Face recognition menu item missing and functionality not working - Shotwell 0.32.6 snap on Ubuntu 24.04.2

[yannos]

Shotwell 0.32.6 on Ubuntu 24.04.2 Face recognition menu item missing and functionality not working

On Shotwell 0.32.6 on Ubuntu 24.04.2, face detection functionality doesn't work and the "Detect Faces" menu item is missing.

The expected behaviour

A "Detect Faces" option to be available in a menu or right-click menu. The 'Faces in Photos' page of the Shotwell documentation says a 'Detect Faces' option should be available to click on but it does not state where it is located.

Or there should be some other way to detect the faces in the photo library.

Note, the steps under "Improving face recognition" on the 'Faces in Photos' page have been followed.

What was actually happening

No 'Detect Faces' menu entry or button can be found.

The Faces menu item only contains options to Remove (a face tag), Rename, Train or Delete - no detect. Right clicking on the sidebar on a name under 'Faces' offers Rename or Delete.

Other menu items have all been checked including Photos->Developer, Tags, Faces, Help etc

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. Open Shotwell 0.32.6 from noble-updates repo
2. Import photos to library
3. double click on photo of a person
4. Click on 'Faces' on bottom bar to add a face tag eg "Bob". Double click on photo to close.
5. Click on menu Faces->Train Face 'Bob' from photo

Now try to get Shotwell to find other photos of "Bob"

Upstream

Shotwell project at Gnome has stated it believes it is not a shotwell issues. Details here

Packages Installed

shotwell/noble-updates,now 0.32.6-1ubuntu3 amd64 [installed]
digital photo organizer

shotwell-common/noble-updates,now 0.32.6-1ubuntu3 all [installed,automatic]
digital photo organizer - common files

unity-lens-photos/noble 1.0+17.10.20170605-0ubuntu9 all
Photos lens for Unity