Elements: Watch folder exclude list

Hi Shane,   

No need to worry.  XML files are metadata container files (Extensible Market Language) which mirror your HTML links found on the web. They are needed for the aid of linking.    Sorry they are on your drive but they take up less than 1Kb of space each.  Collectively, 100 may take 1 Kb of space.  They are in the "Watch Folder' for your browser to watch if you go to the same website, it will know that website and take you there much faster than searching for it.   They is nothing to worry about.   If you want to get rid of them, you can go to your browser, and in Internet Option (IE) or settings, you can simply click on Internet Options, then click on the Delete button on the General tab, and then check-mark everything you see, click on Delete, click Apply, click OK and done.   

Steve Lehman, MCSE   

It won't make Elements poof.   You can keep it intact or get rid of it, it's your choice.  If you feel better to keep it in case your Elements needs it, why not keep it, again if it makes you feel better.  But those files are not for Elements, they really belong to web links that you used once and their metadata file is left over which helps for your next search.   Your browser has a lot more in different folders.   Your browser may have deleted the history links but these are still around.  Like cookies, they make for a short search for Websites when researching - the real cookies will carry data about what you searched for while on the web and pinpoints what you were  interested in, then carries that image with you to other websites, you may have noticed that along the way.   It's like keeping your links warm for the next search as they make the search easier.  

None of them pertain to Elements, trust me.   And, deleting them won't stop your browser.   At the most it will do, is make your search longer as your browser will need to find the website you looked for once before but its metadata file is not helping your browser.  That's all it is.  It's a link to a Website somewhere.   

You have the same type of links in your Windows applications.  These are called .dll files which are Dynamic Link Library files which link your applications with Windows.  They are provided by your application upon installation.   Again, they help Windows search for the application which is kept is broken up into many page-frames throughout the drive, and Windows indexes them, or better, searches for them with a .dll file.   So a .dll file is just another metadata file that helps a search, but for Windows searches.   And deleting those will hamper Windows and the applications.  But the other XML (HTML) files will not.   

Steve Lehman MCSE  


   

Well excuse me but those are metadata files like I mentioned before   I didn't make a mistake.  One folder is linked to a blackberry too.   Metadata files are a side-car files, which are parallel files to image files, which contain metadata in a "container file" which is a side-car file to help image files function.  I didn't make a mistake.   They also run parallel to browser links.   They won't hurt anything if you keep them by, and they are nothing to worry about.   I really don't know why this was brought up, other than to prove Elements is working.   

They mostly live for websites.  They can also ride in a "side-car" files, parallel to an image file.   Look up "side car" files, please.   Are you also using Adobe Light Room?  Side-car files are generated in Adobe Light Room in a grand scale.   Metadata files are usually small like yours.  Larger metadata files will contain information of how a RAW file was converted to another file format such as TIFF for JPG.   They are container file formats which don't function other than to assist another functioning file format.   A contain file is a set of files in different formats, formatted as a subset (like yours).  Contain files are mostly found in imaging, but has been known to reside container files as subsets for ascii text files from early computing.  Also, thousands of type of container files are found in motion picture audio-video files, such as Adobe Premiere Standard.  
Again these are nothing for you to worry about and not worth a book to explain them. 

BTW the MCSE in my name stands for Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, the highest certification for Microsoft.  I know when I see a metadata files, but thanks for pointing yours out to me.    I did not misunderstand you.   

Steve Lehman MCSE   

No, Steve. Look better at those text files.
They don't link to anything on the web, they link to folders and files present on the computer, they are not sidecar files like .xmp. It's easier for me to check the same file in my computer in the catalog directory. The paths in this 'IgnoreFilesMaps.xml' are really built like the other similar 'Imported Files maps.xml'.
I'll have to spend some time to check what their purpose may be.
I generally don't use the watched folders service. In a catalog without any used watched folder it looks like those folders and files lists may be used as filters in the downloading process, not at all for watched folders.
What is curious is that the file date for the 'Ignore File map.xml' is really old and does not seem to be related to watched folders at all; I wonder why they are located in a 'watched folder' master folder; I supect they are remnants of past imports...

Michel, 

This is what I've been saying.  They are links to existing or formrer existing image files, and they are short metadata describing the file as usual.   XML files are almost the same as XMP but not exactly side-car like XMP but they exist in a mirror the same way.  Allow me to help you with a definition of XML files.   They are a link as I described.  

".. eXtensible markup language. XML is a file extension for an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file format used to create common information formats and share both the format and the data on the World Wide Web, intranets, and elsewhere using standard ASCII text. XML is similar to HTML."

Does this help you?   I think this supports my claim.   

And academically, since XML files are related to HTML I think they are links, and as Michel mentioned, they may be imported, and they appear to be remnants from photos copied from the web.   As for keeping a catalog, I'm not sure how that's related but Michel does keep catalogs so he's the guy for that.   Since my company has too many workstations and laptops, I rarely organize/clean drives.  Drives are cluttered.  That's life with a PC.  I don't worry about XML files.