XnView Software

Hello and sorry for any difficulties. I searched and could not find a solution.

As stated, I am migrating my photo collection from digikam. I imported one or two folders to check information before proceeding to add my whole collection. On my test folders, XnView MP correctly read and imported both my ratings and my categories and added each new category correctly. Fantastic, I thought.

So I went ahead and imported my whole collection and this time it saved my ratings but no addtional categories were added.

Any ideas on why/how this happened? I didn't change any xmp settings in the meantime and I am happy that the ratings were imported but the thought of having to re-tag each image with a category is not pleasant. Is there a way to re-build or re-import my collection with a better outcome?

Mac OS High Sierra on a Macbook Pro, FYI. Your time is greatly appreciated. This program has quite a learning curve without a user manual.

Thanks!

by 'importing', you means browsing folder of images?

Good morning,

No, preferences>catalog>import folder

Also, under metadata "import xmp subject or IPTC keyword to catalog categories" is checked.

Sometimes, with previous versions, it happened that the categories were not built for me

I had to delete the catalog (preferences>catalog>delete all), and reimport the folders. (by adding only the parent folder, it's easy)
It takes about 30 min for 60 000 photos on a SSD disk in my old PC.

Thank you for the suggestion Michel. I tried that but it didn't work. I seem to be getting further away. None of the photos are reflecting category "assignment". In it's current state, I would have to reassign all of my categories to each and every photo. Nothing was picked up on the import. I feel like I am missing a toggle somewhere but I am at a loss...

During the import process, it is running through each file and I can see the filenames scrolling but it isn't picking up any of the IPTC keywords.

I felt like I was one step away from having it all setup how I want and now I am a mile away from my destination.

if you browse the folder, categories are imported?

Are you talking about JPG pictures ?
With embedded iptc keywords ? Or XMP keywords ? or with sidecar files ?
Are your keywords hierarchical ? (and is Settings>Metadata>Read hierarchical keywords ... enabled ?)

Select a picture that has keywords
Are your iptc keywords shown in IPTC tab of "Info" panel ? or XMP tab ?
... or anywhere in ExifTool tab ? ...

I would have to reassign all of my categories to each and every photo.

I'm pretty sure not

xnview wrote: Fri Jul 01, 2022 3:29 pm if you browse the folder, categories are imported?

No Pierre. Nothing gets added. I created a test folder with a few jpgs with oddball keywords and nothing gets added.

Also, if I add my test folder (or any folder) via the pref>catalog>import folder option, it shows 0 files and 0 bytes afterwards. It actually has 5 files in the folder. Maybe useful info?

michel038 wrote: Fri Jul 01, 2022 3:46 pm Are you talking about JPG pictures ?
With embedded iptc keywords ?

Yes, Michel. They are jpgs with IPTC keywords. If I go to tools>metadata>edit IPTC>keywords, all of the categories/keywords are there. Some hierarchal and some not but I think I am mixing them up now!

Options that may cause problems :
settings > Catalog > Enable catalog must stay checked
and "Base path" should not be changed from default (empty or \ )

If you changed some options, perhaps a solution is to close xnviewmp, rename xnview.ini as xnviewini.old , rename xnview.db as xnviewdb.old and so restart with default settings and an empty catalog.

Xnviewmp will build a new xnview.ini file for settings, and a new xnview.db file for links between categories and photos.

Then enable only : Settings>Metadata> "Import xmp subject ..." and "read hierarchical..." and try again to import a test folder ...

Okay, I will give that a shot and report back. I guess I will also rename the xmp.ini file and the iptc.ini file and let them rebuild.

michel038 wrote: Fri Jul 01, 2022 4:28 pm Options that may cause problems :
settings > Catalog > Enable catalog must stay checked
and "Base path" should not be changed from default (empty or \ )

If you changed some options, perhaps a solution is to close xnviewmp, rename xnview.ini as xnviewini.old , rename xnview.db as xnviewdb.old and so restart with default settings and an empty catalog.

Xnviewmp will build a new xnview.ini file for settings, and a new xnview.db file for links between categories and photos.

Then enable only : Settings>Metadata> "Import xmp subject ..." and "read hierarchical..." and try again to import a test folder ...

E Voila! Merci beaucoup mon ami!

Not sure what I changed but maybe the "base path" did it. Anyway - all is reset.

I will have to go in and change a few preferences to get it looking the way it was but SUCCESS! I am going through the folders via the browser and it appears to be building all of the categories and the world is right again (I guess that is asking too much).

Thank you very much Michel!

Ric

I'm glad I could solve this problem. I would never have tolerated that you had to put again all the categories on each photo
You can add [solved] in the title of the first post
You can also tell if you compare Digikam and Xnviewmp, maybe in the future ...

That might be an option once I use the software for a while. I am really looking for a stable, simple to use DAM. And that is it. No editing, no fancy stuff. Just rating capabilities and categories. And stable. I do all of my editing externally (CaptureOne or Affinity, etc.)

Digikam has become huge with lots of tentacles and options. And it crashes on me - a lot! Too buggy. "Too many cooks spoil the broth" applies. Everyone is trying to make it do everything and it does nothing well. You have to be a programmer to use it. They really should split the DAM off of the editor functions.

Turns out, after solving this import, that at some point earlier in the evolution of digikam, keywords were stored in a different fashion so I have to go back and find where my data is hidden in my older photos so I can update them and bring them into XnView.

Anyway, I will work with this for a while and hopefully have some good thoughts to share on the two.