I'm wondering if someone may have a suggestion to a problem I'm facing: I have some legacy images stored in Windows folders. I have tagged the images in the Windows File Explorer and would like to keep/add this information into my IMatch database.
However, when I import the images---first using Downloader Pro---and then adding them to my IMatch database the tags are not included.
I believe that the tags are "XP" metadata tags. Would you have any suggestions as to how best to extract this information and add it to IMatch?
Thank you for your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions.
--John
I would start by viewing the images (after you've imported them into IMatch) using the IMatch Browser layout in the Metadata panel. That will show you all of the metadata contained in your imported images. If your XP metadata isn't there, then it just isn't there.
But if you find it you should be able to use a Metadata Template to copy what you want from those XP tags to standard IMatch metadata tags.
Take a look at https://github.com/Dijji/FileMeta/wiki
This is a utility that can read the "XP metadata" which is stored in an "alternate stream" within the NTFS file system. It includes a command line utility that can export the data to xml files. You might be able to then use exiftool to add it to the image files.
Remember that IMatch does not import all tags that exist in the world automatically. I suggest to first check in the Tag Manager if the tags you are interested in are configured for import. See
https://www.photools.com/help/imatch/#rmh_config_metadata_tagman.htm (https://www.photools.com/help/imatch/#rmh_config_metadata_tagman.htm)
ExifTool supports the XP legacy tags added by older Windows Explorer versions to files. As long as the data is embedded in the file, which is the default for JPEG and other common file formats.
For some file formats (RAW?) Windows Explorer stored these tags not in the image but tucked it away in the file system.
It was always considered a bad idea to use Windows Explorer to add or manipulate metadata. Microsoft did never a good job with that, it was inconsistent between Windows versions and buggy.
Check one of your files in IMatch using the ExifTool Command Processor.
+ Select the file and then go to Tools menu > ExifTool Command Processor.
+ Select the "List Metadata" preset at the top
+ Click on Run or press F9
On the right side you now see all metadata that ExifTool can extract from your files.
Show us the results (save to a file and attach as text to your reply).
Thank you IMatch friends.
With your kind help and thoughtful suggestions I was able to research my problem a bit more and come up with what I think is a good solution.
It appears that a feature in Downloader Pro (under the main menu: EDIT > IPTC/XMP Data > add Keywords) was causing the problem. The DLP Keywords I was adding (via DLP's tokens) had the effect of overwriting—rather than supplementing the existing tags (the ones I had already entered in Windows file manager). Since the tags I was entering in DLP could also be done later in IMatch I simply removed them and DLP renamed and processed the files as needed.
While I'm a bit of a metadata novice I certainly appreciate your help very much.
Best wishes and thank you again.
--John
The general rule is: Be very careful when you let applications manipulate metadata in your images.
Many, even popular applications, cause lots of problems. Don't synchronize correctly, wipe out data, replace instead of update etc.
I guess about 10,000 of my posts here are about metadata problems and how to fix them.