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Google Picasa "Sunset" version - Mini-Review and anchor-point

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IainB:
EDIT 2018-04-07:
Added/modified to the OP and the Indexing post below it:

* Using Tags in Picasa.  Can be used as a very powerful tool for creating persistent "virtual albums" by tagging random images to create a subject-specific album. (NB: Has to be tried to be appreciated.)
* Re: Google Picasa "Sunset" version - Picasa Tags and creation of virtual albums
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IainB:
Cross-posted her for information/relevance, from another discussion thread on the DC forum:
@phillie08:
Yes, the simple explanation would seem to be that the cached thumbnails that are of concern to you - and which do not contain the latest artefacts in the original image and that were added to that image - could probably be of an earlier version of the image. One can only suppose as to why the cached thumbnail was not updated.

Those thumbnails will have been created by the Windows OS and stored in a database/cache - which is an accumulator and will contain thumbnails of since-deleted/changed image files.
It is thus generally a good housekeeping practice to periodically run cleanmgr.exe (in Admininstrator mode and set to to clean up system files). When doing this, ensure that there is a tick against the "Thumbnails" item. For example:
-IainB (October 23, 2018, 06:05 PM)
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The example screenshot above shows 26.0MB of Thumbnails - which is not much really and is usually larger (I had already not long ago run cleanmgr.exe before taking this screenshot).
It can be educational to search the system with Everything for files with "thumb  .db" (with the embedded space). That will identify all the Thumbnail-related files that comprise the 26.0MB  - in my case, they are mostly/all in:
C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\

Those files will have names with "thumbcache" in them - e.g. "thumbcache_768.db".

An Everything search will also be able to show you where all the "Thumb" and "Thumb  .db' named files are, so that you can delete them as necessary. Generally, system "Thumbs.db" files are to be found in all those directories where images are stored. They are Windows OS system files (caches), but it doesn't hurt to periodically sweep them up in a housekeeping run - e.g., using Everything to identify them prior to deletion - since they are accumulators and could contain thumbnails of since-deleted/changed image files (hence the problem discussed here), so that, over time, they could become bloated with useless garbage. The Windows OS will recreate anew the deleted thumbnail cache - with up-to-date thumbnails - as and when it is forced to open those image files again for any purpose.

If you use third party image file managers - e.g., (say) Picasa3 - then, from experience, you will generally find that they create and update their own peculiar thumbnail caches/databases. For example, in my case, Picasa3 builds several thumbnail and preview database files (caches) that are approx 2GB in size.    :o

So, in my case, I would therefore tend to leave well enough alone there, since Picasa3 will have done a lot of work to deliberately build those caches, rather than rely on the Windows OS thumbnail caching system. So far, Picasa3 never seems to have displayed for me the outdated cached thumbnail problem discussed here. I suspect that the Picasa3 cache build and maintenance processes will have been designed for optimum performance (efficiency and speed) - i.e., with garbage removed periodically by Picasa3 systematically updating the thumbnails cache after an image is deleted/changed.
-IainB (October 23, 2018, 06:05 PM)
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sphere:
I was curious if folks are still using Picasa 3 without any issue?
What I'm most interested in is a local directory and photo organizer. I'm curious if the face recognition still works in isolation from Google?
As an aside, it looks like there is a Picasa import for lightroom utility
http://picasa-lightroom.com/

"Latest News: Version 2.0 released 2/18/2017:  Overhauled and improved importing of People & Face regions. Now they are imported as native Lightroom people and face regions rather than just “People collections” as in previous versions. If you used a previous version of P2Lr and have face recognition from Picasa, please see this page: Importing People after using earlier version of P2Lr. "

tomos:
I'm curious if the face recognition still works in isolation from Google?
-sphere (April 23, 2019, 10:00 PM)
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I have mainly used Picasa in isolation from google, (but on windows 7). Face recognition worked fine for me -- but I haven't used Picasa actively in a year or so.

IainB:
@sphere:
What I'm most interested in is a local directory and photo organizer. I'm curious if the face recognition still works in isolation from Google?
...As an aside, it looks like there is a Picasa import for lightroom utility
http://picasa-lightroom.com/
-sphere (April 23, 2019, 10:00 PM)
--- End quote ---
Regarding Lightroom: Thanks re the Lightroom utility. Looks potentially rather useful

Regarding face recognition: In Picasa, face recognition seems to have always been independently carried out by the desktop app and thus not requiring any online Cloud-based/Google functionality, unless you wanted to link people's names/faces with their email address (the database for which would be in your online Gmail account). I therefore find it curious and somewhat telling that the Google marketing push - effectively shutting down Picasa and only partially replacing it with a new offering (Google Photos) - was to force the user into a seemingly unnecessary (i.e., not a user requirement or benefit) and sole reliance on Cloud functionality, thereby apparently creating/ensuring an increasingly more captive audience and owning unfettered access to an increasingly large amount of users' data (i.e., including the image databases).

Some people (not me, you understand) might say that Google - like Facebook - is decidedly NOT your "friend", but merely a very successful marketing data miner and and corporate psychopath that - rather like the US NSA - considers the user's right to privacy to be an annoying nuisance to be variously trampled upon or evaded at all costs, but I couldn't possibly comment.

Google Picasa "Sunset" version - Mini-Review and anchor-point

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