Selecting Folders to Index...

[Andy Bell]

Hello!

I am struggling to get iMatch to only look at a specific folder and ignore others on a permanent basis. The folder structure is at the end of this post. I only want "Album" to be indexed. After an iMatch update (definitely), but also at other times (for which I can't determine the trigger), the folders "sue_phone_backup" and "miscellaneous" appear in the Media & Folders list and are indexed. I have specifically taken them out of the "album" folder (where they were initially) because there are a lot of images in these two and I am not interested in tagging them

I did move these two folders using windows explorer, and not using the Relocate option. Perhaps this was the original cause

I have found the Exclusion field in Preference> Indexing where I have specified this:

      \\Pictures\Sue_Phone_Backup$ ; \\Pictures\Miscellaneous$; \\Pictures\iMatch$

I've also tried this:

      \\Sue_Phone_Backup$ ; \\Miscellaneous$; \\iMatch$

Both to no avail

The only way I can get rid of them is to right click and select "Remove from Database" - but, as I mention, they come back after a little time

When I use Files> Tools> Diagnose, the log file has no mention of these two folders. So, they clearly do go when I "remove" them

Am I doing something wrong? It feels like I am missing a form where I positively specify the folders I want to be included in the database indexing. I assume the only way out is to delete and recreate the database, but then I will lose the face recognition that I've spent some time perfecting

I'm running 2025.5.2 on a Win11 workstation

I do enjoy iMatch though

Thanks!

Andy

[Andy Bell]

The image didn't seem to get uploaded, but it is like this:

Data:
      Pictures:
            Album
            Sue_Phone_Backup
            Miscellaneous
            iMatch

[Mario]

If you index only the Album folder,. IMatch should ignore other folders. 

Is Data a folder, too? Or a media label?

Which operations you perform add the other folders. I guess since Album is a child of Pictures and the other are also child folders of Pictures, a mismatched "folder modified" message sent by Windows may trigger this.

I've recreated the folder structure (assuming data is a folder) and added only Album to the database, containing a couple of images.

Then I closed and re-opened the database. Rescanned Album. Copied files into d:\data, d:\data\ Sue_Phone_Backup and the Misc and iIMatch folder. Nothing triggered these folders to be added. Let me know when you find out what triggers this on your end. When you notice, first thing, make a copy of the log file. See log file.

In general: Mixing managed (by IMatch) and unmanaged assets in the same folder hierarchy is not a good idea. 

If you have the folder data indexed by IMatch, any change event for any of it's sub-folders, not only Album, will trigger a rescan. IMatch by default does not add new folders found during automatic rescans, instead you get a notification.
Edit > Preferences > Indexing > Advanced File System monitoring must be off (default).

I recommend you move the folder containing the Assets you want to manage in IMatch into it's own top-level folder. This avoids issues like this completely.

[Andy Bell]

Thanks Mario!

I had Edit > Preferences > Indexing > Advanced File System monitoring turned on. I've now turned this off and will see if this makes a difference

If it does, then I will turn it back on and send you the log I get, just in case it helps...

I have other reasons for wanting my pictures where they are, so will resist the remedy of moving them to a top level folder (I'm assuming you meant something like d:\Pictures)