[Digikam-users] Tags not written to XMP sidecar?

Andreas Mair amair.sob at gmail.com
Tue May 24 07:16:53 BST 2016


Hi Anders,

I'd suggest to check installed versions on both computers. You'll find it
in digiKam's "Help" menu. On my system it reads:
digikam 4.14.0
libexiv2 0.25
libkde 4.14.16
libkexiv2 2.4.0
I strongly recommend to install the latest because I used to have
miscellaneous problems with older releases.

I don't have "Write to sidecar files": "Write to XMP sidecar file for
read-only image only" like you. I've set it to "Write to XMP sidecar only".
Have you played with the options "Update the timestamp when files are
modified" and "Rescan file when files are modified"?
Just some ideas...

Best regards,
Andreas


2016-05-23 22:26 GMT+02:00 Anders Kamf <digikam at kamf.se>:

> Hi Andreas,
>
> Thanks for the suggestion. Interesting indeed.
> It shows that all my xmp files are nearly empty, they contain only one
> row, e.g.:
> <?xpacket begin="" id="W5M0MpCehiHzreSzNTczkc9d"?>
>
> But if I select two or more files in digikam and press “Write metadata to
> each file” -  voila, the metadata is written and accessible from exiftool
> and possible to read in clear text with a text editor (the option to write
> is greyed out if only one file is selected).
>
> So… How come the metadata is not written when I apply tags to the movie
> file, like it is when I apply them to a JPG?
> Unless there is some option in the settings that I have missed, I guess it
> is a bug. It seems like the xmp file is created once but empty and never
> updated to contain any data until manually selecting “Write metadata to
> each file”.
>
> From now on I at least know how to make sure that the metadata is written
> for video files also, even if it is an extra step in the workflow.
>
> One problem remains as well, digikam on my other computer still doesn’t
> read the metadata from the movie file even if I select “Read metadata from
> each file to database” (I have the “Read from sidecar files” option
> checked”).
>
> Thanks for all tips and suggestions so far!
>
> BR
> Anders
>
>
> 2016-05-23 7:52 GMT+02:00 Andreas Mair <amair.sob at gmail.com>:
>
>> Hi Anders,
>>
>> > Since I don't find the data in the .xmp with niether exiv2 nor
>> exiftool, it seems like a problem to write.
>>
>> have you tried to open the xmp file using your favorite text editor? It's
>> a simple text file (XML based) so you can see if data is written or not.
>> I've checked the movies I tagged yesterday and the xmp files contain data
>> (my keywords for example).
>>
>> I don't know how to extract the data using exiv2 or exiftool.
>> Maybe your exiv2 or libexiv2 are too old?
>>
>> Best regards
>> Andreas
>>
>>
>>
>> 2016-05-22 22:36 GMT+02:00 Anders Kamf <digikam at kamf.se>:
>>
>>> Hi!
>>>
>>> Since I don't find the data in the .xmp with niether exiv2 nor exiftool,
>>> it seems like a problem to write. The .cmp is created by digikam though, so
>>> it writes something. But not the tags which it writes to a jpg-file as it
>>> seems. It can of course also be that those two programs cannot extract that
>>> specific data, but even if so digikam should be able to.
>>>
>>> Regarding reading metadata it is the same for jpg as for xmp, digikam
>>> doesn't re-read metadata of a file in that is present in its database
>>> unless manually told to. It won’t automatically recognize that a file is
>>> updated outside digikam.
>>> (Also, when triggered to re-read digikam appends the metadata of the
>>> file to the metadata already in the database, i.e. it is not possible to
>>> delete a tag outside digikam and expect it to disappear when re-reading the
>>> metadata. As designed.)
>>>
>>>
>>> BR
>>> Anders
>>>
>>> 2016-05-22 17:34 GMT+02:00 Martin (KDE) <kde at fahrendorf.de>:
>>>
>>>> Hallo
>>>>
>>>> So is it a problem in writing the xmp file or reading from them on the
>>>> new location?
>>>>
>>>> I have simmilar problems. Digikam writes xmp files quite fine, but never
>>>> reads from xmp automatically if they are changed by another program
>>>> (like darktable). I have to sellect the album/file and hit reread
>>>> metadata from external file to get it working.
>>>>
>>>> I hope this will be fixed in upcomming digikam 5.
>>>>
>>>> Regards
>>>> Martin
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Am 22.05.2016 um 17:01 schrieb Anders Kamf:
>>>> > Hi,
>>>> >
>>>> > Thanks for your reply Tobias! I'm afraid it doesn't solve the problem
>>>> or
>>>> > answers the questions though.
>>>> >
>>>> > I indeed write meta data to JPG files, including tags, have done so
>>>> > since 2009 and it works very well. Sidecar files are created by
>>>> digikam
>>>> > for files it cannot write meta data into, e.g. video files, the
>>>> settings
>>>> > was described in my initial post. It is from those Filename.mp4.xmp or
>>>> > Filename.mov.xmp I have tried with both exiv2 and exiftool to extract
>>>> > the tags.
>>>> >
>>>> > I'm moving files from my laptop to my server once I have done tagging
>>>> > etc (laptop is used because I travel a lot). I usually use rsync, i.e.
>>>> > the move is done outside digikam. The photo collection on my servers
>>>> is
>>>> > accessed with "another" digikam from a desktop PC (Windows) and from a
>>>> > stand alone Ubuntu (both with setting "Read from sidecar files)". Both
>>>> > have their own digikam database, hence all the meta data needs to
>>>> travel
>>>> > with the files.
>>>> >
>>>> > The main question, I'd guess, is whether to expect that the meta data
>>>> of
>>>> > the xmp file corresponds to the one of the jpg file in terms of tags,
>>>> > rating etc.?
>>>> >
>>>> > Regards
>>>> > Anders
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > 2016-05-22 15:31 GMT+02:00 Tobias Margiani <margianit at gmail.com
>>>> > <mailto:margianit at gmail.com>>:
>>>> >
>>>> >     Hi,
>>>> >
>>>> >     I'm not sure if I understand your problem correctly. Are XMP files
>>>> >     created but
>>>> >     without (the right) content or are there no XMP files at all (you
>>>> >     could check
>>>> >     that with a file manager)?
>>>> >     I don't use XMP files normally so there might be people who know
>>>> all
>>>> >     this
>>>> >     better but from a few quick tests it looks like exiftool only
>>>> reads
>>>> >     xmp files
>>>> >     if you pass them as argument directly and not if you try to read
>>>> >     tags from an
>>>> >     image file (e.g. if you have image.jpg and image.xmp you have to
>>>> use
>>>> >     "exiftool
>>>> >     image.xmp" to read the tags). In my checks there is a "Tags List"
>>>> entry
>>>> >     showing the digikam tags.
>>>> >     To comment on you problem when moving the files. If you only moved
>>>> >     image files
>>>> >     the metadata might indeed be lost but if you have moved the whole
>>>> >     folder the
>>>> >     xmp files could still be there! So check with a file manager. That
>>>> >     the tags
>>>> >     aren't read by digikam may result from your configuration. Are you
>>>> >     sure that
>>>> >     you've configured digikam to read metadata from sidecar files.
>>>> >     Another source of this problem may be that you haven't configured
>>>> >     digikam to
>>>> >     write Tags into file at all. You can check in the metadata tab
>>>> what
>>>> >     information
>>>> >     is written to the files.
>>>> >
>>>> >     I hope some of this could help.
>>>> >     Regards
>>>> >     Tobias
>>>> >
>>>> >     Am Samstag, 21. Mai 2016, 10:12:13 CEST schrieb Anders Kamf:
>>>> >     > Hi!
>>>> >     >
>>>> >     > I have the setting "Write to sidecar files": "Write to XMP
>>>> sidecar
>>>> >     file for
>>>> >     > read-only image only", which creates xmp sidecar files for the
>>>> >     movie files
>>>> >     > that are in my collection.
>>>> >     > Now, I thought that this would mean that the tags applied to
>>>> those
>>>> >     movies
>>>> >     > was written to the XMP sidecar file. But that seems not to be
>>>> the
>>>> >     case! I
>>>> >     > now realise that at least neither exiv2 nor exiftool finds
>>>> those tags.
>>>> >     > Also, when I access the file from "another" digikam on another
>>>> >     computer, no
>>>> >     > metadata seems to be found.
>>>> >     >
>>>> >     > If this is true, it means that all metadata for those files have
>>>> >     been lost
>>>> >     > when I have moved the files outside Digikam (to another
>>>> server), which
>>>> >     > truly is a sad awakening.
>>>> >     >
>>>> >     > Is this the intended behaviour, or is it a bug? Or am I doing
>>>> >     something
>>>> >     > wrong (a user-fault...)?
>>>> >     >
>>>> >     > I'm using digikam 4.14.10 on Ubuntu 15.10.
>>>> >     >
>>>> >     > Best regards
>>>> >     > Anders
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> >     _______________________________________________
>>>> >     Digikam-users mailing list
>>>> >     Digikam-users at kde.org <mailto:Digikam-users at kde.org>
>>>> >     https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/digikam-users
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > _______________________________________________
>>>> > Digikam-users mailing list
>>>> > Digikam-users at kde.org
>>>> > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/digikam-users
>>>> >
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Digikam-users mailing list
>>>> Digikam-users at kde.org
>>>> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/digikam-users
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Digikam-users mailing list
>>> Digikam-users at kde.org
>>> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/digikam-users
>>>
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Digikam-users mailing list
>> Digikam-users at kde.org
>> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/digikam-users
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Digikam-users mailing list
> Digikam-users at kde.org
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/digikam-users
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/digikam-users/attachments/20160524/b882a11d/attachment.html>


More information about the Digikam-users mailing list