Removing Annoying Tip about Unconfirmed Faces

[Josebr]

How do I remove, stop the annoying tip from showing up each time I start up imatch. It's a tip about unconfirmed faces. I have 20,000 of them and will not be getting to them any time soon. Please tell me how to get rid of this tip.

[Mario]

This is not a tip but an relatively important system notification.
Having too many unconfirmed faces will slow down the face recognition severely. In your case, every time you assign a person to a face or confirm a face annotation, IMatch has to analyze 20,000 faces in order to determine if one of these faces matches the new confirmed person. And if you confirm only 10 faces, this makes 200,000 other faces to consider and check in the background...

There are some notifications which can be disabled, like the off-line folder notification or the "folders added outside..." notification. After careful consideration I have decided to now add an option to disable the face confirmation notification. Because it can really become a performance bottleneck. I understand that it might be mildly annoying to affected users to see this once they start IMatch.

[ubacher]

Would not disabling automatic face recognition stop this warning? I had this annoying problem and ended up deleting
all the unconfirmed faces. Afterwards I thought of the possibility of disabling automatic face recognition. So please test to see if that stops the message appearing.
(Under Preferences - Application - Face Recognition)

[Josebr]

I had previously disabled automatic face recognition to get rid of this tip. But now it is back. I did go to the Preferences location you mentioned and everything is No, or Never. I don't want imatch to use face recognition at all. I want to assign a name to a face. Mario must think I just want to stop this notification. But I don't want any auto, AI or otherwise face recognition to be used on my files. I am the one carefully assigning categories to each photo.

Mario, how do I turn off face recognition?

[Mario]

If you have 20,000 unconfirmed faces, face recognition was on at some point in time. This will automatically trigger face reclustering (searching persons for unconfirmed faces) whenever a person is assigned. You cannot turn this off.

The only way I would see is to select the 20K files and then use the command (File Window context menu) to delete unassigned/unconfirmed faces. Also disable the "Automatically Assign..." option in Edit > Preferences > Application.

[PandDLong]

If you have 20,000 unconfirmed faces, face recognition was on at some point in time.

I had the situation where I was importing files that had already had face annotations from other software (Apple in my case) which cluttered up my face recognition and created many unconfirmed faces.

Could that be a source of 20,000 unconfirmed? (and a potential ongoing source of more even after you cleanup your current iMatch database).

Michael

[Mario]

When IMatch imports XMP face regions with a "tag", if creates the person with the "tag" name and confirms the face. Assuming the other software / device knows what it does.

For Apple devices there have been a number of "issues" Apple silently fixed / worked-around on their devices, but which caused problems as soon as you had the chutzpah to open an image taken on an iDevice with another software or on another platform. Face regions with a width/height of zero come to mind, for example.

[Josebr]

So Mario, back to my question. How do I get rid of the annoying (it gets me angry) message at the bottom of my screen? Surely there must be a way to get rid of it. I don't find your answer is clear. Can you explain in plain English how to remove the message. Surely you want a happy customer? Why would you want a software user to have to put up with silly things?

[Mario]

I answered the question already in this post https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?msg=102306

Surely you want a happy customer? Why would you want a software user to have to put up with silly things?

I'm sorry to hear that this useful notice is of such a concern for you and makes you very unhappy. This makes me sad.

I suggest you open a feature request, asking for an option to suppress this particular notification.
This will tell us how many users see this as an issue too and then I can see if yet another option is needed.

Until then, do what I've explained in my initial reply.

[Josebr]

Mario, I might be doing something wrong or looking in the wrong area, but when I do as the silly Tip suggest and go to where the Unconfirmed Faces are, it lists only 9 photos event though the Tip has a different number.

[Josebr]

 The tip says 20,000 unconfirmed faces. Let me know what' the real number? And by the way I did confirm the faces on the 9 photos and it did not stick. They still show up as unconfirmed. Thought you should know, Thanks.

[Mario]

When you look at the Quality Panel in the IMatch Dashboard, how many unconfirmed faces does it show?
You can click on the link following the stats to open all files with unconfirmed faces in a File Window.
Then select the files and remove the unconfirmed faces with the command available in the File Window. Hopefully this is not just another silly tip.

[Josebr]

Mario,
It show only 9 unconfirmed faces. Which I assigned a category too, but they still show up. And the tip still says I have onver 20,000 unconfirmed faces. I did try to post a photo in my last reply which I put in the text area. But it did not take. I thought replies were suppose to have an attachment link?

[Mario]

The notice is triggered when IMatch starts and detects too many unconfirmed faces.
It does not update automatically or anything later on. Just close it.

When you have only 9 unconfirmed faces left, IMatch will not show it again.

[mopperle]

I did try to post a photo in my last reply which I put in the text area. But it did not take. I thought replies were suppose to have an attachment link?

Do not use ,,Quick Reply" but click on the reply button, them you can add attachments.

[Mario]

Or, when using Quick Reply, click on Preview to enable the attachment options.

[Josebr]

Here are screen shots of what I am encountering with Match. I just want to get rid of the tool tip at the bottom so that it never comes back each time I open the program.

[Mario]

The notification reports over 20,412 unassigned or unconfirmed faces. 1,004 are unconfirmed, the rest has no assigned faces.
The banner shows when there are more than 20,000 unconfirmed faces.

You must reduce the number below 20K to prevent the notification from showing.
Confirm 500 faces or delete 500 face annotations.

You can just select 500 files with face annotations in a File Window and use the delete faces.
Select 500 files with faces and open the command palette with Ctrl+Shift+P
search for faces  and double-click on the delete faces command.

[Josebr]

Mario,
I don't have a frame of reference for what you are saying. Is there a video I can t watch that shows what you are saying?
I did a  Ctrl+Shift+P and faces came up, but I don't see a delete faces command. Is there a menu equivalent? I did double click and a strip of photos came up.  

Also in 'deleting faces' am I deleting the photos?

[Josebr]

Sorry, the pasting of your comment created weird text. But Mario, please be aware you are very knowledgeable about your program, but all I have ever wanted was a program to tag my photos, no AI, or any thing else. Just a simple program. Have you considered creating an Imatch Lite? Just a barebones program.

[Mario]

If you don't want to use face recognition, disable automatic face recognition via Edit menu > Preferences: Automatic face recognition: No



Select the files from which you want to remove faces in a File Window. Use the command from the right-click context menu in the File Window:



Note: I've used IMatch 2025 for this screen shot. Your menu will be white, not dark-gray.

or search for face in the Command Palette and double-click the Delete Faces command:




Then choose which faces to delete from the selected files:



Tips:

File with faces show the annotation icon.
The Dashboard allows you to open a File Window containing all unconfirmed and unassigned faces. Just click on the arrow following the corresponding statistic:



There is no viable market for a "light" IMatch version.
IMatch users typically use 50% of IMatch, but every user uses different 50%.

Note: If you import more files and the show face annotations despite automatic face recognition being off in IMatch, the images contain XMP face regions written by another software or device (iPhone etc. ) and IMatch imports the regions from there. See Working with XMP Face Regions

For free tutorial videos follow the many links in the IMatch help system or go to https://www.photools.com/imatch-learning-center/

[Josebr]

I am angry and beyond frustrated. I can't believe that one tip can't be deleted or ignored. Your examples do not show what I am seeing in my program. If you are using 2025 version, then it may not match my version. Which should be the one before it.
I absolute hate dark mode.

Question:
Do the whole 'faces' thing have anything to do with my tagging a category to a photo? If I were to press delete on the files which show up as unconfirmed faces, will it delete the actual files from imatch? I could care less about imatch recognizing faces. I don't tag people that way. I upload each day's photos and tag them with categories. I am too careful to rely on a program to do things for me.

[thrinn]

I am angry and beyond frustrated. I can't believe that one tip can't be deleted or ignored. Your examples do not show what I am seeing in my program. If you are using 2025 version, then it may not match my version. Which should be the one before it.
I absolute hate dark mode.

I am a bit astonished about your reaction. Dark mode is of course a personal preference, but the relevant menu entries Mario showed in his screenshots are also available in the current version (2023.14.2), dark mode or not. Please see this screenshot:



Did you follow the steps he provided? Because in my case, I find the relevant menu entries also in the current version. The options which faces to delete (unassigned, unconfirmed, etc.) are also the same.

Does this not work for you? If you run into issues following Mario's steps please provide some more information at which step so that we can help.

[thrinn]

Do the whole 'faces' thing have anything to do with my tagging a category to a photo? If I were to press delete on the files which show up as unconfirmed faces, will it delete the actual files from imatch?

I don't think so. Assigning or confirming faces (thus telling IMatch that the faces it detected really belong to the people it thinks) can in parallel assign categories (if configured so), but not the other way round.

If you press delete on a file you will delete the file (or assign a "Reject" rating). Deleting a face or face annotation is something different. In the Viewer, for example, the "delete" key it depends if you have a face annotation selected (then DEL will only delete the annotation) or not (then DEL will mark the file as deleted/rejected, you will be asked when leaving the viewer).

[Mario]

Your examples do not show what I am seeing in my program. If you are using 2025 version, then it may not match my version. Which should be the one before it.

The menus, functionality and dialogs are exactly the same. Only the menu color is different. Did you check?

Removing the face annotations you don't want takes all but a minute, even for 20,000 face annotations. Select files, run the command, done!

Did you follow my steps?
Because in that case, the notification that annoys you so much will be gone and won't never show again.
At least not unless you create another set of 20,000+ face annotations.

If you have problems following the steps and screen shots I've provided, let us know where exactly.

I absolute hate dark mode.

That's bad news for you then, I'm afraid.

After running a public beta test for several months here in the community where we honed the new ribbons and dark-mode menus, what you see in my screen shot is what you will get in IMatch 2025.

[Josebr]

H Mario,
I tried what you said. Attached is a screen shot. The tip at the bottom still reads over 20,000 Unassigned faces, but the info on top shows no unassigned faces. I did get rid of 1,000 faces by choosing Ignore. Thank you for being patient.
I appreciate it. 

[Josebr]

If I was in the wrong location please tell me, using the Database, Edit, Command, Search, View, Tools, Help menu items. Tell me where to start then let me know the menu item underneath it and then the one underneath that like:
View\Views\Category. Until I get to the menu item I need to be at. It would help me a lot. I wish to make sure I nail this down. Again, thanks!

[Mario]

The notification does not refresh or monitor the database. IMatch shows it when there are > 20,000 unconfirmed faces and then the notice stays. Restart IMatch to see if it shows up again.

[Josebr]

The unconfirmed Faces now read 0 (zero). But the unassigned faces is over 14,800. And the Collections views does not show these faces. Where do I see those faces? Walk me through the menus so that I can follow along and get rid of that tip. 

[Mario]

Why not just use the People Filter with the unassigned faces option? Did you try that?
Bring all files in your database into a File Window (select the database node) and then apply the filter.
People Filter

As always, when you want to find/filter files using some criteria, the Filter Panel is the first thing to use.