XnView Software

The Smart Albums are great. But is it normal that they don't update themselves? Or how can I display new images that match the selected criteria?

msone wrote: Tue Dec 02, 2025 1:11 pm The Smart Albums are great. But is it normal that they don't update themselves? Or how can I display new images that match the selected criteria?

The Smart Albums DO update themselves, but the following must be true for you to see new images in the Smart Albums:

• The Catalog must be enabled (Settings:Catalog:Enable Catalog)
• The Smart Album search is "Search in Catalog only"
• The new images have been actually added to the Catalog (this will happen when you view the folder containing the new images in the browser, and wait for the import process (progress bar at the bottom) to complete
• You must refresh the Smart Album by browsing to it in the browser

A Smart Album does not constantly update while you are viewing it in the browser. You must browse to something else, then the next time you go back to the Smart Album it will update. The search is executed when you enter the Smart Album in the Browser.

Copying new images to your computer does NOT automagically add them to the the Catalog. XnViewMP has to see them to add them to the catalog: you must browse in XnViewMP to the folder containing the new images, and you must wait for the import process to complete (which may take noticeable time if there are large numbers of new images; pay attention to the progress bar at the bottom of the window). If you browse to a folder containing 1000 new images, and then browse away after 1 second before the progress bar has completed, most of those new images have NOT been added to the Catalog, because the progress bar did not complete before you browsed away.

So keeping in mind the above points, if you think you have images that should be showing in a Smart Album but aren't, they are probably not in the Catalog. Browse to the folder containing the images, and wait for the progress bar at the bottom of the window to complete. If you added new images to 4 different folders, you will have to browse to all of them (or if they are in subfolders of a single parent folder, do "Show files in subfolders" on the parent folder). That will import them into the Catalog; that's how the Catalog works.

Once the images have been added to the Catalog, browse back to the Smart Album and you should see them there, if they match the criteria. Remember that Smart Albums are subject to the "Filter by" settings of the Browser just like any folder, so that can affect what you see.

If you need additional help, please start a new thread and include more detailed info and screenshots, so this thread is not cluttered up.

Thank you for explaining. If XnView doesn't monitor folders in the background, I'm afraid this feature is pointless for me.

msone wrote: Tue Dec 02, 2025 8:52 pm Thank you for explaining. If XnView doesn't monitor folders in the background, I'm afraid this feature is pointless for me.

That’s perplexing. You’ve been on the forum for over 4 years, so you’ve been using the app at least that long. You’ve never noticed XnView doesn’t constantly auto-import in the background?

The behavior is no different than what you’re used to: files added to your computer are not shown in the app until you browse to their folder, or do a folder search to find them. It was always this way. And an Album, Smart or otherwise, only has value when you actually view it in the browser, and since it updates every time you view it in the browser, it is always up to date with the contents of the catalog. So I don’t see the problem.

If you’ve been searching for non-catalogued files in the past, you were doing a folder search, which is slow. Or you had to view the folder in the browser to see them, the same as you do (once) now with Smart Albums.

So what’s your use case, that the feature is pointless?

So far, I've only been using XnView based on favorites. I wasn't really aware whether there's a catalog behind the functionality or not, and I've rarely searched for anything up until now. I thought I could use Smart Albums to quickly find files of a specific format in a folder including subfolders with just one click, without having to manually navigate to that directory first. You mentioned above that you can think of Smart Albums as saved searches, so I mistakenly assumed that the search results would update automatically. But if it doesn't work that way, it's not a problem for me. It just doesn't work for my use case, but I'm fine with that.

msone wrote: Tue Dec 02, 2025 10:03 pm So far, I've only been using XnView based on favorites. I wasn't really aware whether there's a catalog behind the functionality or not, and I've rarely searched for anything up until now. I thought I could use Smart Albums to quickly find files of a specific format in a folder including subfolders with just one click, without having to manually navigate to that directory first. You mentioned above that you can think of Smart Albums as saved searches, so I mistakenly assumed that the search results would update automatically. But if it doesn't work that way, it's not a problem for me. It just doesn't work for my use case, but I'm fine with that.

I see. Well, search in XnViewMP works the same way. You can do a folder search, which scans the filesystem, and so is current irrespective of whether files have been imported or not, but it’s slow. Or you can do a catalog search, which is instant, but only finds files that have been imported into the catalog.

Also, you only have to manually browse the folder once, to ingest all files. Thereafter, the smart albums will be accurate, unless you have since added more files. Then you have to browse again to ingest the added files.

You can save a file/folder search as a preset in the Search dialog, which will allow you to repeat the search with just a couple of clicks, but it will be slow because you’re not searching against the catalog.

XnViewMP does not have functionality equivalent to Lightroom's “Watched folder” which really is just an auto import, and automatically imports and moves/renames any files added to a specific watched folder.

Lightroom would give the appearance of doing what you want, because it automatically imports files into its catalog. XnViewMP doesn’t; it imports when you browse the folder. But without adding files to a specific “watched” folder, LR can’t do what you want either. It exclusively searches against the catalog, so all images must go through the import process.

XnViewMP may add auto-import functionality in the future.

As you learn more about how to use the app, and what it’s capable of, I'm sure you’ll find Smart Albums useful.