MattS You should be carful with renaming files, as program will detect it as old file being deleted and completely new file appeared. No wonder all people associations will be lost in that case.

The re-index button is right here, in context menu (right mouse click):

You can also manually add faces using context menu in view mode (when you open particular photo).

Hi Andrey, the process I’ve been going through is:
1) Scan physical photos which provides a default filename.
2) Manually edit each filename and add, date, who, what, where
3) I then discovered or searched for a facial recognition application and chose Tonfontos to help me find and recognize people I barely knew or a relative said this is “John Smith” but John Smith looks different in many photos or the photos are spread over decades and it’s hard to tell John Smith from others often.
4) So after I started using Tonfotos, I continued my file renaming and possibly going back and editing a filename after I discovered who was in it or for ones I was unsure of.

So renaming files is part of the process I’m going through.

I did find the "Re-index file(s) option by right clicking on a photo inside of the Folders view. I tried that. It is unclear what files it is re-indexing. Is it just that file? Is it all the files in that folder on the computer? How do I get it to re-index all the files from the root directory down?

What does the “Rescan Folder” option do? I found that by right clicking on a folder name on the left pane of the Folders view.

I realize you are suggesting this can be troublesome and I should be “careful” but it’s how I’m working and the process I’m using right now.

Like I tried to say, when I went back to that photo in Tonfotos with about 75 people in it, the names had been lost of the faces I identified. When I tried to manually add a face, it didn’t work. Maybe that is because Tonfotos though the file was deleted and there really was another copy somewhere else now. Hopefully the Re-index file(s) and rescan folder options will help resolve this.

When there are only a few images that contain a specific person, Tonfotos has trouble finding the last few. The more images there are, the better the software does.

I remember you said that the scanning is complete when you see a Ready statement at the bottom left of the screen.

I almost always see a little person symbol followed by an Explanation Mark and then a “Ready.” text. I’m guessing that the “!” symbol means there are faces that need to be identified still and that the “Ready.” text means that the software had completed scanning of every photo from the root down?

Thank you!

MattS it is unclear what files it is re-indexing. Is it just that file?

Ones that you have selected. You can select multiple files using Shift+Arrows or Shift + mouse click, like in any other application.

MattS How do I get it to re-index all the files from the root directory down?

The easies way would be do remove this folder completely from Library locations dialog and then add it again.

MattS What does the “Rescan Folder” option do?

It looks for changes in the folder. If nothing is changed, it will not process any files second time, for that you need to do re-index.

MattS I realize you are suggesting this can be troublesome and I should be “careful” but it’s how I’m working and the process I’m using right now.

I understand that. It is just this process is not very compatible with the way Tonfotos remembers information about people. Probably you should consider some adjustment to your process to avoid losing data you have already entered into application.

Just as a suggestion, you may consider using Title or Comment metadata of the photos for adding textual information, instead of file names. Title and Comments are pretty common metadata type and even Windows Explorer can read and understand it: https://tonfotos.com/articles/photo-caption/

MattS I almost always see a little person symbol followed by an Explanation Mark

This sign means there are people with new faces suggested for your attention. If you click on this sign or just press Control+N, you will navigate to those suggestions and will be able to confirm/reject.

MattS “Ready.” text means that the software had completed scanning of every photo from the root down?

Correct (assuming there are no disconnected drives it just can’t index right now).

Andrey

Thank you for the very detailed reply.

I’ve used the meta data in Windows Explorer under the Details tab before but in the one sample I did where the filename was something like 004_0037_a, I added a title to the title field. I then selected ok. I added the “Title” column in Windows Explorer Details view and I could see my new title of text.

However, when I search that folder which has over 500 photos, it does not find any of the words in the title but it does find the filename or partial filename when I search in the Windows Explorer Search field.

The whole point I have for using filenames with Date, Who, What, Where, is that I can search my root drive and find every picture of Aunt Mary.

Does that make sense? Without the ability to search the title field or comment field as you have suggested, I or my relatives, won’t be able to search for things they are interested like everything that occurred in 1972 for example.

Perhaps I missed something. Thank you for all your help. Matt

Matt,

Sorry to stick my nose in here but…
Have you tried adding tags to your photos? This seems to work the best for me for a search function. You can right click on any photo (in Tonfotos) and, in the dialog that appears, click on “add to” and then “new tag” in the dialog box that follows. You can create as many tags as you like and add as many tags as you want to each photo. The tagged photos are then sorted by tag name in the “Albums” tab at the top of the Tonfotos screen.

Once you create a tag, that tag will show up in the “add to” list and can be added to hundreds of pictures So you could have a picture that has the tags “Matt Jones” “Jane Jones” “Fred Stevens” “Christmas 2023” “Arizona” and so on. Then, when you go to the Albums Tab, a sorted list by tag name will show up. Simply look for “Matt Jones” and all the photos you tagged with that tag name will be together in one place.

Maybe this helps…

MattS Does that make sense? Without the ability to search the title field or comment field as you have suggested, I or my relatives, won’t be able to search for things they are interested like everything that occurred in 1972 for example.

I guess I understand where disconnect is. Basically what you are doing is using Tonfotos to enrich your archive, while still planning to get rid of it later on, and rely solely on Windows Explorer to navigate your library. Well, I have to admit, this is not what we have envisioned when we developed Tonfotos Even though Tonfotos provides a great help in structuring your folders, deleting duplicates, adding tags and comments, which is all valuable outside of the program too, but still the main purpose of the program is to replace Windows Explorer completely as your main window onto your photo archive. Why to rely on filenames to indicate Where, if you have interactive map for that? Why to rely on filenames for mentioning people if you can actually browse personal libraries, tag relationship between people, and pretty soon you will be able to make complicated search requests like “all images where there is Tom, but no Mary”? Even if you will be able to do something like that with naming and using explorer, using Tonfotos is so much more convenient.

Hi Andrey, I understand the focus on pushing Tonfotos. I really do. It does seem very powerful and useful, including the input from “Steve Ohio” about Tags.

However, the Tonfotos business plan concepts rely on Users using Tonfotos. What about the person, like me, that want’s to share his archive with relatives? Basically that is forcing them to buy Tonfotos and to learn how to use Tonfotos to find “meta data” on the people in the photo archive.

Sharing the way I do, all of my relatives have a Windows computer and they simply transfer files from the Cloud or a thumb drive that I provide. They then can search within windows (which most know how to do a Windows file search).

One way is very complicated for the relatives and the other way is as basic as it gets for Windows.

That is the reason.

So I need to decide if I want this archive for me or for my relatives. I’ve tried to use the features in Tonfotos to help me identify people that I don’t know or recognize (and get input from a relative). Tonfotos is pretty good at taking a person’s face that I correctly identified, thanks to a relative, and then find others so I don’t have to ask for the twelfth time, who is this in this photo? :-)

I will likely continue with my plan but I really appreciate the input and help from Tech support and the users of Tonfotos in the Community here. It’s some of the best support I’ve ever seen on a product.

Hi Steve Ohio. I replied to Andrey on this same topic. I explained why I took this approach. I appreciate your input and will check out the Tags within Tonfotos. Matt