Option to declare a given Media as "permanently" offline

[Tveloso]

As discussed in this post:

        https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=9241.msg80195#msg80195

...when a folder is offline, because the Network Location where it resides (a NAS) is not currently accessible, IMatch freezes periodically for several seconds, even if we're only working on locally stored files, and not referencing the off-line folder(s).

Presumably the cause of these freezes is IMatch periodically checking to see of the offline folders have become accessible...and if that offline media is a Network location (not currently reachable), this causes a timeout condition, during which IMatch becomes unresponsive.

I have begun using the trick discussed in the above post (to relocate the offline media to a local disk).  The relocated folders are still offline (since they don't exist on the local disk either), but now IMatch no longer freezes.  I'm guessing that the check for the offline folders still takes place, but now it completes immediately (since the check uses a local disk, and not a Network Location).

I would like to request an option to "manually set" the offline state for a given media or folder (perhaps via a "set as offline" option on the right-click menu for the item in the M&F View), so that IMatch stops performing that periodic check (and the "false relocate" operation is no longer needed).

[mstief]

+1

[Mario]

I'm somewhat averse to the idea to implement a "permanently offline" feature. To many code points involved, too expensive.

I have figured out a potential issue with how Windows works when IMatch asks for the application associated with a file (which IMatch does to determine icons to show in the FW etc).
If I set it up just right in my lab (garage), Windows may take 10 seconds (!) to tell IMatch that it does not know the icon for an off-line file. While it takes Windows less than 1s to determine the file is offline. Windows works in mysterious ways sometimes...

IMatch caches the info, once retrieved, but anyhow, it might be a problem in some scenarios.
So I've improved this by making IMatch first check if a file is offline and then not asking Windows for the application associated. This should solve some issues.

I've also changed the cache invalidation policies for folders which have been found to be off-line. The cache for these folders is now retained longer (considered to be valid for a longer amount of time).

Let me know when you install the next release of IMatch next year (unless some real nasty bug shows up, I plan to ship the next update in January - within my standard 6-8 weeks schedule).