diff --git a/backend/app/database/face_clusters.py b/backend/app/database/face_clusters.py
index dc8c97334..b88f4db2b 100644
--- a/backend/app/database/face_clusters.py
+++ b/backend/app/database/face_clusters.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import sqlite3
 from typing import Optional, List, Dict, TypedDict, Union
 from app.config.settings import DATABASE_PATH
+from app.utils.images import image_util_parse_metadata
 
 # Type definitions
 ClusterId = str
@@ -306,12 +307,15 @@ def db_get_images_by_cluster_id(
 
                 bbox = json.loads(bbox_json)
 
+            # Normalize metadata to a dict; downstream schemas expect an object
+            metadata_dict = image_util_parse_metadata(metadata)
+
             images.append(
                 {
                     "image_id": image_id,
                     "image_path": image_path,
                     "thumbnail_path": thumbnail_path,
-                    "metadata": metadata,
+                    "metadata": metadata_dict,
                     "face_id": face_id,
                     "confidence": confidence,
                     "bbox": bbox,
diff --git a/backend/app/logging/setup_logging.py b/backend/app/logging/setup_logging.py
index e64424654..424c0ea2c 100644
--- a/backend/app/logging/setup_logging.py
+++ b/backend/app/logging/setup_logging.py
@@ -235,19 +235,21 @@ def emit(self, record: logging.LogRecord) -> None:
         Args:
             record: The log record to process
         """
-        # Get the appropriate module name
-        module_name = record.name
-        if "." in module_name:
-            module_name = module_name.split(".")[-1]
-
-        # Create a message that includes the original module in the format
-        msg = record.getMessage()
-
-        # Find the appropriate logger
-        logger = get_logger(module_name)
-
-        # Log the message with our custom formatting
-        logger.log(record.levelno, f"[uvicorn] {msg}")
+        # Prevent infinite recursion
+        if getattr(record, "_in_intercept_handler", False):
+            return
+
+        record._in_intercept_handler = True
+
+        try:
+            # Just print directly to avoid recursion issues
+            msg = self.format(record)
+            print(msg, file=sys.stdout)
+        except Exception as e:
+            print(f"Logging error: {e}", file=sys.stderr)
+        finally:
+            if hasattr(record, "_in_intercept_handler"):
+                delattr(record, "_in_intercept_handler")
 
 
 def configure_uvicorn_logging(component_name: str) -> None:
diff --git a/docs/backend/backend_python/openapi.json b/docs/backend/backend_python/openapi.json
index 84caf5d37..b65874f03 100644
--- a/docs/backend/backend_python/openapi.json
+++ b/docs/backend/backend_python/openapi.json
@@ -2003,7 +2003,6 @@
           "metadata": {
             "anyOf": [
               {
-                "additionalProperties": true,
                 "type": "object"
               },
               {