ExifToolGUI "stuck"

[Bergel]

Hi everybody,

when searching for a solution to my ExifToolGUI problem, I came across this forum.

I've been using exiftool for a couple of years now (thanks a lot for this useful tool!) and recently happened to find out that there is a GUI for it. I installed it but have a problem running it. It starts up well and allows me to navigate etc. but as soon as I single-click on a file, the little turning circle shows up and nothing happens anymore. Task manager shows a process for ExifToolGUI and two processes called exiftool.exe, neither of which is consuming CPU time. Windows "Problem Details" says "Problem Event Name: AppHangB1".

"Exiftool direct" from the GUI works.

I am running Vista 32 bit, exiftool stand-alone version 8.61 and ExifTool GUI version 5.14.

Any idea?

Thanks a lot in advance!

Greetings,
Bergel

[Phil Harvey]

Sounds like ExifToolGUI can't find exiftool.  "exiftool.exe" must be somewhere in your PATH.  The recommended location is your WINDOWS directory.  See the Requirements and preparations section of the ExifToolGUI documentation.

- Phil

[Bergel]

The location of exiftool.exe is in the PATH variable. And if ExifToolGUI couldn't find exiftool.exe, I wouldn't see exiftool.exe processes, and "Exiftool direct" wouldn't work, either, would it?

But just to make sure, I copied exiftool.exe to C:\Windows. Unfortunately, the results are the same...

Additional information: "Chart" in the middle window works. Even on a directory with more than 1000 files. But when I'm in "Filelist", as soon as I left-click a file -- any file -- , the application hangs.

[Bergel]

Some more information:

When I left-click on a file in the middle window, the formerly greyed-out menu entries "Export/Import", "Modify", and "Various" become black, and the window title changes to "ExifToolGUI - <filename>". And, a short while thereafter, to "ExifToolGUI - <filename> (Not Responding)".

More information: Middle window, no file selected. "Camera settings": works. "Location info": works. "About photo": works. "User defined": hangs.

[Bergel]

Is it possible that it misses (or can't access) some file with user-specific information? When I go to Program / Preferences, it also hangs.

[Phil Harvey]

Does exiftool work properly in a cmd.exe window?  Run "cmd" from the windows start menu, then type "exiftool -ver" and press RETURN.  If it does work, then I'm about out of ideas.  If it doesn't, follow these instructions to un-install, then re-install exiftool.

- Phil

[Bergel]

Yes. Works perfectly. Always has :-)
(gives "8.61" in this case)

[Bergel]

May I ask: Where are the "User defined" filelist information and the "Preferences" stored?

[Bergel]

Ok, it's solved (even though I have no idea what was wrong).

In a different thread (from March 7, 2012), user iratemonkey seemed to experience exactly the same problems. I did what solved them for him, i.e. downloaded the newest exiftool version (9.02), and now it works perfectly.

Phil, thanks again for a great tool and your attempt to solve my problems here!

Best wishes,
Bergel

[Phil Harvey]

I'm glad you solve it.

In hindsight, this makes sense, and I should have suggested updating ExifTool.  ExifToolGUI version 5.x uses a new -stay_open feature that was added relatively recently (well, OK, 2 years ago).  Although this was added in ExifTool 8.36, there were improvements to this functionality as recently as 8.74 -- perhaps one of these fixed this problem.

- Phil