Migration from IMatch3 not successful

[lightchaser]

Have tried another start to migrate my IMatch 3 DB to IMatch 5 after the installation of a new big and fast SSD. Have about 200.000 images and a lot of categories and metadata in the DB. It took quite some time, after the first night it would took still 15 hours, when I went to sleep further 6 hours. In the morning I found the PC frozen, no input signal on the monitor. So I had to reset the PC and when I tried to open the new database, it was empty.
Question: is it normal that the conversion process takes that long and what could be the problem for the frozen PC?
Regards
Franz

[Mario]

We need more information. Most users have successfully converted their IMatch database a year ago, and in the time since.
There were very little problem reports - and if they were usually caused by badly damaged files or corrupt data.

The conversion of a 200,000 files database will take some time, especially if your storage is slow or the files contains a lot of metadata. And converting 200,000 files (which can be considered an enterprise-size library already) puts a lot of stress on your system.

When your database contains RAW files, WIC codecs by 3rd party vendors are used and may cause problems.
When your database contains video or audio files, codecs provided by Microsoft or other vendors are used and may cause problems.
When your database contains PDF files, a WIC codec or the component provided by Adobe are used, and may cause problems.


The database converter produces several log files which help us to identify the source of the problem on your machine.
Please ZIP and attach these log files. Or send them to me via email.
Open the database converter help in the IMatch help system (press Help in the converter dialog) to learn about the file names and locations of these log files.

In the rare case where the converter was unable to complete the process, usually a crash in an external component or ExifTool was the cause. Damaged metadata, badly corrupted files etc. can cause this to happen. Since the converter performs the entire operation in one "transaction", it will undo all changes to the target database when it cannot complete.

If you have a lot of potential troublesome files, I suggest you don't convert but create a new IMatch 5 database and add your files manually. This allows IMatch to continue after a crash and to perform better error reporting.

1. Create a new IMatch 5 database.
2. Add the same folders you have in your IMatch 3 database to this database.

Let this process continue.
If IMatch crashes, secure the IMatch log file (copy it to another folder) before you restart IMatch.
See log file in the IMatch help system for more info.

If IMatch stops/crashes because of a corrupted file, the name of this file can be found near the end of the log file.
Remove that file or open and re-save it in the corresponding application. This often "repairs" damaged files and IMatch can continue.

If IMatch 5 crashes or freezes while adding files, it will continue with the remaining files when you restart it. This way you can bring all your files into IMatch 5, even of some of the files are badly damaged and crash the WIC codec or ExifTool or whatever.

Tip: Run a Database Compact & Optimize after about every 50,000 files (Database menu > Compact...) to ensure optimal performance. You can do that even when IMatch is still importing files. Just dismiss the load screen dialog and then run the command. Adding 200,000 files in one go will cause some disk fragmentation and running a Compact restores optimal performance.

After all files have been added to your IMatch 5 database, you're done. Congrats 

Now, export your categories in IMatch 3 (use the "with file links format") and import the categories into your IMatch 5 database.

If you have used the property database in IMatch 3 ("Title" and "Description") you can export the properties in IMatch 3 and import them into your IMatch 5 database as well.

Let us know if you need help with that.