Refresh with force update or reload metadata

[hluxem]

Hello,

So far I was under the impression that a force update is the same as removing an image and adding it back again in terms of metadata. I run into a situation where this seems to be different.

When I move a face annotation it seems the move sticks without writing back metadata. Even after a force update of the metadata the annotation stays in the new place. Database optimization or reopening the database does not change this. When I remove the image and add it back to the database the annotation is in the original place.

Do I have the wrong expectations or could this be a bug?

Thanks,

Heiner

[Mario]

This is the correct behavior. To delete a face annotation, delete in the Viewer or use one of the "Delete Faces" command from the context menu in the File Window.

IMatch imports XMP race regions, and saves faces into XMP face regions by default.
But it manages faces and the associated metadata separately, because faces in IMatch are much richer than the simple structure in XMP.

[PaulS]

Hello Heiner.

A variation on this point was discussed awhile ago in the forum and perhaps the following may be useful to you.

Changes to existing face annotations after the initial metadata writeback do not (on their own) cause any metadata updates.  So the annotations shown in IMatch can become out of sync with the metadata in the file.

As a result, I generally avoid moving or resizing face annotations.  But if I do need to change them, I use the following workaround to keep them consistent with the metadata.

1.  Change the annotation size or position
2.  Rename the person to an incorrect person and then immediately rename back to the correct person - pencil shows up that there are pending metadata write backs
3.  Click on the pencil and metadata updates will include the annotation changes

Regards,

Paul

[Mario]

Changes to existing face annotations after the initial metadata writeback do not (on their own) cause any metadata updates.  So the annotations shown in IMatch can become out of sync with the metadata in the file.

This is not correct. Moving or resizing a face annotation or changing the assigned person also changes the corresponding XMP data cached in the database, and thus causes a pending write-back.

[hluxem]

Thanks to Paul, I just have to remember this. My case is slightly different as for some reason when I worked with the initial 2020 version duplicated face tags were created in some folders. This is hard to spot as they are on top of each other, so I need to move them to see if the image has duplicate tags. As I have not written back the metadata I can fix this, but I have to delete all face tags for that folder first. Then do a reload of the metadata and everything is fine.
I personally think it's not consistent and when you force reload the meta data that this should include face tags as it's part of the meta data, but that is Mario's decision to make.

This is not correct. Moving or resizing a face annotation or changing the assigned person also changes the corresponding XMP data cached in the database, and thus causes a pending write-back.

I see the same behavior as Paul. To be sure I just tried it again in a small test data base. When I just move a face tag in the viewer the yellow pencil is not shown either.

Heiner

[Mario]

I think there is a reason for this. I think people complained that files become pending when they move a face annotation. I don't remember.
I have looked up the code comment I've made at that time (several months ago) and it is deliberate.

Don't do this ...(update XMP region data when the annotation is moved)...
This changes the XMP regions for this file and marks it as pending.
But we don't to the same for files when we add/remove face annotations and this will cause confusion because some file which produce XMP regions on write-back
are pending while others are not.
I guess this was changed because of user feedback and confusion in the test groups.

The XMP face regions are updated during write back automatically (from the then current state of the face annotations) but changing a face does not trigger a write-back.