XnView Software

I'm fairly new to XnView MP, so I'm probably doing something wrong. My problem is that no images indicate that they are in any Categories, even though all have IPTC Keywords.

I've connected XnView MP to a folder containing about 3,700 jpeg images that were Exported from Lightroom. All have keywords given them in Lightroom and all metadata was part of the Export parameters of Lightroom. When I look at any image in the Browser via the IPTC tab of the Info panel, I see all the Categores that I assigned in Lightroom. The Categories and Categories Filter panels show all these as Categories, and in the proper hierarchy that I established in Lightroom. But, none of the items in the Catgories panel have the checkbox checked and when I click on any item in the Categories Filter panel, the Browser remains empty. If I manually drag any image onto an item of the Categories panel, the box becomes checked and it will then display in the Browser if I select that item in the Categores filter.

In the Settings/Browser/Metadata panel, I have the "Import XMP subject or IPTC keyword to DB Categories" box checked, also the "Read hierarchical keywords" and the "Automatically apply parent keywords". I have tried deleting all Categories via the Categories Filter panel, then using View/Update Catalog From Files. This re-fills the Categories Filter and Categories panels with the proper Category names, but still with no boxes checked and the Categories Filter panel won't put any images into the browser. What should I do?

Bob Metzler

OK, it's working now. I recalled reading a post about non-ASCII characters in a folder name being a problem. My images were in a folder whose name started with a tilde (~), which I often do to make the folder sort at the top. I un-installed XnView MP, changed the folder name to start with "A" instead of "~", and re-installed XnView MP. I was surprised to see all my Categories already showing in the Categories panel even though I hadn't pointed XnView MP to any folder yet; clearly, my Windows un-install didn't actually delete everything having to do with XnView MP. Anyway, I pointed XnView MP to my newly-renamed folder and soon a lot of the Categories now had checks and I could use the Categories Filter panel to make images appear in the Browser. However, the number of images in most Categories was less than I knew were present in the folder. So, I used View/Update Catalog from Files and after that process completed, it appears all my images are now properly categorized and the Categories Filter works the way I want.

This seems like a bug. I guess it's OK if XnView MP doesn't like folders with non-standard ASCII characters, but if it doesn't like them, why will it show all the Categories but not show which images are linked to which Categories?

Anyway, I'm happy.

Bob

so if you have images in a folder with '~', categories doesn't work on this folder, right?