Upgrading to IMatch 2021

IMatch 2021 introduces a range of new and exciting features and an enhanced database format.
Please read this page for an easy and successful upgrade.

IMatch 2021 - What's New?

If you haven't already, check out the IMatch 2021 overview page and read the important Release Notes.
They list over 100 (!) new features, enhancements, changes and bug fixes.


New File Name for the IMatch Executable

The name of the IMatch executable is now IMatch2021x64.exe.
If you have made an exclusion in your virus checker for IMatch 2020, please update the exclusion to match the new file name.

XMP Handling for Some Video Formats Changed

IMatch now by default embeds XMP metadata into the following formats: .MP4, .QT, .MOV.
This is how the industry standards have evolved and this is how it works best across all platforms and applications.

What You Need to Do:

If you manage video files in IMatch, you should import existing XMP metadata in sidecar files into these videos. IMatch 2021 includes a new tool which makes this very easy.

Follow the step-by-step instructions in the dedicated help topic.

Database Migration

In order to support the new features introduced in IMatch 2021, databases are migrated to an updated format when they are opened for the first time. This process is fully automatic and only takes a few seconds.

Note that migrated databases are no longer compatible with older IMatch or IMatch Anywhere versions. Make sure you install the latest version of IMatch and the latest version of IMatch Anywhere (if you use it) on all your computers.
A compatibility update for IMatch Anywhere is provided to all customers with IMatch Anywhere 2019 licenses.

Run a Database Diagnosis

After the migration is done, IMatch will prompt you to run a database diagnosis. It is important that you let the diagnosis run.

Lifetime Id

An issue was identified where IMatch did not always update the lifetime id of files when they were copied inside the database. The diagnosis identifies affected files and assigns them a new unique lifetime id.

Face Annotation Order

A second issue we've fixed for this release are face annotations which have been created in the wrong order. This affects only a small number of databases and is detected and resolved by the diagnosis routines automatically. This affected only the order in which person names are displayed when the corresponding variables were used.


If You use Pack & Go

Please re-create your packages after installing IMatch 2021. Packages created with pre-2021 versions of IMatch must not be restored to a system running IMatch 2021.


Events

IMatch 2021 introduces many enhancements for events. You don't need to do anything, your existing events are automatically upgraded when you open your database the first time in IMatch 2021. But you may want to update your events and add places and associated people to enrich your events.

See the Events help topic for more information.


The IMatch Dashboard

The new Dashboard presents all what's important about your asset collection, the IMatch database and system in one View.

See the Dashboard help topic to learn about this new feature.


The Gallery

The Gallery layout is the first File Window layout based on IMatch's app technology. Check it out and let us know via the user community what you think.

The File Window Gallery help topic shows you what this layout can do.