Automatic refreshing DataDriven Categories

[sinus]

Hi Mario
Since some days I keep my DataDriven Categories with Automatic Refreshing in the Background.

Now only a question:
When will these DD automatically refreshed?

I ask, because sometimes the refreshing is very quickly (sofort), specialy the DD with "Format-related" stuff.
But then again IMatch is idle for half an hour and all DD - categories will not be refreshed.

And then again, if I make some "complex" stuff (adding labels, stars, switch panels, ender metadata-values...), it begins to refresh and hence make IM slow.

I ask only, because if I know more, I could remember this and "change" a bit my workflow.

(For example now, IM has paused about 1 hour (I did nothing with IM), I had before edited some attributes - fields and until now on all DD-categories is the blue icon to refresh, but it does not. But automatic in the Background (prefs) and in the DD-cat itself I choose automatic refreshing.
And finally it works, if I close now IM and reopen, I am quite sure, it will refresh them.)

[Mario]

The categories are refreshed on-demand - when their results are needed by some operation you perform. This can be anything, from using a category to switching to another view, background processes etc. I would need the very precise circumstances to tell you more.

[sinus]

The categories are refreshed on-demand - when their results are needed by some operation you perform. This can be anything, from using a category to switching to another view, background processes etc. I would need the very precise circumstances to tell you more.

Thanks, Mario
Since I have this "Automatic-Refreshing" not long yet enabled, I will look at this better and then ask again. 

[Mario]

Automatic refreshing is the default.
You can set individual categories to manual refresh if your database is very large and the refreshing costs too much performance. Note that IMatch marks DD categories only as "need update" when you change data that affects the category. The actual recalculation is only done when needed (on-demand). Just looking at the category in the Category View may not trigger an update.

[lucio]

Today i tried to disable the automatic update for a category to avoid lags dued to the automatic refresh while i was working inside a category of around 20.000 photos.
I right clicked the category, advanced commands>data driven properties>basic settings>automatic update and then i switched it off but the OK button remains greyed out and it is not possible to confirm my choice.

Is there something I'm doing wrong?

[Mario]

The OK button is only disabled if the settings for the data-driven category are invalid.
Check that a valid tag is selected etc.

As often, it helps to provide sufficient details. Like, which category you mean (one of the standard categories, one or your own categories). The contents of the dialog as a screen shot etc.
This allows us to see what you see and that is always helpful.

You can also disable the automatic update directly via the properties panel under the category tree.