Moving files messes up categories

[3x5]

Hi, I created a bunch of keywords for image files, so they would show up as categories in my sidebar. Then I moved the files to a different folder. Now, when I click on one of these categories, I just get blank white squares. When I look at the details on these files, XnView still thinks they're at the old location.

I can even use Alt+M to move the files around within XnView, and still the program can't find them as DB results.

If I go to 'Uncategorized' it's a total mess, with missing and duplicate files everywhere. How do I resolve and prevent this problem?

Two other questions: is there a way to filter by something other than keyword? I would like to filter by artist or photographer, and I have filled out a lot of them in the ITPC 'credit' field. Also, when I download images I like to put the website name in the 'source' field, and it would be nice to be able to filter by this as well. Maybe there's a plugin that can help me?

My last question is whether there's a way to arrange categories. I see that I can right-click on a category and then click 'New Category', and then I get a sub-category; however, it doesn't look like I can nest an existing category into another one. Is there a workaround for this?

I am running MP on Ubuntu 14.04. Thanks.

[3x5]

I think I have partially answered my own question about filtering in a way other than by keyword. If I'm in the folder pane, I can right-click there and click 'Search...' which will bring up a search dialog. Then I can search by any ITPC field. I can even save my search.

However, when I search this way, then click 'View' to view results, nothing happens. The dialog just closes.

[xnview]

Hi, I created a bunch of keywords for image files, so they would show up as categories in my sidebar. Then I moved the files to a different folder. Now, when I click on one of these categories, I just get blank white squares. When I look at the details on these files, XnView still thinks they're at the old location.

I can even use Alt+M to move the files around within XnView, and still the program can't find them as DB results.

If I go to 'Uncategorized' it's a total mess, with missing and duplicate files everywhere. How do I resolve and prevent this problem?

You need to move files within XnView to keep a synchronized database. Do you have blank items if in this case?

My last question is whether there's a way to arrange categories. I see that I can right-click on a category and then click 'New Category', and then I get a sub-category; however, it doesn't look like I can nest an existing category into another one. Is there a workaround for this?

Categories are sorted by name, but you can change the parent

[3x5]

Hi Pierre, When I select files, and then click 'move to', this leaves me with blank boxes in my categories where the images used to be.

If I drag thumbnails from the browser to a folder in the tree, XnView will copy the images to that folder. Then I will have duplicates of every thumb in my category, until I delete the originals.

I also realized that when I select one or more thumbs, then edit ITPC data and add a new keyword, that keyword will show up as a category in my tree; however, if I add an existing keyword to another file, this does not get added to the corresponding category in the tree.

[m.Th.]

Hi Pierre, When I select files, and then click 'move to', this leaves me with blank boxes in my categories where the images used to be.

Cannot reproduce. It works on 0.84 - of course you must use XnView MP to move / copy.

If I drag thumbnails from the browser to a folder in the tree, XnView will copy the images to that folder. Then I will have duplicates of every thumb in my category, until I delete the originals.

WRT to categories: works as expected. You have 2 different files with the same name & content in different locations. Drag & drop does a Copy when you drag from an unit to another (for ex. from C: to D:) or a Move when it is in the same unit namespace. Dunno on Linuxes. Btw, 0.82 (IIRC) had a bug WRT drag&drop.

I also realized that when I select one or more thumbs, then edit ITPC data and add a new keyword, that keyword will show up as a category in my tree; however, if I add an existing keyword to another file, this does not get added to the corresponding category in the tree.

??? I didn't understand very clear what do you want to say... perhaps a screenshot and some annotations (arrows, text) would help. You can do it with XnView MP.

[helmut]

If I drag thumbnails from the browser to a folder in the tree, XnView will copy the images to that folder. Then I will have duplicates of every thumb in my category, until I delete the originals.

WRT to categories: works as expected. You have 2 different files with the same name & content in different locations. Drag & drop does a Copy when you drag from an unit to another (for ex. from C: to D:) or a Move when it is in the same unit namespace. Dunno on Linuxes. Btw, 0.82 (IIRC) had a bug WRT drag&drop.

An addition:
- When using Drag&Drop, press "Ctrl" when dropping to force copying the file(s).
- When using Drag&Drop, press "Shift" when dropping to force moving the file(s).
- The mouse cursor indicates whether you files will be copied or moved.
Here, XnView works (or is supposed to work) in the same way as Windows Explorer.

Note:
In Windows Explorer you can even press "Ctrl+Shift" to copy file shortcut(s), but this is not supported by XnView, yet.

[xnview]

When I select files, and then click 'move to', this leaves me with blank boxes in my categories where the images used to be.

I'm not able to reproduce, the moved file has the good categories. Same problem with 1 or more file?
Setings>Metadata>Export DB Category... is disabled?

[3x5]

Hi all, thanks for the replies. m.Th., I don't know if a screen shot would really explain anything. The issue is this: When I add a new keyword to ITPC data, in any image, Xnview creates a new category and adds that image to the category.

However, if I add that same keyword to any image after that, the db will not pick this up and so it won't add any additional files to the corresponding category. It only works once.

helmut, thanks for the tip. When I do shift+drag, it does move the files, and not just copy them. However, it still doesn't update the paths in the db for me.

Pierre, when I moved my first file, it seemed to pick up the new path in the db. Every file after that, though, no luck. Export db category was enabled for ITPC, and I just enabled it for XMP. Keywords/categories should be importing/exporting in both directions now. All my images are owned by me and have full read/write permissions.

If I add a keyword to an image that has no keywords, the db will add that category, but won't populate it with anything. If I add an existing keyword, nothing will happen. If I drag an image to a category, it will write that category as a keyword. But if I right-click to remove the image from the category, it won't come out.

I am going to try to reset my profile and see if that helps. I am also going to change the permissions in my /opt/XnView/ directory and I'll let you know if this fixes the problem. Thanks.

[3x5]

OK, well, I will leave my post up in case anyone else has a similar problem, but this issue was resolved for me simply by deleting my user config folder, I had put all my inis and dbs there so this reset the whole program. Now all the functionality works as expected.

I've been pretty excited about XnView and tweaked the hell out of it the last few days, and I must have corrupted it somehow. Thanks so much for all your help.

[3x5]

OK, I think I have pinpointed one problem. I only want the catalog to index my pictures folder. I set my base path as ~/Pictures, but XnView looked like it was trying to catalog other folders outside of this, if I happened to click on them by accident. So I manually excluded /, /home/ and /home/user/. The Pictures subfolder still showed in my list of cataloged paths so I assumed it was still being indexed. But I think this is what was preventing my reading and writing from working properly.

I guess this brings up a different issue, which is how I keep XnView from attempting to make thumnails or categories from any images outside of my specified base folder.

[m.Th.]

OK, I think I have pinpointed one problem. I only want the catalog to index my pictures folder. I set my base path as ~/Pictures, but XnView looked like it was trying to catalog other folders outside of this, if I happened to click on them by accident. So I manually excluded /, /home/ and /home/user/. The Pictures subfolder still showed in my list of cataloged paths so I assumed it was still being indexed. But I think this is what was preventing my reading and writing from working properly.

I guess this brings up a different issue, which is how I keep XnView from attempting to make thumnails or categories from any images outside of my specified base folder.

Try Tools | Settings | Catalog | Excluded / Included - works?

[3x5]

Hi m.Th., that's not going to work because I wanted xnview to index my home/Pictures folder, but not my whole home folder. If I exclude the directory that is the parent of my base directory, the database doesn't update properly anymore.

[xnview]

Hi m.Th., that's not going to work because I wanted xnview to index my home/Pictures folder, but not my whole home folder. If I exclude the directory that is the parent of my base directory, the database doesn't update properly anymore.

I can't reproduce the blank thumbnail, but i have the problem with categories if base path is used
See Issue 1069 for details.

[3x5]

I guess it doesn't really matter. If I browse to a directory that is outside my base path, and there's existing ITPC data in that directory's images, is XnView going to attempt to add those to my catalog? Because if it doesn't, then it's just caching thumbnails. If I get a huge database of thumbnails then I can just delete the directories I don't need catalogued.

[xnview]

If I browse to a directory that is outside my base path, and there's existing ITPC data in that directory's images, is XnView going to attempt to add those to my catalog? Because if it doesn't, then it's just caching thumbnails.

if you browse a directory outside your base path, files will be added too. The use of base path is to not store the full path of images but only a path relative to the base path.