I can't Import any new collection on Win10

[jmviade]

Hi, friends,

Congratulations for this new step for this great plataforme of photo edition.

Describe the bug/issue
I've tried to install the last version 3.6.0.1 of Darktable and the main issue is that I CAN'T ADD any new collection. I can work with the existing collections but it's impossible to add a new one.

I follow the normal steps: select a folder, select some files, press the button, etc. and then, it seems that Darktable is working (it even appears a messages saying that the process has finished correctly) but the new Collection never arrives and Darktable doesn't create any new .xmp files.

I've tried this process several times with two different installations:

• a FRESH installation of 3.6.0.1 with a new database and
• an UPDATE installation from 3.4.1 with the existing database

In both cases Darktable failed and it's impossible to add a new collection from my hard disk to the Darktable database.

Platform
Windows 10, 64-bits

I worked with darktable the 3.4.1
I've been trying to uptate to the new 3.6.0.1
I've been trying to install a fresh 3.6.0.1

Sincererly,

Joan Miquel Viadé

[wpferguson]

When you tried to import did you use add to library or copy & import?

Did the path to the files, or any of the filenames have any special characters (characters with accents, umlauts, etc.)?

[mmhh76]

Darktable 3.6 for Windows doesn't like special character in file path. It can be something like á, å, ä, or ë or whatever. But it does work in Linux. 3.4 didn't had this issue on Windows.

If your path looks like c:\Viadé\Images\ or whatever, it doesn't work. But if you change it to Viade it works.

[wpferguson]

I can recreate this. I created a directory with an umlaut in the name and 3 images. The directory showed up fine in the import dialog. Imported using add to library. Got a response of 3 images imported. No images showed up in lighttable. Opened the database with sqlite3 and the film_roll was there, but the image table was empty. I'm going to check 3.4.1.1, since that is reported to work. If so, I'll bisect.

[wpferguson]

No XMP files were created either

[mmhh76]

What is the file path exactly for the directory umlaut you just created? Is it something like c:\users\Viadé\Desktop\umlaut then it doesn't work. It must be something like c:\Images\umlaut

Darktable 3.6 for Windows doesn't like special character in a name. I am not a Darktable developer so I don't know why.

But I can tell you I have the same issue in Windows. To me personally it's not a big issue because I prefer Linux and it works there.

I believe the issue #9436 is the same issue as you have.

[wpferguson]

I understand what the issue is, I'm trying to find the code commit that caused the problem. I'm just logging my steps to help whoever works on it.

[mmhh76]

Oh I see :). I hope you find the code.

[wpferguson]

Bisect is 22026cf

It's the dt_util_test_image_file() function

@jenshannoschwalm can you take a look? TIA

[mmhh76]

@wpferguson I see now that you are not the one who started this thread. So embarassing 🥴. So sorry about that.