard49 · May 23, 2020, 04:44:06 PM

As requested.

thrinn · May 23, 2020, 06:06:16 PM

Sorry, but I still don't get it...

When you point the mouse at the I(nfo) icon, it shows that the file _DSC0042.NEF is in folder 2011-09-24.
When you look for this file (_DSC0042.NEF) in the Windows Explorer, where do you find it? I would expect in folder 2011-09-24.
The thumbnail view in the file window shows the file date being 31.07.2011. But this has nothing to do with the folder the file is stored in.
Of course, it is possible to move files based on their date information into a folder structure like yours (using the Renamer). But this does not happen automatically.

To me, this looks as if the file has been stored simply in the wrong folder (assuming that you folder structure is expected to match the file date).

richard49 · May 23, 2020, 06:33:51 PM

The images concerned all show (top left of the thumbnail) the date 2011-07-31

The VarToy panel also shows 2011-07-31

All of those files are actually in the folder 2011-09-24

So the problem is that the date shown on the thumbnail is wrong for these images.

The date shown on other thumbnails for files in other folders are correct.

Unless I go through every file I have (very unlikely given how much time that would take) it would appear that iMatch is giving the correct date for all (I use that term loosely) of my files except for the files shown as in folder 2011-07-31 which I know is incorrect.

thrinn · May 23, 2020, 06:57:54 PM

IMatch does not derive the file date from the folder. If you decide that the folder name is more correct than the date information contained in these images, one approach would be to change the dates in the files. The Time Wiz App could help you there.

Jingo · May 23, 2020, 07:01:58 PM

Quote from: richard49 on May 23, 2020, 06:33:51 PM
The images concerned all show (top left of the thumbnail) the date 2011-07-31

The VarToy panel also shows 2011-07-31

All of those files are actually in the folder 2011-09-24

So the problem is that the date shown on the thumbnail is wrong for these images.

The date shown on other thumbnails for files in other folders are correct.

Unless I go through every file I have (very unlikely given how much time that would take) it would appear that iMatch is giving the correct date for all (I use that term loosely) of my files except for the files shown as in folder 2011-07-31 which I know is incorrect.

Wait - are you saying the metadata of the images is correct but it just lives in the wrong folder? If so, then IMatch is working correctly as the date/time is taken from the image data.. not the folder where the image is stored on disk.. you can call a folder "2010" but if the images have data in them from 2020.. then they will show 2020... am I missing something?

richard49 · May 23, 2020, 07:10:25 PM

No I'm not.

The files concerned are in the folder 2011-09-24 as per the image I uploaded earlier.

iMatch thumbnail says the files are in the folder 2011-07-31, they're not.

VarToy also says the files are in the folder 2011-07-31, they're not.

Regards,
Richard

thrinn · May 23, 2020, 07:12:18 PM

QuoteWait - are you saying the metadata of the images is correct but it just lives in the wrong folder?

My impression is that it is the other way round : Richard says that the folder name represents the correct date. But this means that the metadata in his problem files must be wrong.
Hence my suggestion to use the Time Wiz to correct the metadata.

thrinn · May 23, 2020, 07:33:47 PM

Quote from: richard49 on May 23, 2020, 07:10:25 PM
The files concerned are in the folder 2011-09-24 as per the image I uploaded earlier.

iMatch thumbnail says the files are in the folder 2011-07-31, they're not.
VarToy also says the files are in the folder 2011-07-31, they're not.

Richard, I really think there is some confusion regarding folders and dates here: What is show in the thumbnail layout is most likely the file date. Unless you changed the file window layout to show something different. You can check by opening the layout editor (spreadsheet-like icon at the top of the file window, "Edit layout"). If the Header section contains something like "Date & Time", it means that the information displayed is taken from the image metadata This information, as Jingo rightly points out, has nothing to do with a folder in the file system.
You can (temporarily) use an available field, e.g. in the footer section, to display the "Fully qualified file name", see screen shot. Then you will also see the complete path of the image in the thumbnail.

In the Var Toy App, {File.DateTime} will show you the date of the file, {File.Folder}.

If you want to be sure that File Date and folder "match", either change the file date (if the folder is correct, but the file date wrong); or move the file to an other folder (if the folder is wrong, but the file date is correct). If I understand you correctly, the first option applies to you problem files.

richard49 · May 23, 2020, 07:39:46 PM

After all of this 'confusing' data going back and forward I suddenly thought that I'd look through the XMP sidecar files for the images in the folder concerned.

I found that the wrong date was in the XMP files, how I have no idea.

When I went back to iMatch and looked down the Metadata panel to Image>Date Subject that also had the wrong date so I changed the date in there and now the files are showing back where they are actually located.

It's amazing how you can be convinced that something is wrong and then someone says something and the 'penny drops' and you come at it from a different angle.

Anyway, I now know what was wrong (not why!) and, in case it happens again I know where to look.

Thank you everyone for your input, it's heart warming to know people are willing to help.

Jingo · May 23, 2020, 07:43:05 PM

Quote from: richard49 on May 23, 2020, 07:39:46 PM
After all of this 'confusing' data going back and forward I suddenly thought that I'd look through the XMP sidecar files for the images in the folder concerned.

I found that the wrong date was in the XMP files, how I have no idea.

When I went back to iMatch and looked down the Metadata panel to Image>Date Subject that also had the wrong date so I changed the date in there and now the files are showing back where they are actually located.

It's amazing how you can be convinced that something is wrong and then someone says something and the 'penny drops' and you come at it from a different angle.

Anyway, I now know what was wrong (not why!) and, in case it happens again I know where to look.

Thank you everyone for your input, it's heart warming to know people are willing to help.

Pesky sidecar files... my JPG Database is safe from you!!

Glad you were able to figure it out...!

thrinn · May 23, 2020, 08:13:39 PM

Quote from: richard49 on May 23, 2020, 07:39:46 PM
Anyway, I now know what was wrong (not why!) and, in case it happens again I know where to look.

Glad to hear that you figured it out!

Just a tip: IMatch also offers a Metadata Analyst app. While this app is mostly to help Mario to help you

(because not all of the information it shows is self-explanatory) it might be useful to have a look at its output. For example, it checks for conflicting metadata information on files and sidecar files...

richard49 · May 23, 2020, 08:36:03 PM

Thrinn,
Thank you, I'll take a look at that feature.

The images in the folder 2011 have always given me problems in one way or another.

I'll go through all of the images in that year to see if they match being where they shold be.

Once again, I really appreciate everyones help...

Richard

jch2103 · May 23, 2020, 09:19:41 PM

I've run into a slightly similar situation for some of my old JPG files, which for some unremembered reason had XMP sidecar files (which I thought I'd already deleted). My specific problem was that a folder of JPG images had the wrong date/times but the XMP files had the correct date/times... Because there were relatively few of these, I ended up manually getting the correct date/times in the XMP sidecar and adding them in the metadata panel although I'm sure I could have done this more elegantly.

No longer a problem, but the mystery is how the wrong date/times (sometime in 2018) got in the JPG files...