Initializing catalog

[mkc73]

When the catalog gets corrupted, which happens continuously, whether by mistakenly manipulating used categories or externally moving images, I recreate the catalog by deleting the existing one and opening each of the folders containing images in turn. I have XMP import/export categories turned on. Is there a way to get xnView to go through all included folders automatically at start up and populate the catalog?

[xnview]

Not corrupted, but no sync, right?
you have settings>Catalog>Synchronize

[mkc73]

I typically delete the catalog after I have done something like rename the folder that the images are in externally to xnView. xnView finds the new folder but retains the entries for the old folders so I get duplicate entries for each of the images. 'Corrupted' is the wrong word to use - 'out of sync' is more like it.

Moving categories within the category pane can still create 'mistakes' within the catalog which can get written out as XMP data.

I am not sure what catalog/synchronize folders does. It may correct the 'out of sync' problem above but because of potential 'mistakes' in the catalog I regard the XMP data as the definitive repository of category information and would be reluctant to give xnView permission to keep the XMP data automatically synchronized. At the moment xnView only writes out xmp data when image is selected/deselected and category informaton has been changed.

What I am looking for is a button to tell xnView to go through all included images and refresh the catalog - one time only.