Problem with conversion of an iMatch 3.6 database (resolved)

[Panther]

Been playing around with the demo version of iMatch5 (5.2.5) to see if I want to upgrade from 3.6 (which I really love).

I read the conversion help file (didn't understand some of it - I'm a lightweight user of 3.6 and only have about 2200 images that I've only put into about 130 categories and added titles and descriptions to in some cases.  I'm not using it for anything complicated at this point - basically just organizing some old family photos and scanned letters).

I've put my demo copy of iMatch5 on a different computer because I don't want there to be any chance of messing up anything about my 3.6 database while I'm playing around with version 5 for these tests.  So I made a copy of my 3.6 database folder and all my image files onto a removable USB 3 hard drive, and plugged it into the new PC with my demo copy of iMatch5 on it. 

I opened version 5, created an empty database, closed version 5, and ran the database converter.  Everything seemed to go just fine with the conversion, except that the converter reported that my 2200 files were "offline" so I was going to have to import metadata later when the files were "online" again.  First hint of trouble.

I opened version 5 and the new/converted database.  At first it looked like everything was there (images, categories, etc.), BUT all the files were marked as "offline" and darkened out in the preview window.  It's pretty clear from the messages in version 5 that this "offline" result was because the folder with all the images in the database was on drive "F" in my old computer but is on drive "D" now on the new PC.

The messages in version 5 said to use the "relocate" command to tell iMatch that the image files have been moved - took me a while to find that command, but I did and told it where the folder was now on drive "D" and told it to proceed.  I figured that files being moved to different drive letters must be a pretty common occurrence these days with so much stuff being on removable drives, so this should be a snap.

Well, two hours later things are just standing still (as far as any indications of any progress, of which there are none that I can see), and all the preview thumbnails I can see in my window are still showing the little message that "This file is currently being updated".  What is going on?  How long does it take for iMatch to tell itself that what used to be drive "F" is now drive "D"?  Is it not really the "relocation" that it's doing at this point but maybe it didn't actually perform the "conversion" before and is doing that now?  How long should it take to "convert" a version 3.6 database that only has 2200 image files in it?

Did I miss some step(s) in the conversion process?  I figure I've got to have about the simplest, least complicated version 3.6 database that anybody is likely to have, and the only thing that changed about the file locations was the drive letter, so it doesn't seem like the conversion process should turn out to be this complicated or time consuming.

I love iMatch 3.6 and from what I can see from playing around with version 5 in a couple of small tests before trying to convert my 3.6 database it looks like version 5 should also be able to do everything I'm looking for (and a lot more I haven't thought about doing yet).  But this hasn't been a very auspicious start so far.  I'm hoping it's just some simple error I've made from not understanding the help file well enough, but I could use some help from someone pointing it out if possible.

Thanks.

[Mario]

You copied your database and files to another computer, and then attempted the conversion. This made the conversion process unnecessarily difficult.

1. Since all image files are now on a different drive, IMatch cannot longer find them. It hence (correctly) marks them as off-line.

2. You performed the conversion on a database where all files are off-line.
This prevents the database converter to import the metadata from your files. You were informed about this.
The database converter marks all files as having pending metadata reads.

3. You now used the Relocate command on the IMatch 5 database to tell IMatch 5 that all files have been moved. You should done this before you converted the database, in IMatch 3.

4. Since the files are now on-line, IMatch 5 reads the metadata from all files into your database.

Depending on the settings you use, and the metadata your files contain, IMatch may not only be imported metadata, but also updated files. Since you did not include a log file (see How to report bugs and the IMatch help on the log file topic for more info) I cannot tell what IMatch is doing, which file formats you are processing or anything else.

Is the IMatch user interface responsive?
What does the Info & Activity Panel show? This panel allows you to see what IMatch is doing.
If you can still use the user interface, go to Help menu > Support > Copy Log file to make a copy of the log file. ZIP it and attach to your reply.
A database with only 2000 files should be converted in a few minutes.

[Panther]

First of all, thank you so much for responding to this yourself, and so quickly - much appreciated!

You copied your database and files to another computer, and then attempted the conversion. This made the conversion process unnecessarily difficult.

1. Since all image files are now on a different drive, IMatch cannot longer find them. It hence (correctly) marks them as off-line.

2. You performed the conversion on a database where all files are off-line.
This prevents the database converter to import the metadata from your files. You were informed about this.
The database converter marks all files as having pending metadata reads.

Well, if the tests go well my wife is going to be using version 5 on her PC, not mine, so I had no choice but to put version 5 on a different computer (I'll be buying the full/normal version of 5, not the upgrade, since I'll still be running version 3 on my PC for a while longer).  And the files were going to be moved to the removable drive at any rate no matter how/where the conversion was done, so the relocation issue would have come up regardless.  I did not want to install version 5 on my current computer because I did not want any chance of messing up my current version 3 installation.  And even if I had, and converted 3 to 5 on my current PC, version 5 would still have expected all the files to be on the "F" drive and I would have had to do something about the changed location when I tried to move both version 5 and the files to the new computer.

3. You now used the Relocate command on the IMatch 5 database to tell IMatch 5 that all files have been moved. You should done this before you converted the database, in IMatch 3.

As noted above, if I had converted from 3 to 5 on my current PC, the files would not have moved yet (they would still be on drive "F") so I could not have used the relocate in version 3 before converting.  I suppose I could have tried to install another copy of version 3 on my new PC, somehow copied over/opened up my version 3 database on that new PC, and then tried to tell it that all the files had been relocated to drive "D", and then tried to convert to version 5, but I didn't think it was possible/permissible to run a second copy of iMatch3 on a second computer, and again I didn't want to risk messing up my current version 3 installation.

4. Since the files are now on-line, IMatch 5 reads the metadata from all files into your database.

Depending on the settings you use, and the metadata your files contain, IMatch may not only be imported metadata, but also updated files. Since you did not include a log file (see How to report bugs and the IMatch help on the log file topic for more info) I cannot tell what IMatch is doing, which file formats you are processing or anything else.

I didn't think of this as reporting a bug when I posted this - I just thought I'd probably missed a step in the conversion process.  All the image files in my database are .tif files scanned from prints (some from negatives), newspaper articles, letters, etc.  I don't know what sort of metadata they may contain and never fooled around with metadata in version 3 - I just assigned them to categories and added titles and descriptions to some of them. (As I said, I'm a real lightweight user, but iMatch seems perfect for my cataloging effort and I've loved working with version 3).  I've put a copy of the log file in the .zip file I've attached below.

Is the IMatch user interface responsive?
What does the Info & Activity Panel show? This panel allows you to see what IMatch is doing.
If you can still use the user interface, go to Help menu > Support > Copy Log file to make a copy of the log file. ZIP it and attach to your reply.
A database with only 2000 files should be converted in a few minutes.

Yes, the user interface is responsive, even though (after running all night) it still says all the files are "currently being updated".  I've included a screenshot of the Info & Activity Panel in the .zip file with the log file copy.

Thanks for being willing to look into this.  I found iMatch3 in the first place because Adobe's support for my previous cataloging program was so atrocious, and your personal involvement and great support over the years was a big attraction for me in moving to iMatch3 at that time.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Panther]

Hey Mario - problem resolved!

After reading some more about the whole XMP sidecar file thing in the conversion guide (which I didn't really understand the first couple of times through because I never messed with XMP when working with version 3), I decided to try a small tweak on my conversion process, and it seems to have worked.

I told my existing version 3 database to go ahead and write all the pending XMP files out, and then copied that database and the 2200 xmp files it created over to the new PC and started the conversion and relocation process all over again.

I got to the same point I did last time after the relocation, where all the files seemed to be there but they were all grayed out as "currently being updated".  Then I decided to try doing a re-scan of the folder on the "D" drive - it took about 20 minutes, but it said it was finding and reading in the metadata and after that process ended all the preview thumbnails were normal looking with no "being updated" icons on them.  I checked through most of the files and everything (categories and attributes) seems to have made it through the conversion just fine.

I don't remember seeing anything about doing a re-scan after the relocation in the help notes/conversion guide, but I could have just missed it somehow.  In any event, as far as I can tell everything seems to be working now and I'm happily exploring the new quirks and features of version 5. 

[Mario]

Hi, Panther

good to hear that you got it solved. A rescan is normally only needed when the database converter cannot access the image files during the conversion and can thus not process the metadata via ExifTool into the database.

Writing back pending metadata in IMatch 3, in order to move it 'from the database' into the 'file' where IMatch 5 / ExifTool can pick it up is a mandatory step in the conversion process - if you have modified XMP metadata in IMatch 3 and not yet written the changes to the files. See also this know-how article in the IMatch knowledge base.

You have not attached any log files (the database converter produces 3, see the database converter help topic for details) so I cannot say why IMatch is still thinking that it needs to rescan one or more folders. Maybe IMatch has produced new XMP data by importing IPTC/EXIF/XMP from your files (happens, e.g., for keywords) and is writing the data back in order to synchronize the metadata it holds in the database with the files on disk.

But since you have it solved, I suggest we let it rest. Plenty of other things which require my attention currently...

Check out the "For IMatch 3 Users" help topic (Help menu > Open Help) and print out the keyboard cheat sheets in the Quick Start Guide (also in the Help menu). These help documents are very useful when you start fresh with IMatch 5.

[Panther]

Hey Mario - thanks for the response.  I suspect that the re-scan was needed because the files were "offline" and couldn't be accessed during the conversion since they had been moved to another drive.  I'm still not sure why the "relocation" process doesn't just figure that out on its own, since I told it that everything that used to be on drive "F" was now on drive "D", but I agree that since it's now working we can consider this one closed and you can spend your time on more critical things.  Hopefully, anybody else who tries to do this conversion while also moving iMatch to another computer will find this thread and maybe it will help them get through it.

Thanks again for all your efforts on this great program!