Automatic metadata reading adding and updateing files-

[lucio]

Is it normal that IMatch continuously reads metadata and keeps adding and updating files even if I'm not doing any operation in it? Or did I mess up something? The routine occurs every 10 seconds and during it I can't scroll the scope, nor open a menu or do anything.
I just did a fresh Windows 10 install and didn't notice this happened before.

Regards.

[Mario]

IMatch rescans folders already in your database when it receives "folder or files modified" messages from Windows.
Or when the folder "last modified" timestamp on disk is newer than the corresponding timestamp IMatch has recorded in the database.

Are you sure that IMatch has completed all indexed steps? Check the Info & Activity Panel, "Entries in Queue".

The only other explanation would be that some external software is constantly modifying files in that folder.
A folder scan in IMatch is super-fast. And IMatch only re-processes files with their "last modified on disk" timestamp has changed. Which means it has been modified by something.
All that usually runs in the background and does not interfere with the IMatch user interface.

Please include the ZIPped IMatch log file from the session where you noticed this (see log file).
The log file will show us what IMatch is doing and why and which folders and files it is rescanning.

[Mees Dekker]

I've had this before and sometimes it turns up these days. Has been discussed somewhere here on this forum, but cannot find the thread any more.

This only occurs with images on my NAS (Synology).

Most of the time, it stops when I close IMatch and restart it. Sometimes I have to reboot my computer.

[Mario]

Sometimes older SAMBA implementations (which simulate Windows file servers on Linux) report wrong timestamps for files. Or even change the media id at random.
This depends on the brand of the NAS, the Linux distribution used, the version, the SAMBA version and other factors.

From the IMatch standpoint, things are easy. Folder "last modified" timestamp never than in database => rescan.
File "last modified" timestamp newer than in database => rescan.

This is simple and works without any problems in 99% of all cases.

[lucio]

I've also tried to exit all other applications, I usually work on an image editor beside iMatch as i choose, rate, and annotate images in iMatch along with the editing activity. Nothing changes-
I keep the file on an external USB HD.
Could it be related to antivirus activity?

Here is the last log file.

[Mario]

In the log, IMatch rescans the folder Z:\archivio foto\2021\06\family\, which has many files.
As far as I can tell, no file was found to update (no new file or changed file).
Then the relation manger checks for changes and IMatch is done.
All this takes less than one second.

Windows sent a "folder modified" notice to IMatch and IMatch rescanned the folder to check.
This is not uncommon, even Windows Explorer sometimes causes these messages, or applications creating temporary files, or ...

But what makes me wonder: IMatch reports that it scanned files from

C:\ProgramData\photools.com\IMatch6\previewcache\022A1D9A-2DCA-4C40-AC3D-3BBFCD016B06\11\

which is the folder containing the IMatch cache.

Did you add this folder to your database? This would be a very bad bad idea.

[lucio]

In the log, IMatch rescans the folder Z:\archivio foto\2021\06\family\, which has many files.
As far as I can tell, no file was found to update (no new file or changed file).
Then the relation manger checks for changes and IMatch is done.
All this takes less than one second.

Can you see from the log if IMatch do this repeatedly? Because very often it does. In this very moment no, it works smoothly and doesn't rescan continuously. The fact is that nothing in my workflow has changed from previous days.

But what makes me wonder: IMatch reports that it scanned files from

C:\ProgramData\photools.com\IMatch6\previewcache\022A1D9A-2DCA-4C40-AC3D-3BBFCD016B06\11\

which is the folder containing the IMatch cache.

Did you add this folder to your database? This would be a very bad bad idea.

No, nothing on drive C: is in the database (see attached screenshot). I only have folders from the removable disk in it.
I've attached a log file just made in this moment (when the continuous rescan doesn't occur) to see if any difference helps.

[Mario]

I see many errors related to the telemetry database maintained to IMatch.
The database system reports 'attempt to write a readonly database'.

Did you intentionally make the database read-only (file name: C:\ProgramData\photools.com\IMatch6\config\imatch.tdb)?

If you disable telemetry in IMatch, it will not send data to my server (where only I can see it). No need to fiddle with the database file itself.
Making the file read-only will cause performance issues.

No other warnings in this log file. No folders were added or rescanned.

[lucio]

I see many errors related to the telemetry database maintained to IMatch.
The database system reports 'attempt to write a readonly database'.

Did you intentionally make the database read-only (file name: C:\ProgramData\photools.com\IMatch6\config\imatch.tdb)?

No I didn't make any change to the database file properties.
Could this issue be due to an automatic backup i've set every 60 minutes? Maybe it locks the files while copying them?

[lucio]

I'd be interested to let telemetry switched on. Where can I check its status?

[Mario]

Right-click on the file in Windows Explorer > Properties (while IMatch is not running) and check that it is not set to read-only and that "Everyone" or at least your user account has read/write/modify access.

A backup program should never lock files, that was done 20 maybe years ago before Windows introduced shadowing in the file system. Locking files willy-nilly can cause programs to fail, data corruption, crashes.