I searched the forum and the Web and don't see an answer, so maybe you folks can help.

I run Vista Home Premium on a custom-built HTPC.  I have loads of JPG photos, in folders by date.  I am having trouble getting Media Center to recognize the tags.

According to Microsoft's Web site, I should be able to tag photos in Windows Photo Gallery and then see and sort those tags in Media Center.  However, I created tags and applied them to hundreds of pics, and Media Center still says they are all un-tagged.

Is this because Media Center needs to re-import and re-index?  Should I drop the folders from the library and re-add them?

Is it because the tags are all external to the photos?  I notice that the "modified date" doesn't change when I tag a photo.  Maybe Photo Gallery keeps its own little database.  If so, how will MC find out about any tag changes?

I also tried Photo Smacker, a 3rd party utility that reads and writes EXIF tags.  When I connect to the photo directories over the network from XP, the EXIF tags show up in the Windows Explorer Properties and in the Search results.  I'm sure those tags are really on the photo, not an external database.  But even those confirned tags don't show up in Media Center.

This is really basic, and somehow I'm not getting it.  What does it take to get MC to recognize a photo tag?

Are you using Photo Gallery on your Media Center machine, or are you connecting over the network?

Photo Gallery doesn't immediatly write tags to pictures.  It keeps its own database for the tags that you apply to pictures and then writes those tags to the pictures in the background.  This actually works pretty well, but if you are connecting from a network computer and applying tags, it means that you will have to leave that computer connected to the network & leave Photo Gallery running on it for a little while before the tags get applied to the pictures.

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Just my $0.02.

ryan.tollefson:

Are you using Photo Gallery on your Media Center machine, or are you connecting over the network?

Good question.  I'm using Photo Gallery on the Media Center machine.

ryan.tollefson:

Photo Gallery doesn't immediatly write tags to pictures.  It keeps its own database for the tags that you apply to pictures ...

I wondered about that.  Thanks for the confirmation.

ryan.tollefson:

...and then writes those tags to the pictures in the background. 

How long does this background operation take?  Days?  The tags I applied last week still don't show up.  This is very odd.

On the same machine it shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes, but remember that you need to leave photo gallery open for it to be able to apply the tags.

That said, I don't think this is your problem, I think something else is going on.  You could try going into Media Player, then select the "Pictures" section (little icon right under the back arrow), and delete all of the folders - make sure you just delete them from the library, don't delete them from the computer.  Then you could re-import the pictures into Media Player.  This should cause it to recreate the database (Media Center uses the Media Player database).

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Just my $0.02.

Thank you for all your help.  Here's what I tried, and here's what happened.

1. I separated my home movies and photos into parallel directories.  This was to solve an unrelated annoyance about having the two mixed in the VMC interface.
2. After that, I opened WMP and made sure that the photos, movies, and music were all watching exactly the directories I wanted.
3. I went into Photo Gallery and none of the tags I had assigned earlier were there.  I added the new directory, re-tagged 350 photos of my daughter, and left Photo Gallery running for a few hours to make sure it would do whatever background processing it needed.
4. I opened Vista Media Center.  The videos were in the video menu and the photos in the photo menu, as planned.  However, my 350 tags were nowhere to be seen.  The photos were still untagged, except for a few that were tagged before migrating to Vista.
5. Along with the photos and videos, VMC included the root directories of several card reader devices on the Folder menu.  I tried to get to C:\Users\<username>\Local Settings\Microsoft\Media Player to remove the card readers, but was unable to see the directory.  The security is a little too foolproof, it seems.  Maybe later I'll enable logging in as the Administrator and that should let me see the hidden folders.

As far as I can tell, tagging in Photo Gallery has nothing to do with Media Center.  Could it be that the documentation is simply wrong?

I tried to get to

After 90 minutes on the phone with Microsoft, I discovered the problem while I was on hold.  Coming in a close second, the tech returned with a similar suggestion.

I set up the HTPC with an administrative account.  Then, I created an ordinary user for the family to log in for daily use. That way, naive children would not be tempted to try something silly like formatting the system drive or installing some virus.

The default, non-privileged user did not have write permission on the photos.  I granted the permission, removed and re-applied the tags, and eventually, a few at a time, they showed up in Media Center.

I should have known.  Weird and subtle problems usually involve permissions.

Glad you got it working.  Tagging pics is one of the best ways to view them in Media Center.

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My Network Project - Media Center Blog

Bubbatron:

After 90 minutes on the phone with Microsoft, I discovered the problem while I was on hold.  Coming in a close second, the tech returned with a similar suggestion.

I set up the HTPC with an administrative account.  Then, I created an ordinary user for the family to log in for daily use. That way, naive children would not be tempted to try something silly like formatting the system drive or installing some virus.

The default, non-privileged user did not have write permission on the photos.  I granted the permission, removed and re-applied the tags, and eventually, a few at a time, they showed up in Media Center.

I should have known.  Weird and subtle problems usually involve permissions.

Good to know.  I'm surprised that Photo Gallery didn't give an error for not having permissions.

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Just my $0.02.

I've seen the same issue in Windows Photo Gallery, its shows the photos all being tagged however some of my photo files had the read only flag set and the tags were not applied to those photos and Windows Photo Gallery did not report an error, maybe its a bug?

 

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Stu

aka C-Dub



The Windows Media Center Blog

Tips Tricks & News!

I also had a few .PNG photo files that I download from the net, seems you cannot add tags to PNG files. Coverted them to JPG and all is good!

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Stu

aka C-Dub



The Windows Media Center Blog

Tips Tricks & News!

Bummer about the .PNGs.  Has anyone tried Picasa for adding tags?  I haven't tried it for my Media Center pics yet, so I don't know if it will even work, but if it does, that might be a nice way to do it (version 3 is looking pretty neat).

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Just my $0.02.

ryan.tollefson:

Bummer about the .PNGs.  Has anyone tried Picasa for adding tags?  I haven't tried it for my Media Center pics yet, so I don't know if it will even work, but if it does, that might be a nice way to do it (version 3 is looking pretty neat).

I only had about 6 .png files so wasn't too bad. I have not tried Picasa, the Windows Photo Gallery was easy to use and added the tags ok, apart from the file permission / read only issue.

 

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Stu

aka C-Dub



The Windows Media Center Blog

Tips Tricks & News!