Force update "Additional Information" entries in Dolphin

[Jacksaur]

Discovered the "Additional Information" features in Dolphin a short while ago, the Width and Height fields for images in particular are something that'd be extremely useful to me. Problem is, that they don't seem to apply to my current files.
Any new files I download gain the width and height tags immediately, yet all my current files have been blank fields since I enabled the feature. I read that the feature was related to Baloo indexing, so I enabled it and tried indexing my Pictures folder through the terminal a few times, no effect. I've tried moving the files out of the folder and back in (since this is the only folder with Width/Height tags set as visible) but that didn't force them to appear either. And lastly I ran the balooctl check command, which instantly made the tags appear for one file, but the others still remained blank.

What's most confusing is that KDE does already know the exact dimensions of these files. It shows in the info panel, and in the file properties: It just won't display it in the fields underneath the name. Any ideas on how I can force these fields to update?

Example image is below. Files which I have downloaded from the internet and placed in the folder show their dimensions instantly. The two files on the right that I added days after I first installed Kubuntu, and weeks before I enabled this feature, do not.
https://i.imgur.com/kW2jY9K.png

[Fred47]

None of my pictures show the additional information. I have Dolphin set so that each folder is unique, so I would have to set the additional properties for every folder. I wonder if the size comes from the tags of the picture and not read directly from the image. None of my pictures have tags.

[DoYouKubuntu]

I just did some experimenting, and while I don't have a solution yet, I think I'm on to something.

In Dolphin's view settings, there's a value for maximum number of lines. It has 1-5 and then unlimited. I thought that may be the problem, like it wasn't set at a high enough number...but no.

However, as I fiddled around adding 'additional info' items, like height or width or date photographed, what I saw was that the area under each file's existing information grew bigger by one line. In other words, when I added width, I could see the info area expand by one line, then when I also added height, it grew by another line. EMPTY lines, but lines nevertheless.

Then I played around adjusting the maximum number of lines to display, erased all the existing choices I had (like file size, date stamp) so there was nothing left but name, and then added height, width, etc. And got nothing but additional BLANK lines.

Then I tweaked Dolphin's font settings, hoping maybe that somehow had something to do with it...it didn't.

With this info, hopefully we can all brainstorm and figure out how to fix it! With mine, it's clear that it's TRYING to display the additional info, but for some reason just can't.

[Fred47]

A couple more ideas, there are two menu items in Dolphin View -> Adjust View Properties -> Additional Properties and View -> Show Additional Properties Didn't make any difference what I checked. I also tried to change the Audio and Video files properties without success. Also my version of Dolphin is 19.12.3

I also found this old resolved bug that offers some clues. Files must have meta data and you have to be indexing files.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Figured it out!

At least it worked for me:


This is what I did:

- Main Menu | Settings | System Settings | Search | File Search
- [x] Enable file search
- [x] Also index file content
- [x] Index hidden files and folders

Then I chose my $HOME and hit 'apply.' It took some time to index because I don't normally use this feature.

Now, back in Dolphin, make sure you have enough lines available to display all the information entries you want. In Dolphin's preferences, go to View Modes | Icons and set "Maximum lines" to whatever value you want--I'm using 'unlimited.' Save your changes. Exit and restart Dolphin. Post your results!

[Jacksaur]

Figured it out!
This is what I did:

- Main Menu | Settings | System Settings | Search | File Search
- [x] Enable file search
- [x] Also index file content
- [x] Index hidden files and folders

That got a few more of mine to appear in other folders I had the labels enabled for! So it's definitely related to indexing those particular values somehow.

I finally found a way to force it for single files as well, by opening them in Gwenview, making any kind of edit, and then undoing it, pressing Save will count as modifying the image regardless and force the labels to finally update, for any stubborn files your method didn't fix.

Cheers for all the help with the questions I've been scattering around this forum. Hopefully I can contribute to helping others sometime :P

[jlittle]

Dolphin appears to get its data for the width and height from the baloo index. "Also index file content" has to be on.

I really don't like baloo, for several reasons, and I've ranted against it here in KFN so I'll spare readers here. Mostly, but not only, because it's a POS, and because it tried to kill my computer's SSD (I am not exaggerating).

I have it turned off, and dolphin showed nothing in the Width and height columns. I've turned baloo on with "also index file content" and it worked hard for 15 minutes or so, building a 542 MB index for 13 GB of files (excessive, IMO). Now dolphin shows width and height for most image files.

Because baloo is so flaky, and the OP has width and height for some files and not others, I suggest a reindex might help. A way to to that is to run:

balooctl purge
balooctl enable

Another way is to turn off file search in system settings, then delete the files in ~/.local/share/baloo, then turn it on.

I suggest using the "folder specific configuration" to not index the home directory, and adding the folders that have the images. Baloo might be better behaved that way, and its index size more reasonable.

[DoYouKubuntu]

That got a few more of mine to appear in other folders I had the labels enabled for! So it's definitely related to indexing those particular values somehow.

I finally found a way to force it for single files as well, by opening them in Gwenview, making any kind of edit, and then undoing it, pressing Save will count as modifying the image regardless and force the labels to finally update, for any stubborn files your method didn't fix.

Cheers for all the help with the questions I've been scattering around this forum. Hopefully I can contribute to helping others sometime :P

You're welcome! Glad to help.

I really think that if you repeat the steps outlined before, i.e., activate search indexing, on every directory that you want included, you shouldn't need to force any on a one-off basis. Of course, if there's some odd directory that you almost never put images in and don't want to bother indexing, never mind!

[Jacksaur]

Dolphin appears to get its data for the width and height from the baloo index. "Also index file content" has to be on.

I really don't like baloo, for several reasons, and I've ranted against it here in KFN so I'll spare readers here. Mostly, but not only, because it's a POS, and because it tried to kill my computer's SSD (I am not exaggerating).

I have it turned off, and dolphin showed nothing in the Width and height columns. I've turned baloo on with "also index file content" and it worked hard for 15 minutes or so, building a 542 MB index for 13 GB of files (excessive, IMO). Now dolphin shows width and height for most image files.

Because baloo is so flaky, and the OP has width and height for some files and not others, I suggest a reindex might help. A way to to that is to run:

balooctl purge
balooctl enable

Another way is to turn off file search in system settings, then delete the files in ~/.local/share/baloo, then turn it on.

I suggest using the "folder specific configuration" to not index the home directory, and adding the folders that have the images. Baloo might be better behaved that way, and its index size more reasonable.

Ah, I'd heard general complaints about Baloo but nothing specific before. If it's that bad for SSDs, then I'll definitely be disabling it again after my labels are showing up correctly.
I don't think it'll be much of a loss anyway, even without indexing, Plasma seems to populate search results in a fraction of the time Windows ever took.

[jlittle]

If it's that bad for SSDs, then I'll definitely be disabling it again after my labels are showing up correctly.

It was a bold claim...

Baloo has had many failure modes. Only once did it get stuck rewriting its index continually, at about 100 MB/s writing whenever the computer was on. At 86,400 seconds per day, that's about 8 TB per day. The device's spec sheet said it's warranted for 100 TB total written, so in a couple of weeks it would have gone past that.

More usually baloo would go 100% CPU, or use up available memory. Maybe it's better these days, but I'm not willing to find out.

[claydoh]

I haven't had to disable Baloo in quite a few years now, which used to be one of the first things I did on a fresh install. I can't recall the last time I had to rebuild the database. I had to turn it off when I was running Plasma on Chromebooks with dirt-slow and small emmc storage.

I use it semi-regularly, and heavily when I do, often searching pdf, doc, odt, and other files for certain text, etc. I know I have seen and experienced a number of complaints online over the years, but my experience has been good over the past few years now.



tl;dr like pretty much everything in Linux, ymmv