XnView Software

Hi. Hope someone can help. Relatively new user.
Using XnView MP to manage my photos. Usually, when I click on a category in the Category Tab on the left, Thumbnails of those images would appear in the center window (and Preview pane). Suddenly, my thumbnails are not "rendering" or appearing in the center pane. Instead, I see generic "image" icons (I'll try to attach screenshot)

My File/Folder structure is

Parent Folder ("Photos")
Subfolders
---(Vendor1)
---(Vendor 2)
---(Etc)


CATEGORIES (Left Tab)
---Snowman
---Angel
---Santa
---Etc


I've checked the location of my Config files and Thumbnail files, and XnView path is correct.

Strange thing: When I first start XnView and open the Parent folder, I can see the Subfolders in the center Pane. If I double-click one of the Subfolders (ie Vendor 1), the thumbnails WILL appear in the center pane! But if I select one of the Category filters on the left tab, I only see those generic image icon gizmos.

I've spent HOURS trying to figure this out. I will gladly buy anyone a beer if they can tell me what I'm doing wrong. Thanks in advance!

Matt

First, I suggest you make a backup copy of your xnview.db file, simply copy it and paste somewhere else, when xnviewmp is closed.
You have a lot of categorized files , it would be a shame to lose your work.
Are all your photo jpgs ? Did you enable export metadata before categorizing ? (settings>Metadata>Export...> Create XMP or create IPTC )
If yes, you will be able to rebuild the catalog; but first let's try some other methods ...

It looks like you have moved some photos using another software ? Or renamed folders ?
Or perhaps you made some changes in categories without selecting the affected photos.

When you select a category in the categories filter, XnViewMP use the "catalog" and tries to display photos with the path that was active when the category was checked.

If the move was simple, sometimes we can repair by using one of these methods
- Undo the move , or
- Browse the new folder containing the photos, select them, View > Update catalog from files(*). or,
- Go to Settings, Catalog, select the old folder in the table, use "relocate" button to enter the new location (*)

Maybe the developer , Pierre , will find a better idea before you do more damage with my suggestions.

(*) update catalog works ONLY if xmp or iptc data are written in photos, and if "Import" is checked in settings metadata.

when you click on a ghost thumbnail, check the pathname+filename, is it good?

Michele and Pierre, thank you so much for your quick assistance. After much fiddling and messing around today, I decided it was easier to revert to a previous backup that I had (fortunately!).

I am not 100% sure how I created the problem, but I suspect that it happened when I moved some file folders around without realizing the impact it would have. I will avoid that in the future, for sure.

Once again, many thanks. This is such a handy program. I will make another donation today as a token of my appreciation.

Matt