.ARW files not rotated appropriately

[Damit]

I have some .arw files that do not show the proper orientation in IMatch.  Everywhere else I open them, File Explorer, Photos or photoshop, they are correctly orientated, but not in IMatch's thumbnail or Viewer.  The correct orientation is in the metadata, but the program is not rotating it (see screen shot).  I played with the photools.com RAW processing settings in the general tab of preferences based on another thread that I found here, but nothing I do gets the files to display properly. Here is a link to the file: No rotation

What is weird is that it is only doing this with a few .arw files but most are orientated correctly. I have also attached a WIC Diagnosis for the file.  I did read it said the codec I was using was out of date.  Are there any recommended codecs to use if this one is not viable?

Any ideas how to correct this issue?

[Mario]

You have two WIC codecs installed which claim to support ARW. When IMatch asks WIC to load your ARW files, Windows will select one of these codecs.
After loading, IMatch asks WIC how to rotate the image and does that. If WIC returns the wrong orientation, there is no way for IMatch to know.

Try uninstalling the SONY WIC and then reboot and force a reload of the images by selecting them and pressing Shift+Ctrl+F5 in IMatch > Force Update.

If this does not help, switch IMatch to LibRaw via Edit menu > Preferences > photools.com RAW processing  and do the Shift+Ctrl+F5 > Force Update again.
If LibRaw is used, IMatch asks LibRaw how to rotate the image and does that. If LibRaw returns the wrong orientation, there is no way for IMatch to know.

Or, apply a virtual rotation to these few files and continue with your work.

[Damit]

I cannot figure out how to uninstall the SONY WIC.  I do not see it in the control panel.  I looked at the report and I cannot find that information is listed. If you could provide some clues I would appreciate it.

So I can keep the fast photo viewer?  I bought it a few years ago, but never had much problems.

I tried changing the RAW Processing settings to Yes, No, Yes and even Yes, Yes, Yes with no success. Force Update, upload metadata and rescans did not change orienatation.

As far as applying virtual rotations, I would, but I hate to leave problems like this unresolved as they will reappear and then I will have to deal with virtual roations if I resolve the problem.  I would just rathe nip the problem in the bud. What is weird is that it is just 20-30 ARWs in a particular file.  It seems most, if not all of the .arws are rotated the right way in other folders.

[Mario]

My bad. I meant not the "Sony" WIC Coded but the "FastPictureViewer Codec Pack".
The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack is out of support for many, many years and does not handle modern RAW formats at all.
It instead often causes problems.

Uninstall it and WIC will automatically use the Microsoft official 'Microsoft Raw Image Decoder' for processing RAW files. If this still does not work, enable photools.com RAW processing to fall back to LibRaw.

[Damit]

No problem at all, Mario. Thanks for clarifying! So I removed the FastPictureViewer Codec and rebooted.  The .arw were still incorrect.  I switched to photools processing, with photools WIC rotation.  No rotation ensued. I then switch back to WIC.  No rotation.  I rescanned and forced an update. No rotation.  Then I reimported and that did not fix it either until I forced and update of all files along with the reimport, and that fixed the problem.  I am not sure why I needed to do a reimport.  Perhaps Mario can explain, but the problem is solved for the time being.

[Mario]

Force update always worked in the past when something like this was reported.
Maybe your images are special.

[Damit]

Maybe your images are special.

Like me!
Just reporting back what is occurring in case it may provide some useful information.