- Include xmp metadata in generated images: was checked, but I just unchecked it, and generated a new gallery. I didn't upload it to my server, but I did look at the generated folder on the Mac, and the PNG image was properly added to the hi-res folder. So that did the trick.
I'm glad you've found the cause of your problem, although deselecting the "Include xmp metadata in generated images" checkbox should not prevent an image from being processed and placed into the 'hi-res' output folder.
As the relevant post is already in jAlbum's 'Bug reports' sub-forum and the problem you reported is clearly the same as that of the original poster, I would normally suggest that you bump the post (it's not that old) and add your own notes to make your voice heard and to let the jAlbum developers know that there is at least one other user who is affected by the problem.
However, as the jAlbum team are removing the ability to generate 'hi-res' images in the next version of their program, I think it is highly unlikely that they will spend time and resources fixing a bug relating to a feature that will not be around for very much longer so there's probably very little you can do other than deselecting the "Include xmp metadata in generated images" checkbox (or adding you PNG files manually to the 'hi-res' folder after album creation).
Thus, is unchecking "Include xmp metadata in generated images" something that will have any side-effects that I should worry about?
Deselecting the "Include xmp metadata in generated images" checkbox just means that there will be no embedded data (at least not in XMP format) in the album images.
If all you want to do is display your images in a gallery, then there will be no functional problems at all.
However, some people might prefer their images to contain metadata (such as a copyright message and/or information about the image) but this has no effect on the visual quality of the images in the gallery or the functionality of the gallery itself.