Image Dimensions not showing

Francine Schwieder wrote:
The only time I have seen this problem is when a folder (or the drive the folder is on) is listed in the Privacy pane of Spotlight.

Interesting! I had never noticed this before because I keep the privacy pane essentially empty but you are right: I can reliably duplicate the "--" entry for dimensions & some other metadata like 'last opened' by dropping select folders into the privacy pane. I assume this is for privacy reasons, although I'm not sure why image dimensions would be considered sensitive information when the preview still is available!

Anyway, on my system I can just as reliably reliably reverse this by removing the folder from the pane, although in column view I have to reselect the item to refresh the preview column afterwards. This would seem to exclude this as the cause of the O.P.'s problem ...

... except that the privacy pane has always had an unexpected property: it hides anything it contains that is not on a volume currently mounted. I wonder if this somehow is happening to items actually on mounted volumes, perhaps through some quirk of the upgrade or migration process from Tiger to Leopard?

OK, let's go with the "files recently saved" clue for a bit. What have you done in the way of configuration or installation recently -- IOW, since you last saved a file that doesn't show this problem?

Did you try the earlier suggestion to use Terminal to check the metadata entry for one of the files? In Terminal, type "mdls" a space, then drag and drop one of the files into the Terminal window. The path will autmatically be filled in. Then hit the Return key. Here are the results I get with a file which exists on both a drive that is NOT indexed by Spotlight, and one that is:

NoobiX:~ francine$ mdls /Volumes/Tigin/_DSC9901.JPG
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate = 2007-10-28 01:38:40 -0700
kMDItemFSCreationDate = 2007-10-28 01:38:36 -0700
kMDItemFSCreatorCode = (null)
kMDItemFSFinderFlags = 0
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon = 0
kMDItemFSInvisible = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden = 0
kMDItemFSIsStationery = 0
kMDItemFSLabel = 0
kMDItemFSName = "_DSC9901.JPG"
kMDItemFSNodeCount = 0
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID = 80
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID = 501
kMDItemFSSize = 873328
kMDItemFSTypeCode = "JPEG"

Above are the results for the file that has NOT been indexed by Spotlight. Below are the results for a copy of the file that has been indexed:

NoobiX:~ francine$ mdls /_DSC9901.JPG
kMDItemAcquisitionMake = "NIKON CORPORATION"
kMDItemAcquisitionModel = "NIKON D200"
kMDItemBitsPerSample = 32
kMDItemColorSpace = "RGB"
kMDItemComment = "(C)ANNE LINDSAY "
kMDItemContentCreationDate = 2007-10-28 01:38:36 -0700
kMDItemContentModificationDate = 2007-10-28 01:38:40 -0700
kMDItemContentType = "public.jpeg"
kMDItemContentTypeTree = (
"public.jpeg",
"public.image",
"public.data",
"public.item",
"public.content"
)
kMDItemCreator = "Ver.1.00 "
kMDItemDisplayName = "_DSC9901.JPG"
kMDItemEXIFGPSVersion = "2.2"
kMDItemEXIFVersion = "2.2.1"
kMDItemExposureMode = 1
kMDItemExposureTimeSeconds = 0.03999999910593033
kMDItemFlashOnOff = 0
kMDItemFNumber = 9
kMDItemFocalLength = 18
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate = 2007-10-28 01:38:40 -0700
kMDItemFSCreationDate = 2007-10-28 01:38:36 -0700
kMDItemFSCreatorCode = (null)
kMDItemFSFinderFlags = 0
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon = 0
kMDItemFSInvisible = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden = 0
kMDItemFSIsStationery = 0
kMDItemFSLabel = 0
kMDItemFSName = "_DSC9901.JPG"
kMDItemFSNodeCount = 0
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID = 80
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID = 501
kMDItemFSSize = 873328
kMDItemFSTypeCode = "JPEG"
kMDItemHasAlphaChannel = 0
kMDItemISOSpeed = 100
kMDItemKind = "JPEG image"
kMDItemLastUsedDate = 2007-10-28 01:38:40 -0700
kMDItemOrientation = 1
kMDItemPixelHeight = 3872
kMDItemPixelWidth = 2592
kMDItemProfileName = "Adobe RGB (1998)"
kMDItemRedEyeOnOff = 0
kMDItemResolutionHeightDPI = 300
kMDItemResolutionWidthDPI = 300
kMDItemUsedDates = (
2007-10-28 00:00:00 -0700
)
kMDItemWhiteBalance = 1

As you can see, virtually no information is available for a file that has not been indexed, while all sorts of info, including the dimensions, is available for a file that has been indexed. You might also try the mdls command on one of your older files. If the mdls information is there, but not being displayed, that is quite a different problem than if the information has not been gathered at all.
Francine


Francine
Schwieder

Oops. Accidently included the first seach twice. Now deleted the repeat.

OK--looks like new things are not being correctly indexed, and so there is nothing for Finder display. As to WHY this is happening, I don't know. For me the problem was the "unknown" group that had been assigned to the files. Once I changed the group to "staff" all the files were indexed and searchable, and their metadata was displayed in Finder. I suspect that something is awry with the ownership and permissions of the new files, or with your own account's group designation. Another possiblity is that the appropriate mdimporters are either broken or not present or not running. To see if the importer is there, take a look and see if you find this:

"/System/Library/Spotlight/Image.mdimporter"

Do you have an external drive (a thumb drive would do)? If so, make sure it is formatted for the Mac, not as FAT32, create a folder on it, and copy a whole batch of your new graphics files to it. Next, create a brand new user in System Prefs/Accounts and give the new user admin rights. Log in to that user and copy the folder of images off the external drive and into the new user's home folder. See if Spotlight begins to index the files, and if the metadata is correctly present in the Finder and with mdls for the files.
Francine


Francine
Schwieder

Eric Blankfield wrote:
So, I guess it hasn't been indexed. It seems Tiger used to index my Users/username/Sites folder. Leopard seems not to. Naturally, this begs the question of how to get it indexed.

Try this: put the ~/Sites/ folder into the Spotlight privacy pane. Close the preference and/or log out of the account (this may not be necessary). Log back in, & remove the folder from the preference pane.

Any change?

If not, check the permissions on that folder, making sure you are the owner & have read & write access.

Where does installing CS3 fit into this timeline? Was it installed before or after the Leopard upgrade?

Try running:

mdimport -f ~/Sites

and see if that helps. That will force Spotlight to (re)index that directory. If that brings the image dimensions back for the contents of that directory, then it sounds like your Spotlight index may be corrupt/hosed. I would force a re-index of your volume(s). Go into the Spotlight Privacy Pane and add your volume(s). This will blow away any existing Spotlight indexes on the volume. Then Remove your volume(s) from the Spotlight Privacy Pane. This will trigger a full rebuild of your Spotlight indexes. See if that helps.

Did re-indexing fix your issue?