Does "writing back" command change the the original RAW files?

[OdysseusL]

Hello,

I'm testing IMatch this week with the trial version. I've imported around 75k photos (95% of the are RAW). After importing it, IMatch noticed that it has to write back data. What data will IMatch write back?

After IMatch finished to write back data the windows explorer shows me, that  all files, not only XMP files, but the RAW files have a new "modified date". Have the RAW files been changed, too? If yes, what exactly have been changed within the RAW files?

Every time I start IMatch, the "Media & Folders" panel shows the panel "Recently Updated Folders", and it shows folders I definitely didn't have make any changes. Any hints or tips why this panel shows these folders?

During testing of IMatch I don't edit any photos, I still test the photo management. So I neither change the photos nor the XMP files. Nevertheless IMatch provides notices, that "Adding and updating files" in the right below corner of the windows. What kind of files will be updated/added? Than this notice vanishes and a few seconds or minutes later it shows me this notic again. Meanwhile I have not touch the photos, XMP files or even IMatch. May someone explain this behaviour?

The background for testing IMatch ist to move from Adobe Lightroom Classic to another DAM. I hope IMatch will be the and of my infinite search ;-)

Thanks in advance for your hints/tips/help!

[Mario]

After IMatch finished to write back data the windows explorer shows me, that  all files, not only XMP files, but the RAW files have a new "modified date". Have the RAW files been changed, too? If yes, what exactly have been changed within the RAW files?

This is normal. Keep in mind that the RAW contains embedded EXIF, frequently GPS and sometimes legacy IPTC metadata that needs to be synchronized with the corresponding fields (tags) in the XMP record. Otherwise your files would have two sources of truth, meaning different data in the embedded metadata and the external XMP file. Not good.

I recommend you read Metadata for Beginners in the IMatch help system to learn more about embedded metadata, EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP etc. IMatch implements the rules and recommendations of the MWG and the IPTC group when it comes to mapping between native and XMP metadata.

Every time I start IMatch, the "Media & Folders" panel shows the panel "Recently Updated Folders", and it shows folders I definitely didn't have make any changes. Any hints or tips why this panel shows these folders?

IMatch stores the last modified timestamp reported by the Windows file system in the database, for each folder indexed by your database. When you start IMatch (or when Windows sends folder/file modified messages to IMatch) IMatch compares the last modified timestamp of the folder in the database with the timestamp reported by the Windows file system. If there is a difference, IMatch marks the folder as pending (blue arrow icon) and rescans it in the background to find new and updated files.

See Indexing Folders and Files

If you don't make changes to these folders, maybe Windows or another application does? Sounds like it.

Also, Make EXTRA sure that you have stored the database in a folder that is NOT INDEXED by IMatch.
If you store the database on the C: drive, and you also index the entire C: disk, for example, any change Windows or any other application makes to the file system will force IMatch to rescan all folders. IMatch updates the database very frequently, and this will cause Windows to send "File in <database folder> has changed". You should only index selected folders, not entire disks. At least not the system disk C:, which is busy all the time. But IMatch warns you when the folder containing the database is indexed by the database.

During testing of IMatch I don't edit any photos, I still test the photo management. So I either change the photos nor the XMP files. Nevertheless IMatch provides notices, that "Adding and updating files" in the right below corner of the windows. What kind of files will be updated/added? Than this notice vanishes and a few seconds or minutes later it shows me this notic again. Meanwhile I have not touch the photos, XMP files or even IMatch. May someone explain this behaviour?

Most likely IMatch just reacted on "folder/file modified" events sent by Windows. If it receives such a message, it has to rescan the folder to ensure that it notices new and modified files.

If you run many other applications, background services, Adobe software etc, close these other applications until you find out what causes the constant changes in your folders. This is kinda unusual and maybe IMatch is just is the first software where you notice this. IMatch is quite communicative about what it does and when.

If you are technically inclined, you can switch IMatch to debug logging via Help menu > Support and then, after letting it run for a while, search the log file for AddOrUpdateFolder and AddOrUpdateFile to find the names of the folders and files IMatch checked because of modified timestamps.

See The IMatch Log file for more information about what the IMatch log file does and how it can be used to diagnose things.