Issues with metadata writeback icons

[alanjs]

I have encountered issues with metadata writeback icons appearing on images when no data has been changed. Even a simple image re-scan will flag the writeback icon on multiple images.
Note that this only occurs on folders with tiff files – it does not occur on folders with raw (dng, CR2) or jpeg files. I first noticed this when adding new files or actually modifying an image in the folder.

Note that this did not occur on the previous version, it is new issue.

After doing some testing I think I have narrowed it down to this repeatable procedure:

•   With a folder open in the file window, select a file, right-click to open the options window, click Rescan Now. The image will immediately flag the image with the Writeback icon (pencil) before any action is taken on the image. In some cases it will also flag several (if not all) other images in the file window.
•   Alternately, selecting the folder in the tree window, a simple Rescan Now will also flag multiple images for writeback.
•   Executing the writeback command will clear the icons, but any rescan will cause the icons to re-appear.

I have run metadata analyst before and after the rescan and, other than the IPTCDigest warning message) there are no problems reported.
I have run exiftool to check all date values in the metadata and the only value that changes (before/after rescan) is the system access date/time as would be expected. A visual scan of all exif data does not show any changes.
Running exiftool to delete legacy IPTC data or XMP data has no effect.

Running the database diagnostics while the writeback is still pending produces the message:
Warning: 4 files marked as pending for write-back which have NO data to write-back. Fixed.
Completed.

This clears the issue. Subsequent to this, the problem does not re-appear on those files, but still occurs on others. I guess one solution would be to go through the entire database, do a rescan of all folders and run database diagnostics while the writeback commands are still pending. A bit onerous and may not prevent the issue from re-occurring with new folders.

I also noted that hovering over the writeback icon no longer identifies which metadata entries will be updated. Can this be re-instated?

[Mario]

The "What do write back" feature is unchanged.



I assume the write-back state is accidentally set, but no actual metadata need to be written, hence the tooltip is empty.

Why do you manually trigger rescans for files or folders?

It seems that, for some reason, IMatch flags your files as pending write-back. Curious is that this happens only for TIFF files. Can you attach one of the TIFF files, just in case it's somehow related to the actual image?

I have seen this happen once, in a virtual PC environment, but had no repro case. It's on my list, waiting for additional hints or repro steps.

Update: Just found a folder in my test library that causes this. I should now be able to figure this out.

[alanjs]

Mario, I don't trigger a rescan normally. I discovered the issue when adding new files to a folder, but that made it difficult to identify the cause. I later found that doing the rescan triggered the same issue and was easily repeatable so I used that as my example of what happens when I add new files.
I'm pleased that you have now found your own example of the issue and look forward to seeing a resolution.

[Mario]

I have identified the reason for this behavior and fixed it for the next release.
After installing the release, run a database diagnosis once to get rid of the "empty" write-back  pens.

[alanjs]

That's great. Thanks again

[Mario]

The 2025.1.10 release was shipped this morning. Just download and install it via Help > Check for Update.