Error in a metadata write back operation

[lightchaser]

Dear forum members,
yesterday after having added metadata (description, keywords. rating, labels, ...) to some images I initiated a write back operation to batch process  jpeg-files from the tiff-files. Maybe that I had'nt waited until this write back task was finished. Eventually I realised, that the resulting Jpegs didn't have all the metadata I had added. No problem, I thought, and wanted to repeat the batch process only to realise that in about one third of the images in the tiff-folder had lost all the metadata I had added. To make this clear, I did the batch process with Photoshop. Is there an Imatch-Info that the write back operation is finished and that it's safe to do further operations? Any advice of experienced users?
Thanks!
Franz

[Mario]

I'm not sure that I can follow your report.

IMatch writes back data in the background, unless you write-back just a couple of files. In that case, IMatch displays a progress dialog.
Progress is reported as usual via the Info & Activity panel, or when you want to get even more information, you can open the ExifTool output panel.

Background write-back is interrupted by other database activity, e.g., when you work with IMatch. IMatch only writes back data when the database is idle. When you close IMatch, write-back operations stop, and are re-continued when you start IMatch the next time.

You write you issued a write-back operation. How?
You also write you did batch process files.
When the batch processor has to copy metadata, it does that in a final step with ExifTool. It can only copy metadata from the source file to the target file, not from some 'intermediate' source. If the files you use as the source for batch processing have unwritten changes, the Batch Processor will prompt you, explaining the fact and then allowing you to start the write back to the source files. While that happens, a progress dialog is displayed. When the write-back to the original files has completed, the Batch Processor performs the copy operations to the output files automatically.

I'm not quite sure what you did in which sequence, and what really went wrong. You did not give us sufficient info, no log file from that session etc...

[lightchaser]

Thank you Mario,
as I wrote: I added Metadata to the files in a folder (Keywords, Description, Label, ...). I do this to TIFF files before I batch process them to jpegs via Photoshop before I send these files to clients. When I'm ready wiht adding Metadata I click the pencil tool to write the data into the respective files. I assume, that I started  the Photoshop image processor, while the writing process was still running in IMatch, what not only affected the jpegs but also deleted the added Metadata in the tiff-files that were not written back at the moment of batch processing!? Is that possible?
Franz

[Mario]

When you write back the files, does IMatch display a progress dialog (and thus blocking the UI) or did it put the images into the background queue for processing? If you write back many files, IMatch puts them into a queue and then writes them in the background. How long this takes is not determined and depends on various factors. The Info & Activity panel etc. tell you if IMatch is still processing files.

What is the "Photoshop Image Processor"?
Do you mean gold ol' Photoshop?
If you have used Photoshop to process TIFF files IMatch was still not finished writing to, Photoshop will not have seen the metadata.

[lightchaser]

Yes, I've used Photoshop. That I did'nt find the not yet updated metadata is normal. But why have the same Metadata in the original TIFF files vanished?
Franz

[Mario]

I still don't understand your statement:

yesterday after having added metadata (description, keywords. rating, labels, ...) to some images I initiated a write back operation to batch process  jpeg-files from the tiff-files.

What did you do exactly? You talk about batch processing. And Photoshop.

What did you do in which sequence?
When you use the IMatch Batch Processor to create JPEG files from TIFF files, IMatch copies metadata from the TIFF files to the JPEG files. This can never delete any metadata from the TIFF files.

[lightchaser]

I think that the interaction of Imatch writing back metadata and the image processor of Photoshop changing the tiff images in the very same folder IMatch was writing back caused the deletion of all the metadata of those images the write back operation had not finished. I will watch carefully not to start PS image processor before the writing back of IMatch is finished.
Franz

[Mario]

It is not a good idea to modify the same files at the same time with multiple applications. There is mo way to communicate or synchronize this and you risk data loss.

[ubacher]

I understand that the original question was how to know when (background) metadata write-back is finished.

I would suggest to Lightchaser that he works with manual write-back operation. Imatch will be busy until the write-back is completed
(which may be undesirable) but it will be impossible to initiate another operation via imatch till then.

[Mario]

This all depends on how many files you process, and the format, and the system spec.
Background write-back is enabled by default, because it is the best way for most users. Most users don't wait for the write-back to finish to quickly open the just written back files in another application. And if they really need to know, the Info & Activity panel will tell.

If you interactively trigger a write-back operation (clicking the pen or using the Commands > Write-back... commands), IMatch shows a progress dialog anyway.