Existing face region and tag ignored on upload

[archont00]

Hi,

I have manully tagged an image in digiKam for the face, which creates a face region and a face tag People/Lenny and saves the metadata back to the image (i.e. no sidecar XMP file).

List of relevant metada (I'll try to attach the image Lenna_(test_image).png):

File name: Lenna_(test_image).png (ExifTool)

>>> XMP <<<

HierarchicalSubject : People|Lenna
RegionAppliedToDimensionsH : 512
RegionAppliedToDimensionsUnit : pixel
RegionAppliedToDimensionsW : 512
RegionAreaH : 0.347656
RegionAreaUnit : normalized
RegionAreaW : 0.287109
RegionAreaX : 0.567383
RegionAreaY : 0.591797
RegionName : Lenna
RegionPersonDisplayName : Lenna
RegionRectangle : 0.423828, 0.417969, 0.287109, 0.347656
RegionType : Face

• Then, I have uploaded (drag & drop) the image to Immich (docker-compose - latest versions, smart search, face detection and face recognition enabled) with this result (I have waited till all jobs finished):
  • Face not detected
  • Face tag not shown in (info) tab
• Then I have forced the rescan of face detection and recognition manually - no change.
• Then I have forced the Sidecar (sic!) Metadata sync and Immich now shows there is a detected yet unrecognised face on the image:
  • The region is not the same as the one I have created manually in digiKam.
  • The face name "Lenny" is not shown.
  • So I am guessing it is some delayed face detection job, rather than imported region.

Can anyone shed some light on how to import existing library into Immich with existing face region tags and names?

(Reason: I have a library worth of cca 30 years image memories... So far testing with Immich in read-only mode as External Library.)

[Mraedis]

Did you enable face import from EXIF/Sidecar in the metadata settings? https://my.immich.app/admin/system-settings?isOpen=metadata

[archont00]

Indeed! That one was not active. Thanks a lot.

After further testing (metadata rescan, resetting face detection & recognition) Immich replaced it's own region with the region I have created manually in digiKam and assigned the tag name.

[Besenreiter]

I have the same Question. I put a Photo (IMG-20250223-WA0029.jpg) and the xmp (IMG-20250223-WA0029.xmp) in my external library which writable. I checked it by generating a Test.txt from within the docker container. The Option "import Exif/Sidecar" is on. The Photo is shown on the webApp of immich, but the Name of the person is not shown in the info-block.
ALso immich recognized lots of persons, I tagged them and they are shown with the Infos. But again, Immich does not create any xmp-file. What might I do wrong? I even tried to import the photo with the person from the cli (immich upload .). It seems, Immich not using (reading/writing) xmp files. What can I do to debug what I am doing wrong? is the a general switch: xmp off?
Thanks,
Ingo

[bo0tzz]

Immich currently doesn't write recognized faces to the XMP file.

[Besenreiter]

mmmh, OK, stupid me. But does it read the data (which data?) from the xmp files?

[bo0tzz]

Yes