Refresh the Database
When files in indexed folders are added, deleted, renamed, or changed, refresh the database to sync the file list and search data.
When files in indexed folders are added, deleted, renamed, or changed, refresh the database to sync the file list and search data.
Use refresh when the contents of already indexed folders have changed. The app checks files, updates records, and regenerates the selected search data when needed.
Steps
- Select Files in the workspace, click the three-dot button beside Database, then choose Refresh Database.
- Choose the refresh scope: the whole database or selected folders.
- Choose whether to detect modified files.
- Select the single feature to refresh in this run.
- Start the task and wait for it to finish.
Choosing the Refresh Scope
- Whole database: best when many folders have changed.
- Selected folder: faster when only one folder or project changed.
You do not need to select both a parent and its child folders; overlapping selections are consolidated.
Right-clicking an indexed folder and choosing Refresh folder opens the same dialog with that folder selected.
Should "Detect File Changes" Be Enabled?
Enable it when files may have been replaced without changing names. This adds checking work and can take longer. Leave it off for ordinary additions, removals or renames.
If you only added new files or removed old files, refresh can usually run faster.
Choosing Refresh Features
- Image search: refresh visual search data for new or changed images, PDFs, spreadsheets, videos, and screenshots.
- Semantic search: refresh text-prompt search data.
- Pose search: refresh human skeleton and body-pose feature data.
- Face search: refresh face detection and recognition data.
- OCR search: refresh recognized text.
Only one refresh feature can be selected per run. Color data belongs to the Image search feature and follows its configured image strategies. Duplicate detection has no separate option in this dialog; it follows the independent duplicate setting.
Difference from Add and Rebuild
- Add folder indexes a new folder.
- Refresh syncs changes in folders that are already indexed.
- Rebuild checks existing strategy data and index consistency. Keypoint repair only aligns existing features and indexes; existing images need reprocessing after enabling Local · Keypoints to first-extract those features or apply new extraction parameters. Back up important libraries and test a few files first, since reprocessing may affect collection associations and other image records.
Common Cases
- If newly copied files still do not appear, check Tools → Settings → Add Files → File Extensions to Read.
- An empty library must be populated with Add Folder first.
- If the whole source folder was moved, restore its original location or add the new folder. Refresh can clear stale records at the old location; it does not discover an arbitrary new location.
- Adding, refreshing and repairing may be temporarily unavailable while a refresh task is running.
- If a replaced file still shows old thumbnails or metadata, enable file-change detection.
- If search results look abnormal even after refresh, use rebuild database indexes.