Importing from Lightroom Classic

[Grumpy Hec]

Hi

I am exploring, again, the idea of using Affinity Photo 2 and switching to a new DAM as part of moving away from Adobe.

I have installed the trial version of iMatch and went to run the LR importer. The section which lists root folders prevents this because it appears to be in, what I assume, is Chinese! Not sure if this is something from the LR side or iMatch.

Anybody got any ideas on this?

I am on W10 and LR Classic.

cheers

Martin

[thrinn]

Hm, not really. I assume the IMatch user interface itself is showing English texts? Maybe check the App language settings in the preferences?

[Mario]

IMatch Apps are available in English and German, and many also in Dutch and Portuguese. No Chinese translation available.
It would be helpful to see a screen shot of what you are seeing.

Note: The LR Importer app is many years old. I wrote it at the time to help users who wanted to switch from LR to other applications to avoid the subscription. Adobe changes the LR catalog frequently and the app was written by reverse engineering some existing catalogs at the time.

You don't need the LR importer app. It's just a convenience feature to same some manual work.
All you have to do is
a) make sure that Lr has written back all XMP data (it by default keeps all XMP data only in the catalog)
b) then index the same folders you have indexed in LR in IMatch.
IMatch will import all files and metadata, persons, GPS data etc. automatically.

See also Using Lightroom and IMatch together for some additional tips.

Note that IMatch is a true DAM and has many DAM features that might be new to you.
I recommend these topics from the IMatch help:

First Steps
Meet IMatch
Metadata for Beginners
Cheat Sheets
and the many free video tutorials in the IMatch Learning Center.

[Grumpy Hec]

Many thanks for that Mario.

I am, in fact, already doing an index operation in bite size chunks so that I can evaluate the application in deciding to move away from Adobe in favour of a DAM and Affinity Photo.

I suspect that the biggest issue I have will be recreating the functionality of the may collections, including many nested to three levels, using the various tools in iMatch. I'm sure that will be possible and may well prove to be better after some  work. It will be enjoyable doing this, albeit time consuming, and will help me to understand the software better.

Thanks again for your comments, the cheat sheet and metadata explanation are especially useful. 

If I do decide to switch my wife may also adopt iMatch/Affinity as well so we will be after two licences. We will see.

regards

Martin

[Mario]

I suspect that the biggest issue I have will be recreating the functionality of the may collections, including many nested to three levels,

In IMatch you would use Categories for this purpose (and many others).

To automatically organize your files using metadata, e.g. by location, camera model, shooting info you would use Data-driven Categories - these work similar to Lr's Smart Collections, but with 500% more flexibility and features.

IMatch also supports Category Formulas which allow you to dynamically combine categories, access metadata etc.

Switch to the Category View and look at the "IMatch Standard Categories". These are data-driven categories which automatically organize your files by a wide range of criteria.

The "IMatch Workflow" categories are formula-based categories, designed to help you identifying images with missing metadata or specific 'conditions', so you know if work needs to be done.

The LR importer app could import static collections only, not dynamic collections.
I now also know what you mean by Chinese. It seems that the version of SQLite IMatch now uses is no longer compatible with older Lightroom catalogs. I see tons of error messages about invalid strings from the database system when fetching data from Lr catalogs, and the result of these invalid strings look like Chinese.

Not sure what the reason for this is or what I would need to do to somehow open Lr catalogs now (e.g. using a older version of SQLite only for the LR importer app). I think this is not worth the effort and I shall retire the LR importer for IMatch 2023.

[Grumpy Hec]

Thanks again Mario

I have sorted one specific Category task I needed so I am now sure I can now create all that I need to emulate my old LR collections and probably end up with a better system.

The next thing I need to understand is versioning/stacking so I can easily keep track of Raw, Edit v1/V2/V3/V4/V5/Print/PDI/ etc. Have not looked at this properly yet but at first glance this is going to need a deal of thought to get right. 

One comment I will make in light of my investigations is how well this software is put together. So many details seem to be have been thought of. I say that as someone who used to have a large, 100+, team of software dev/test/support people under me when I was still at work.

I do have one major problem which is my issue and not yours. My wife uses Mac and I have just noticed that this is Windows only. As she normally likes to use the same tools as myself this will need some careful handling on my part!!  

[Mario]

Sounds good. Let us know when you need help with something.

Unfortunately, IMatch is only available for Windows. Developing for the Mac is expensive, you're at the whim of Apple...and I have only 48 hours in my days.

Before Apple kicked out Intel (when switching to M1/M2 CPUs) IMatch could be run on Macs using the normal "Run Windows software on Macs" solutions. It seems that there is now also software which can simulate an Intel CPU on a Mac to run Intel Windows software, but I don't know any details, performance etc. Macs are just not on my plate - I need bang for the buck

One comment I will make in light of my investigations is how well this software is put together. So many details seem to be have been thought of. I say that as someone who used to have a large, 100+, team of software dev/test/support people under me when I was still at work.

Thank you. You are very kind.

[Tveloso]

I do have one major problem which is my issue and not yours. My wife uses Mac and I have just noticed that this is Windows only. As she normally likes to use the same tools as myself this will need some careful handling on my part!! 

IMatch Anywhere might be a solution to this...it would allow the Mac to also excess (and even edit), the IMatch Database.  The only drawbacks would be that IMatch and IMA can't run concurrently, and IMA can't index new files (I believe), but you could probably establish a workflow to compensate for that...

[Mario]

IMatch Anywhere does a great job allowing multiple users to access an IMatch database, using only a web browser and from any platform (Windows, Linux, MacOS, Android TV etc.).
Images can be viewed, metadata and categories can be edited etc.

For maintaining the database, e.g. adding new folders, IMatch is needed.

[Grumpy Hec]

It looks like the Mac version issue is going to be a deal breaker. 

This is because my wife, although working on her own images/catalogues prefers to use the same tools as myself so that I can give up to date support and help. As this is a frequent occurrence the reality is that I need to be using the same software as her which, in this case, rules iMatch out for me.

I am disappointed about this as I find iMatch to be excellent. However, sometimes we have to take a wider view and compromise.

Therefore I will sign off with much thanks for your excellent help and apologise for using some of your valuable time on what was, ultimately, a fruitless pursuit.   

Best wishes for you and iMatch and the family of users.

regards

Martin

[Mario]

I hoe you'll find a capable DAM for your Mac.

[Jingo]

Before you sign off on Imatch completely, take a look at Parallels 18 for the Mac which lets you run windows software on M1/M2 chip sets..  I have not run IMatch virtually on MAC in many, many years... but in the past, when run in Coherence mode, it worked quite well once you had all the paths configured properly for the software.

Good Luck!