How to Correct Incorrect Folder Structure

[GTnH]

I have a problem that can be seen in the attached screenshot.  The problem revolves around Drive E:  Note that there is a subfolder under DATA(E:) that shows 0/8,881 with no name. This folder is a phantom folder or subfolder that does not exist in Windows.  In addition you see photos appearing when DATA(E:) is highlighted indicating that these files are in E: root directory which they are not.  They exist in the Dropbox folder.  All of the other subfolders Animal_Pictures, Card Images - Misc, Download Keepers, etc, etc should be shown directly under the main icon of DATA(E:) not under the non-existent folder.

I thought initially this was how iMatch represented things, but in fact that structure does not show up under the other drive STORAGE(R:) which shows up as it appears in Windows.

Is there a way to correct the folder structure in E: drive so that the non-existent photos in the root directory don't show up?  I obviously do not want to start the database over.

I have tried rescanning the drive and running a database diagnostics and repair, but nothing changes.

[Mario]

In the screen shot you have selected the drive node for drive E:, which means we see all files IMatch has indexed on that drive.
What happens when you click on the folder with the (0 / 8881) name? This looks like the root folder (E:\) so this seems to be in order (if this is the root folder it should show itself as \ not without any name, strange).

Tips:

The diagnosis log file lists all folders IMatch has indexed right at the top.
When you hover the mouse cursor over one of the I icons in the upper right corner of the thumbnail panels in the file window, it displays a popup with the full name of the image, including the folder name.
When you select a folder, the full name of the folder is displayed in the File Window caption bar.

[stephock]

What happens if you drag the folders, Animal_Pictures, Card Images - Misc, Download Keepers, etc, into the root of DATA(E):, and the remaining files into the Dropbox folder? If they show up there (i.e. where they should be) and the phantom folder is then empty, you could then try to delete it...

[GTnH]

OK.  The drive I selected in the screenshot you received first (screenshot.png) is in fact the drive E: and is the root folder.  The photos that you see in it are only found in E:\Dropbox and there are only 21 of them. And in Windows there are no photos in the root directory of E:\.  If you look down at Drive R (Storage) when I click on that I see no photos which I would suspect is correct as it is the root directory and all the photos in that are in the subfolders.  The folder that shows 0/8881 is spurious.  It probably does have the right count. It doesn't exist in Windows that I can find and that same type of folder does not exist in R:\ (Note on either screenshot). If it were the drive root folder I should see the same type of folder in R:\ and I don't.  I suspect that E:\ should have the 8881 showing and should not have any photo thumbnails in it or it should have all of them in it, not just the 21 in Dropbox.

I will say that if I look at a thumbnail that is under the funny folder 0/8881 it does report the correct folder such as E:\animal_pictures so that is all working.

Screenshot 2.png attached shows what happens when I click on the no name folder - I get a message that I don't understand, especially since I haven't been able to find the hierarchical display mode button anywhere so far.

I suppose there is no easy way to export the photos and data and rebuild the database is there?

[GTnH]

I just noticed that Dropbox goes directly to the Drive E: icon while the other subfolders go to the funny folder icon.  Perhaps that is why only the Dropbox photos show up under the Drive E:

In Windows file system Dropbox is a subfolder under drive E just like the others.

[Mario]

In your screen shot you have selected the root folder of E: - it contains no files.
This is also indicated by the (0/...) display in the tree. And the file window also tells you that the folder contains no files. This is all correct.
You just have added the root folder of drive E: to your database.

Screenshot 2.png attached shows what happens when I click on the no name folder - I get a message that I don't understand, especially since I haven't been able to find the hierarchical display mode button anywhere so far.

I think the message is clear. it even shows an enlarged version of the button. Just look at the file window toolbar and try to find the button that looks like the button the File Window is displayed in that message.

Or, use the IMatch Help System to learn about how the File Window displays files in sub-folders / child categories etc.

Click into the File Window and press <F1> to open the help for the File Window. There, open the table of contents at the top and search for hier to find the information about the hierarchical display mode. Or just follow this link: The Hierarchical Display Mode (Displaying files in sub-folders, child categories etc.)

IMatch by default does only display files in the selected folder. It does not list files in sub-folders or anything. IMatch users usually have very deep folder hierarchies and it makes no sense to display 50,000 files when a top-level folder is clicked. You can tell IMatch to do that, of course. But this is why the File Window is empty when you select an empty folder.

I also have a Dropbox folder hierarchy here, but I had never any problems.
The Dropbox folder hierarchy linked virtually as DROPBOX under my D: drive and it shows up in IMatch just fine.

I can see no real problem from your screen shots (except that the root folder should show up with the name \ and not as a blank). I cannot reproduce this problem here. When I add an entire drive or the root folder of a disk, it always shows up with a drive letter and the \

You can remove any folder (including the root) from an IMatch database with the "Remove folder from database" command in the context menu of the folder (DON'T CONFUSE this with Delete Folder).
IMatch will ask you if you want to keep the sub-folders (which is what you want).

Tip: Make a backup copy of your database (while IMatch is closed). In case something goes wrong. you can restore the backup and start over.

[GTnH]

I had found the hierarchical button after I wrote to you so that's resolved.  And removing that spurious folder from the database resolved all the problems that I was having.  Thanks for the help.  The dropbox folder now shows up under the drive letter as do all the other subfolders.