Dropbox & IMatch - EXIF Question

[nacho02]

Hello,

I have set up a way of transferring the photos taken with my iPhone to Imatch via Dropbox and the Camera Upload function.

Works fine (most of the time). The images get uploaded to the DB camera upload folder, and I have that folder in my imatch BD.

In most cases it's great. But I am having trouble lately because the images in imatch do not seem to have EXIF. If I run the Exit tool (F9+E) I can see Exif.... I do not know why it's not displaying correctly in IM.

I'm attaching two pictures. The first displaying NO EXIF in the thumbnail view (with date 24.9 in the file name), and the second, showing it (with 21.9 in the file name).

I am also attaching two screenshots in IM, to show what I mean.

Any ideas as to what might be causing this? It might not be Imacht, but my search for EXIF issues in DB or with iPhones do not help.

It's kind of breaking my workflow, if images do not have Metadata..

Thanks!

[nacho02]

and here is the other image.

[Mario]

Dropbox may hold file locks for a long time, preventing other applications from accessing the files.
Dropbox is not designed to be concurrently used with a DAM software that scans the folder while Dropbox is still doing its thing. This is from experience, Dropbox does not really document how they deal with files, how they manage temporary files, partial files during synchronization etc.

Rule: Make sure that Dropbox has finished synchronizing files before you index the folder with IMatch.

If IMatch rescans the folder while Dropbox still has files locked, or is shuffling bytes around, IMatch may be unable to access (some of) them. Or some files may only be partially there yet. Or there may be temporary files which Dropbox later renames to the real file name. Things like that. I really don't analyze third party software and the behavior can change with every DP update anyway.

Check the IMatch log file after such a problem happened and see if IMatch or ExifTool has reported warnings. If there are unexpected problems accessing files etc. there should at least be a record of it in the log file.  I'm also not sure if Dropbox may change the embedded metadata in your files during the upload. At least they analyze it for their purposes.

1. Make sure Dropbox is finished with whatever it is doing.
2. Select some of the problem files in IMatch. Press Shift+Ctrl+F5 and choose "Reload Metadata".
3. If this works, either IMatch or, more likely, ExifTool were unable to access the files during the rescan because Dropbox held file locks.

[nacho02]

Hello Mario,

I believe that your answer regarding synchronisation and DB locking files was absolutely correct.

Today I have waited long enough before starting IM5 so as to allow DB to finish processing, and it has worked :-)

I have rescaned the files from yesterday, and the metadata is now being shown.

Great!

Thanks once again for your great support!!