XnView Software

I am not a metadata beginner and use IPTC since the early 1990s with different apps (Adobe, Fotoware, Photomechanic and more).

Today I installed xn on my Mac (M4 Air), told it where my photos are...and now some questions occur.

The basics: M4 Mac, 32GB RAM, internal SSD. I have 101,050 files (1.6 TB) on a very fast SSD attached directly to this Mac. This is more than enough hardware power, right?

Most of my images are RAW and Jpeg files and contain IPTC/XMP metadata or have sidecar files for that.
All of them are in folders whose names make some sense like "Portrait Peter".

1. So, first thing: adding metadata. I selected ca. 300 files to add the name of the country where they were taken, one single field. Adding this one word to 300 files took more than a minute - this computer is really fast, and all images are on a very fast SSD. I can hardly believe that this is normal. Why is it so slow?

2. Second thing: In the xn settings I made sure it's in catalog mode, that the quick search searches in IPTC, comments, description etc., and everything else is in standard settings.

Surprisingly, in most cases I do not find anything. The folder name that contains the 300 images contains the name of the country. The name of the country is in IPTC IIM or XMP inside every single file in this folder. Result of searching for the country name does not give any results. The ONLY thing that really works is if the search word is part of the file name like "image_poland_28938239.CR2" or so. So far I can say that this does not work with RAW files. Adding metadata to jpeg files seems to work.

I double-checked this: adding one IPTC keyword to RAW files and then searching for that keyword gives no results.

3. Search speed: I searched for one single word, and xn searched for more than 5 minutes. I bet this is not a normal behaviour for an index-based search or better: it looks like it does not search in the index but in the file system every time. In the end it found six jpeg images containing my search word. It did not find the roughly 650 RAW files that contain the exact same keyword.

4. My Sony camera (a7c2) creates .ARW files and a few more, example:

DSC03160.ARW
DSC03160.HIF
DSC03160.hif_xmp

And this is what it looks like on my screen:
It looks like xn cannot properly handle these files.


So, what do I have to change to make this work?

In the meanwhile I installed again because I saw a new version is just out.

The good news: it does display HEIF/HOF files from my Sony cameras.

The bad news:

I can filter to show only images or other stuff or everything. But for a reason I want be able to show either ARW Raw files or HEIF files: If I select a dozen files and just a single one is a HEIF file I cannot add metadata. There is no alert telling me that, I found out by chance. So, made a custom filter to exclude hif, are_xmp and his_xmp. Then I only saw ARW files, hit Command-A - and Command-I, and still could not edit metadata. I f I select exactly the same files manually and hit Command-I I can edit metadata. A miracle?

Quick searching still does not work. I added IPTC IIM metadata, and nothing is found. Bad enough. Even worse: if I search in the search dialog and start the search it crashes, crashes, crashes, crashes. Every time, no matter what I do.

cxoxn wrote: Tue Dec 02, 2025 3:46 pm 1. So, first thing: adding metadata. I selected ca. 300 files to add the name of the country where they were taken, one single field. Adding this one word to 300 files took more than a minute - this computer is really fast, and all images are on a very fast SSD. I can hardly believe that this is normal. Why is it so slow?

with 'Edit metadata'?

2. Second thing: In the xn settings I made sure it's in catalog mode, that the quick search searches in IPTC, comments, description etc., and everything else is in standard settings.

Surprisingly, in most cases I do not find anything. The folder name that contains the 300 images contains the name of the country. The name of the country is in IPTC IIM or XMP inside every single file in this folder. Result of searching for the country name does not give any results. The ONLY thing that really works is if the search word is part of the file name like "image_poland_28938239.CR2" or so. So far I can say that this does not work with RAW files. Adding metadata to jpeg files seems to work.

I double-checked this: adding one IPTC keyword to RAW files and then searching for that keyword gives no results.

And with a jpeg file?

3. Search speed: I searched for one single word, and xn searched for more than 5 minutes. I bet this is not a normal behaviour for an index-based search or better: it looks like it does not search in the index but in the file system every time. In the end it found six jpeg images containing my search word. It did not find the roughly 650 RAW files that contain the exact same keyword.

'Search in catalog' is checked?

4. My Sony camera (a7c2) creates .ARW files and a few more, example:

DSC03160.ARW
DSC03160.HIF
DSC03160.hif_xmp

And this is what it looks like on my screen:

hif.xmp or .xmp is supported

Even worse: if I search in the search dialog and start the search it crashes, crashes, crashes, crashes. Every time, no matter what I do.

Please post a screenshot of search dialog?

with 'Edit metadata'?

Yes, and then "Write into all files" (should be like that in the English version).

And with a jpeg file?

It seems to work with JPEGs.

'Search in catalog' is checked?

Yes, since the update. Now it keeps on crashing. See my second post:

cxoxn wrote: Tue Dec 02, 2025 4:43 pm if I search in the search dialog and start the search it crashes, crashes, crashes, crashes. Every time, no matter what I do.

cxoxn wrote: Tue Dec 02, 2025 5:11 pm

with 'Edit metadata'?

Yes, and then "Write into all files" (should be like that in the English version).

ExifTool is used so can be slow... especially on RAW

And with a jpeg file?

It seems to work with JPEGs.

Please send us the RAW file, and what you search?

Yes, since the update. Now it keeps on crashing. See my second post:

cxoxn wrote: Tue Dec 02, 2025 4:43 pm if I search in the search dialog and start the search it crashes, crashes, crashes, crashes. Every time, no matter what I do.

Please send us a screenshot of your search dialog?

[/quote]

It seems to work with JPEGs.
[/quote]
Please send us the RAW file, and what you search?

I could send you .arw, .cr2 or .orf files, they contain IPTC IIM keywords I assigned in other apps or in XN. They are visible in the panel, tab IPTC-IIM.

Yes, since the update. Now it keeps on crashing. See my second post:

cxoxn wrote: Tue Dec 02, 2025 4:43 pm if I search in the search dialog and start the search it crashes, crashes, crashes, crashes. Every time, no matter what I do.

Please send us a screenshot of your search dialog?
[/quote]

Good news of the day:

1. I did some searches, and it did not crash yet.
2. Results are still somewhat erratic.

Bad news:

I found some very strange behaviour:

I select a file, enter the keyword "Brücke", hit enter.
The list of suggestions stays open: B, Br, Brü, Brüc, Brück, Brücke. Now I can't see what other keywords might be in the file. However, I write it into the file.
Now I open the metadata dialog again, and these are the keywords in the file now – I'm pretty sure this is not the intended result:
Starting from the "root" of my image database I use the quick search and get zero results:
If I navigate into the folder where a file is located that contains the keyword, the quick search shows the one result – but only from THAT folder which is pretty pointless because I can see that myself without searching. It does NOT show the approximately 800 files that contain the same keyword but are in other folders.
Now I use the search dialog starting from "root", and it finds three other images – jpegs – but no raw files and not the one .arw file into which I wrote the keyword:

cxoxn wrote: Wed Dec 03, 2025 9:20 am I found some very strange behaviour:

yes a bug in 1.9.6/1.9.7

Starting from the "root" of my image database I use the quick search and get zero results:

If I navigate into the folder where a file is located that contains the keyword, the quick search shows the one result – but only from THAT folder which is pretty pointless because I can see that myself without searching. It does NOT show the approximately 800 files that contain the same keyword but are in other folders.

It's normal, 'quick search' works on current file list not on catalog

Now I use the search dialog starting from "root", and it finds three other images – jpegs – but no raw files and not the one .arw file into which I wrote the keyword:

I've tried and it works. Please send us the arw file