Rotate (EXIF) and Metadata

[Erik]

A power failure at my home last week corrupted my database, so I had to revert to a back up from a few days before. In reverting to a backup, IMatch rescanned all the files that were different since the backup.  Thankfully I had all the metadata updates written prior to the corrupt db, so all was ok there.

On the rescan a lot of files are set for pending metadata updates, mostly for keyword stuff.  There were 10,000 images with pending updates, which reflects a lot of new images I had added to the database and so on.  I'm processing these pending writebacks in batches while cleaning up some issues such as wrong image orientation.


Question:

If I choose an option to rotate the image using the "Orientation (Exif)" options, the pending metadata writeback is cleared.  Is Imatch actually writing all the pending metadata when the file is reoriented (not just the Exif) ?  The helpfile doesn't say anything with regard to this, and I wonder if I should trust that all the data has been written back to the file.

[Mario]

When you use this command, IMatch uses ExifTool to directly manipulate the file on disk!
This then causes a re-import of the file from disk, which clears the write-back status. Please make sure the data is written before you use that command.

[Erik]

When you use this command, IMatch uses ExifTool to directly manipulate the file on disk!
This then causes a re-import of the file from disk, which clears the write-back status. Please make sure the data is written before you use that command.

Understood, now.

That needs to be clear, however, as that isn't stated anywhere in the Help (that I could see), and it's dangerous.

1.  I think the write-back status should not be cleared or
2. Other pending data should be written back as part of the operation

(1) would be easier to implement.... I'll add it to the Feature Request Board.

-Erik

[Mario]

The easiest way to handle this would be to use the Metadata Panel to change the orientation. Did you try that?

[Erik]

The easiest way to handle this would be to use the Metadata Panel to change the orientation. Did you try that?

No I did not.  I'm not sure if I would say "easiest".  Perhaps safest is the right words.  Nothing beats right clicking for ease. 

Of course, now I know the behavior, it isn't quite a big deal, but not everyone is going to know this.  Thus, I filed some possible solutions as feature requests, the simplest being a warning to a user if the image has pending updates before processing a rotation coupled with perhaps an item in the help topics on rotation. 

But, I will look at using the metadata panel since that never occurred to me (the right click menus are so similar and improved on from what was in IM 3.6 that I just stuck with it).

Thanks.