Release
Archyv 1.5.0
Every metadata edit can now be undone.
Archyv now saves a copy of each file before it changes the file’s metadata, in every process that edits metadata, so every edit can be reversed from Undo History for as long as its undo data is kept. The “Create backup before metadata modifications” switch is gone: there is nothing to turn on, and nothing to forget.
One setting for how long undo data is kept
- Backup Management, in the General section of Settings, now has a single Keep undo data for setting in place of the two older ones. Choose an age (90 days unless you change it), a total size, a number of files, or Forever. If you had already set a limit, it carries over.
- Archyv tidies up at launch and after each task. A changed setting takes effect when you close Settings.
- If Archyv was keeping all of your undo data, which it did unless you set a limit, you will see a one-time notice the first time you open 1.5.0. It says exactly what moving to 90 days would remove, and nothing is removed until you answer. Choose Keep Everything to carry on as before, or Remove Older Than 90 Days to free the space.
- Clean Up, in the same section, removes older saved copies when you choose: by age, down to a total size, or down to a number of files. It shows how many copies will go, and how much space they take, before anything is removed.
- Saved copies you remove yourself, with Clean Up, Clear All or from the Saved Copies screen, leave their tasks in Undo History so you keep the record of what was done. The files affected are listed greyed out as No longer undoable. Tasks older than your limit are removed whole.
- The screen for reviewing saved copies is now called Saved Copies, and its button reads Review Saved Copies.
- Because every edit now keeps a copy, an edit will not go ahead if its copy cannot be made, for example on a full disk. Archyv stops rather than change the file without one.
What to do: if the notice appears, choose whichever answer suits you. You can change the setting at any time.
Edit repeating details one entry at a time
Some IPTC details can hold several entries: Licensor, Copyright Owner, and Artwork or Object. Editing one of them used to affect the whole list, so changing the first licensor’s name could erase the second licensor’s name.
- In Individual mode each entry is now its own card. Add, change or remove one entry and the others stay exactly as they were, including any details Archyv does not display.
- In Batch mode you can add a record to every selected photo, replace every record with one, or remove them all. Archyv counts how many photos it will change before you confirm.
- Product Shown in the Image and Image Creator can now be edited.
Metadata Editor
- Media Topics are shown by name, such as “Bankruptcy”, instead of by code. To see the codes as well, turn on Show Media Topic codes under Field Categories in Settings.
- The Media Topic search always shows the right result. Typing one letter at a time could leave an out-of-date result on screen, and clicking it added the wrong topic.
- In Individual mode, a date shows the timezone stored with it, and the timezone is kept when you save. Removing it is a deliberate choice: pick No timezone, and a caution below the date names the timezone that will be removed.
- A date typed with a timezone is stored correctly. The timezone now goes into the photo’s own timezone field, instead of being dropped or written into the date in a form other software cannot read. A date entered without a time of day no longer replaces the camera’s capture time.
- Web addresses typed without https:// have it added when you save, so other software can follow them. An address that already starts with http:// or https:// is saved as typed.
- Adding a value a field already holds no longer locks the Individual/Batch switch or marks the field as changed. The editor tells you the value is already in the list.
- Pressing Escape while typing in Individual mode no longer closes the editor and throws away your unsaved changes. In a search box it closes the list of suggestions.
- Eight IPTC fields are now written in both of the formats the IPTC standard defines, so software that reads only one of them still sees the value: Headline, Credit Line, Source, Instructions, Description Writer, Intellectual Genre, Subject Code and Date Created.
- Digital Source Type and Media Topic are saved in the full form the IPTC standard specifies, so other software recognises them. The editor still shows the short name.
- Four IPTC fields are new: Extended Description, Minor Model Age Disclosure, Image Supplier ID and Image Supplier Image ID.
Metadata Review
- The IPTC, TIFF, EXIF and XMP tabs now label each row with the field’s proper name instead of an internal key. IPTC fields use the names from the IPTC standard itself.
- Eight field names now match the IPTC standard everywhere in Archyv: Creator, Description, Description Writer, Credit Line, Copyright Notice, Web Statement of Rights, Province or State, and Country Code.
- When a field holds several structured entries, such as three image regions, each entry is now numbered and set apart instead of running together.
- A photo’s IPTC tab now also shows Image Region, Product Shown in the Image, Image Creator, and the IPTC Date Created and Time Created.
Photographer Attribution
- Stamping a year now updates every copy of the photo’s Date Created, so they no longer disagree, and a RAW photo’s sidecar (.xmp) file receives the date too.
- If a RAW photo’s sidecar cannot be updated, the photographer’s name is no longer written into the RAW file itself. The photo is left untouched and the run log says why.
Finding duplicates
- Two sizes of the same photo are now matched, such as a full-size original and a smaller export of it.
- The Fast level no longer reports large numbers of false matches. It now compares two fingerprints of each photo, as Balanced does. On a sample of 700 photos, its matches fell from over six thousand pairs to four.
Scan and Select
- For fields with a standard list of values, the list now shows which values actually appear in the loaded folder, with a count, followed by the rest under “Not in this folder”. For a folder Archyv has not read yet, Show which values are in this folder counts them in the background while you carry on.
Other fixes
- Undo works for files that are not on your startup disk. Undoing a metadata edit, the automatic roll-back after a failed save, and restoring a saved copy all failed for files on any other disk. They now work.
- Undo puts an existing sidecar back as it was. With backups switched off, undoing an edit to a RAW photo could move the sidecar that was already beside it to the Trash.
- An edit goes into the sidecar a photo already has. On a case-sensitive drive, a RAW photo whose sidecar is spelled in capitals, such as PHOTO.XMP, gained a second, lowercase sidecar beside it; the edit now updates the existing one.
- Pressing Escape while typing no longer takes Archyv out of full screen, in any text field.