Date Problem

[AlanS]

I have not used the collections date function or the timeline. I was looking at them today though and do not understand what I saw. I'm using IM 5.7.2

In the attached 'Date 3' I cannot make sense of 'Recently Updated'. I don't believe I updated more than 20-30 files and most of that was moving files to another directory, so I don't know where the number 6,758 comes from, and to me the numbers don't appear to add up. 'Date 1' and 'Date 2' shows metadata from a file in the 'today (6,758)'; 'Date 1' from windows and 'Date 2' from IM. I've clearly got dates all over the place and they don't appear to agree. The IM dates look more correct though I doubt I anything with this image in 2010.
Recently Added & Recently Viewed appear to show what I'd expect. I have not looked into these extensively cuz I've been trying to figure out Recently Updated.

In the 'Time Line' I have some files that were taken on October 24th that show up in Sept 29th. I suspect this issue is because I copied GPS from an image taken at the same location on Sept 29th and copied it to some Oct 24th images. I used the 'Past Attributes' 'XMP GPS Data' only. 'Date 4' shows data from IM & 'Date 5' shows data from Windows for one of the images taken on Oct 24th but showing in Sept 29th in the time line. The different dates confuse me.

Would I not have this date problem if, when I copy GPS data I use 'GPS Data' instead of 'XMP GPS Data', though this doesn't explain my other issue.

I quite possibly don't understand how IM deals with dates and just need some guidance.

I have run the Database diagnostics twice, no errors, and then rebooted be before preparing this.

[Mario]

1. The recently updated collection is based on the file history IMatch maintains for each of your files.
Operations like move, copy, rename, metadata edits etc. update the history, and thus this collection. See the "File History" in the IMatch help for details about the file history.

2. IMatch handles dates in a standardized way that is compatible with the recommendations of the Metadata Working Group and also the most common applications out there.

The time line is based on the File Date & Time IMatch calculates for each of your files.
For image files with an XMP or EXIF record, this date is derived from the "Date created" timestamp. If this does not exist, from the "Date digitized" timestamp. If this does not exist, from "Date modified" timestamp. If this does not exist from the "last modified on disk" timestamp reported by Windows.

GPS data is not considered, unless you somehow use it to update the official EXIF and XMP time stamps.

Search the IMatch help index for exif and then click on Date and Time in the result to find the corresponding info. This topic also explains how IMatch produces the "File Date" for other file formats which don't have EXIF data.

In the 'Time Line' I have some files that were taken on October 24th that show up in Sept 29th.

Check the dates and times in the Metadata Panel. The 'Default' layout shows all three dates (created, digitized and modified) from the XMP metadata record. These time stamps are filled during import from existing EXiF and legacy IPTC data in your files. IMatch applies the mapping rules defined by the Metadata Working Group when mapping EXIF and legacy IPTC timtestamps during import, and also when mapping back from XMP during export.

When you change one of the XMP timestamps in the Metadata Panel, you can "shift" your files around on the timeline. When you write back, the XMP timestamps will be written back to the EXIF and IPTC (optional) timestamps to synchronize them.

GPS timestamps are not used for this process.

[AlanS]

Hi Mario,

I've got a lot to wade through here.

I've got 2 questions now as I work to understand this.

In the resent update snip, to me the resent update number don't add up.
2 - today
6,758 - yesterday
Shouldn't this week show 6,760?

Shouldn't this month at least = 6,758+107 instead of 6,758 again?

Also this month 6,758 + last month 4,911 I'd expect to equal at least 11,669?

I must not be understanding something here.

the history snip shows the history for the image on the left in the recently updated snip. I did not touch this image yesterday that I'm aware of. is there a way to show what was updated?  Perhaps this will become clearer as I read through exif part of help.

Cheers,
Alan

[Mario]

I would need your database to answer this.
I would need to look at the history of each of your files and see how the database sums them up.

I've made a quick check here: In one of my test databases I modified the metadata of only four files yesterday. These files show up in the Recently Updated > Yesterday collection. Correct. For this week it shows 5 files, which is also correct. I modified the metadata of another file on Friday.

We would need to find out why the database system calculates data wrong on your system. For example, look at the file history of a file which is reported as having been modified yesterday but you think this is wrong. What does the file history show?

[AlanS]

Hi Mario,

There are only 2 files in my Yesterday recently updated.

Yesterday left is a NEF files that was edited 3 days ago, it was converted to a TIFF that was then edited and saved as a PSD. Yesterday right shows the PSD last edited 2 days ago. The NEF is using the PSD as a visual proxy. Does the NEF show as updated because the visual proxy was updated. Also I assume IM uses UTC date/time, this would account for that by my local time these updates would have been day before yesterday (the update was in the evening). I'm also presuming that the TIFF didn't show as updated because it isn't using the visual proxy.

If I made the correct assumptions the above is logical.

My problem appears when I look at This Week.

In This Week IM I focus on the first file. This file is in a directory that is in a directory I haven't accessed in perhaps years. the first 11 images are in the same directory, they are not all the images in the directory. I've also attached the windows file properties for this image. I don't understand why none of the dates agree between Windows and IM.

Another oddity is that the 107 images in Last Week are all also in this week. Also I would expect the this month number to be higher that this week and last week.


Since it appears I may be the only one with this problem, I don't expect you to go through my database image by image checking the history  Would it make sense for me to delete the history of at least the last 3 months and monitor how the files accumulate in the subcategories? Perhaps there is something I'm doing, that I'm unaware of, that's causing this. 

Don't know if this will fix the counting issue but I can't help wondering if they are related.

Cheers,
Alan

[AlanS]

One more thing. I have edited the psd that was in my recently updated yesterday. Saving it was in was in today, but stayed in yesterday also. The nef also was in both today and yesterday, but not actually edited.

[Mario]

If you have changed a file yesterday and today, it will show up in both collections.
Did you find a file that was reported as changed yesterday/today but had no history entry that reflected that?
Versioning/Propagation always changes multiple files (the master and all versions) so the history will be updated.

Frankly, I have not looked at this for more than one year because there was never an issue with this.
My test databases work as they should.
If this is a special condition in your database, I will need to have your database here to check it out.

We can try to export only the history contents to reduce the size. You will need to download some tools and run some command line commands for that.
Contact me via my support email.
Allow for a week or two for me to look into this.
I'm currently in the high-stress phase of the IMatch Anywhere product launch and final beta test. Not much time for other things right now.