Versioning tab is greyed out.

[thusband]

I'd like to set up or make sure I have automatic versioning but the tab in Preferences is greyed out. Here's a screenshot. I have the default boxes ticked in the Background Processing tab. Does versioning depend on a particular folder structure?

[Mario]

You have only one relation and it is a Buddy Relation -  for buddy files. You can tell by the [ B ] in front of the relation name.
When you create a version relation it will show a [V] in front and the Version tab will be enabled.

In most scenarios you'll have a buddy relation to keep masters and versions together during move, copy, rename and delete. And optionally a version relation to propagate metadata, categories and Attributes.

For more info, see File Relations which introduces the concept of buddy and version relations and stacking.

[thusband]

OK got it I think. Had to play around a bit but I think this is a great feature. I went ahead and propagated all the files which took a few minutes. Does iMatch normally do this in the background?

Thanks for the help.

[Mario]

Be careful with this feature if you propagate metadata. Metadata is complex and propagating non-XMP metadata may cause problems (for example, if you copy EXIF from a RAW to a JPG). The potential pitfalls are described in the help, but sometimes users skip this...

IMatch automatically propagates in the background when you write-back the masters. If you interactively trigger the propagation, it will be performed immediately. The performance depends mostly on the hard disk and the speed of your computer. The log file would show us the exact timings. There may be 1000% difference between files on a local SSD and files on a remote NAS.

Propagation in this situation means: write-back all masters, copy metadata from masters to versions, read-back masters and versions, update database, etc.

[thusband]

Be careful with this feature if you propagate metadata. Metadata is complex and propagating non-XMP metadata may cause problems (for example, if you copy EXIF from a RAW to a JPG). The potential pitfalls are described in the help, but sometimes users skip this...

So ticking "XMP All Data" should be OK or should I be a bit more selective? What do most folks select?

[Mario]

All XMP data also copies the EXIF/GPS etc. data contained in the XMP for the master file into the version. The EXIF part in the XMP will not match the real EXIF in the JPEG.
If this is a problem for you, your workflow or your applications only you can answer.
I tend to be selective.

[thusband]

Thanks, I'll take another look.