Yellow pen icon on all files (whether modified or not)

[barneagle]

I'm mystified by the significance of yellow pen icons. The Help file suggests that they should only appear against files where metadata has been changed and is waiting to be written back. However I have noticed that all the files I have added to IMatch have yellow pens even though all I have done is edit keywords for a few photos.

Why do yellow pencils appear even when files have not been modified? Is it possible to view the changes that IMatch thinks are pending?

[Mario]

This is normal. I explained this in great detail in the Metadata help topics.

When IMatch imports your files, it produces high-quality XMP metadata. In this process, it applies the rules and recommendations of the Metadata Working Group and maps existing EXIF, GPS and legacy IPTC data into the XMP record. The resulting XMP is then cached in the database.

If your files have no XMP data yet, or the XMP record created that way does not match the XMP record in your files, IMatch needs to write back metadata once to synchronize what's now in the database with the data in your files. This also includes mapping back from XMP to EXIF, GPS and legacy IPTC data (if this data exists in your files) to properly synchronize all metadata formats.

Hence the yellow pen.

[barneagle]

Thanks.

I've used exiftool to look at before and after versions of a photo file and I can see the kinds of edit that IMatch is making.