Category Gone! Help!
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- Posts: 28
- Joined: 30 Jul 15 21:28
Category Gone! Help!
I'm freaking out, just a little bit.
I had a category called NAMES. Within that category were subcategories. A-C; D-F; etc. Then, there were various names within each of the subcategories. ie ARMSTRONG & ANDERSON within the A-C category. Last night, I set the program to Compact the database. This morning, when I arrived to the office, the program was not responding. After a period of time with no change, I ctrl + alt + del to close the program.
I've been working for awhile and I just now noticed, that this entire category and it's subcategories have gone missing. What else has gone missing that I haven't noticed yet! Here's the weird thing, when I select an image to check the categories assigned to it, the name category is assigned in the keywords area (looking at image details).
To complicate matters - I was re-cataloging a few thousand images. So, I have been assigning and removing categories, but I had the Write Preferences set to write the metadata to the file. For Keywords Processing, in Preferences I had MERGE catalog labels with keywords selected. My intent, when I was completed the re-catalog process, was to change the Keywords Processing setting to be Replace Catalog Labels with Keywords. My understanding is that this would then remove any keywords, that are not catalog labels.
My question is this: How can I get my names back in my categories without bringing in all the keywords I no longer want to use?
I had a category called NAMES. Within that category were subcategories. A-C; D-F; etc. Then, there were various names within each of the subcategories. ie ARMSTRONG & ANDERSON within the A-C category. Last night, I set the program to Compact the database. This morning, when I arrived to the office, the program was not responding. After a period of time with no change, I ctrl + alt + del to close the program.
I've been working for awhile and I just now noticed, that this entire category and it's subcategories have gone missing. What else has gone missing that I haven't noticed yet! Here's the weird thing, when I select an image to check the categories assigned to it, the name category is assigned in the keywords area (looking at image details).
To complicate matters - I was re-cataloging a few thousand images. So, I have been assigning and removing categories, but I had the Write Preferences set to write the metadata to the file. For Keywords Processing, in Preferences I had MERGE catalog labels with keywords selected. My intent, when I was completed the re-catalog process, was to change the Keywords Processing setting to be Replace Catalog Labels with Keywords. My understanding is that this would then remove any keywords, that are not catalog labels.
My question is this: How can I get my names back in my categories without bringing in all the keywords I no longer want to use?
Re: Category Gone! Help!
Are you sure you didn't accidentally and without noticing (it's suprisingly easy) drag NAMES to be under another category? That test image - select that with the label assignment panel open and check NAMES is still assigned and if so what its parent is. If not assigned and only existing as a keyword rather than catalog label then you may be in for some manual work - but even so, searching (on keyword) and then re-assigning the label should be feasible?
Even easier, did you take a backup that you could restore?
Even easier, did you take a backup that you could restore?
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- Posts: 28
- Joined: 30 Jul 15 21:28
Re: Category Gone! Help!
A click and drag would be fantastic but I don't think that's the case. When I go to the test image, with the assign panel open, and hover over the catalog label - Armstrong in this case - there appears to be no parent and the pop up says "Armstrong()".
It appears now, that I spend more time on said image, that a few of the labels assigned have gone missing! oh dear, so much work. Weeks! all gone. How could that be?
I do not have a backup
I was yesterday attempting to compact the database when it stopped responding. Next step, after compacting, was to backup. Is there anyway to restore to what I had yesterday?
Yes, I can search for the keywords, but I'm not sure I can remember them all now! Why aren't these lost catalog labels showing up under a Misc category or something? They are still assigned to the image. When I go into the details of the actual jpg file, they are written to the Tags section.
I can search for the terms and relabel them ie: Armstrong to Names:A-C:Armstrong but I can't recall all the labels! If they are assigned, and in the image tags, and in the keywords, why aren't they showing up in the catalog?
It appears now, that I spend more time on said image, that a few of the labels assigned have gone missing! oh dear, so much work. Weeks! all gone. How could that be?
I do not have a backup

Yes, I can search for the keywords, but I'm not sure I can remember them all now! Why aren't these lost catalog labels showing up under a Misc category or something? They are still assigned to the image. When I go into the details of the actual jpg file, they are written to the Tags section.
I can search for the terms and relabel them ie: Armstrong to Names:A-C:Armstrong but I can't recall all the labels! If they are assigned, and in the image tags, and in the keywords, why aren't they showing up in the catalog?
Re: Category Gone! Help!
It does sound very strange. It's interesting that at least some of the labels still appear to be assigned albeit at the top level (as indicated by lack of parent when you right click on the label in the LAP and select "edit label details" and also the empty parentheses as you described). So maybe worth just scanning your top level labels to see what's there and then re-assigning under a newly created "names" label. Even if it is not 100% at least you will be able to recreate some of your work?
There won't be anyway I can think of to restore to yesterday without a backup; if you were writing to the idimager ICS schema in the image file AND not been set to automatically write changes then you could have reloaded from the image files but if I understand correctly you were set to write to image file automatically hence the ICS schema would have been updated.
Possibly understanding what has happened may lead to a solution (but only may unfortunately)? I'm wondering if the NAMES label was inadvertently deleted and in that case did the now parentless labels become top-level ones? Or would they just have been deleted along with their parent? I haven't tried it, it may be worth experimenting, but then again it may not help to know anyway. Sorry I am not being much help here!
There won't be anyway I can think of to restore to yesterday without a backup; if you were writing to the idimager ICS schema in the image file AND not been set to automatically write changes then you could have reloaded from the image files but if I understand correctly you were set to write to image file automatically hence the ICS schema would have been updated.
Possibly understanding what has happened may lead to a solution (but only may unfortunately)? I'm wondering if the NAMES label was inadvertently deleted and in that case did the now parentless labels become top-level ones? Or would they just have been deleted along with their parent? I haven't tried it, it may be worth experimenting, but then again it may not help to know anyway. Sorry I am not being much help here!
Re: Category Gone! Help!
PS - If the database was corrupted due to cancelling the compact, I wonder if re-compacting would repair it? (Just the catalog file, not the thumbnail file)
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- Posts: 28
- Joined: 30 Jul 15 21:28
Re: Category Gone! Help!
I just remembered!
I don't have an actual backup, but I do have a backup - from my nightly scheduled full server backup so I am going to try overwriting the database files with a previous version and see what happens. I'll report back in the AM. Wish me luck 


Re: Category Gone! Help!
Hope that works for you - let us know how you get on!
But do preserve the current files first so if it doesn't work you have them as a starting point if you so wish!
But do preserve the current files first so if it doesn't work you have them as a starting point if you so wish!
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- Posts: 28
- Joined: 30 Jul 15 21:28
Re: Category Gone! Help!
Well, another very hard lesson learned here. My backup will not properly restore - which is a whole other issue and not one for this thread - so, it seems I have no option but to perhaps create a new catalogue, re-injest my images, re-organize my photos.
Re: Category Gone! Help!
If you were using default settings then you have ICS in your images’ metadata.
You can enable ICS reading in the Preferences (Sync-read settings). Then import folders. When ICS is available then that will reconstruct most of the catalog information
You can enable ICS reading in the Preferences (Sync-read settings). Then import folders. When ICS is available then that will reconstruct most of the catalog information
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