Strange behavior after upgrading to IMatch 2023.2.4 after each import

[Andreas]

Hi,

after upgrading to 2023.2.4, I experience following unexpected behavior:

Immediately after importing new images to database, all newly imported images show the "unwritten metadata" icon. When hovering on it, it tells the list of to be written tags:

For JPG files, this is

XMP::exif\DateTimeOriginal
XMP::photoshop\DateCreated
XMP::xmp\CreateDate
XMP::xmp\ModifyDate

For NEF files, this is:

XMP::xmp\CreateDate

I don't expect this behavior as i did not do any action to modify any metadata. FYI - I import and develop the files using ACDSee and I use IMatch on the same folder structure mainly as a "read-only" tool. I never had this behavior before.

Further strange behavior:
When I press the "Write Metadata" icon this works for JPG files, but not for NEF files - for them the Icon does not disable after clicking on it. Metadata still shows as altered.

I'm not sure if this is a bug or a feature which was recently introduced with the time zone handling. However, if it's a feature, I'd like to know how to switch it off.

Thanks for helping,

Andreas

[Mario]

On import, IMatch produces XMP "date created" and "date subject created" from existing metadata in your files.
See How IMatch uses Date and Time Information

If this produces "new" time stamps (usually), IMatch marks the files as pending - because the XMP data in the files (if it exists) does not match the created time stamps. So this behavior is normal. After an initial write-back, all will be synchronized.

When I press the "Write Metadata" icon this works for JPG files, but not for NEF files

See Metadata Problems and Pitfalls for solutions for typical problems.
If your NEF files contain partial or invalid XMP data (this depends on the camera you use, the firmware you use etc.) this will be the result.

Some recent Nikon models / firm wares have bugs which causes the camera to write a correct time zone to EXIF, but Nikon does not consider this time zone when writing the XMP time stamp. Firmware bug. Nikon problem.
See also this lengthy discussion for this problem:  https://www.photools.com/community/index.php/topic,13542
Probably your NEF files might be affected by this firmware bug?

[Andreas]

Hi Mario,

thanks for explaining. Can you confirm this behavior was introduced with Release2023.2.4? I'm asking because I face this effect since installing this release.

Thanks,

Andreas

[Mario]

See release note #2011 for the 2023.2.4 release.
This most likely affects your files when they contain XMP time stamps without a time zone.
After a write back, everything should be OK.

[pmcabinet]

I'm still learning and have a puzzle with metadata write back, too. iMatch is set to import files automatically when downloaded from my phone to a new folder in Windows Explorer. They will appear in the file window with the write back icon (which didn't happen in iMatch 2021 until I made any additions/changes).

These are the settings for Metadata 2: (see attach)

And this is what I get when I right click+ctrl to force update: (see attach)

I'm getting this sequence, often repeatedly for the same action until the metadata is eventually written, so presumably one or more of the above settings is wrong? (I thought I had set to not protect unwritten metadata. Clearly I have not understood!) What should I change?

[Mario]

They will appear in the file window with the write back icon (which didn't happen in iMatch 2021 until I made any additions/changes).

IMatch has most likely set the date subject created / create date tags and they differ from what's in the file.
Tip: Point the mouse cursor at the pen icon to see which tags need to be written (The Pen Icon)
If your files contain XMP date but the time stamps have no time zone offset, IMatch now considers them as not well formed and marks the time stamps as pending after adding the proper time zone offset in the database.

You should not disable the default metadata protection. It exists for a reason.
When I disable all 3 protection options and then do a Shift+Ctrl+F5 > Reload Metadata or Force Update, I don't see this message.

I see several yellow warning icons in your file window. This means that there were problems reading or writing metadata. What does the tooltip for these icons show? It will show the error message returned by IMatch when reading/writing metadata to the file.

[pmcabinet]

Thank you Mario. 

I disabled metadata protection only to see if I would still receive the warning message - and I do receive it: 'Some Metadata is protected. You have configured options to protect...' - except I haven't!

Initially the pen icon says tags to write are DateTimeOriginal/DateCreated/CreateDate. I click the icon and after a few seconds the yellow triangle appears warning there was an error in writing back. Click on the pen icon again ('updating metadata...) and the triangles remain. Forcing an update removes the triangles, but leaves the yellow pen icon; click the pen again and the yellow triangles reappear. Again, rescan removes the triangles leaving the pen, which informs that tags to write are DateTimeOriginal/DateCreated/CreateDate - which we did at the beginning! The cycle continues ad inf - well, after about a dozen cycles the data seems finally to get written, but it takes a long time.

Is it likely to be a problem with my phone camera Exif? Or Windows?

 

[pmcabinet]

PS: I've just read the post on 'OneDrive, Sync, Metadata Writeback Problems, Possibly Related to Face Tags' where you mention metadata mess on badly implemented Exif (particularly phone cameras). Looks like that could be an answer?

[Mario]

This always depends. Different cameras cause different issues with different firmware versions.

The decision of Nikon to store a create date time stamp in XMP in some NEF variants (which is new), and the bug that causes this time stamp to use none / a different time zone offset than recorded in the EXIF metadata in the very same files is one example of metadata mess IMatch encounters and somehow has to deal with.