Tag is not saved to xmp sidecar and also not to the image file

[Elle Stone]

Hi All,

What is the proper procedure - please step by step! - it might seem 
obvious to you, but I can't figure it out! - to:

1. Rearrange the tag tree . . .

2. Successfully saving the tagslist to a sidecar file or to the image 
file . . .

3. Be able to close and open digiKam and see the same tag tree that was 
displayed before closing digiKam?

Some background:

My images already have embedded digiKam tagslist tags. But I haven't 
used digiKam in a long time.

I installed digiKam Version 5.7.0 from Gentoo Portage, and imported some 
images into a fresh database. I'm having a great deal of difficulty with 
the digikam tagslist hierarchy:

1. After rearranging the tag tree, and then reopening digiKam, the tag 
tree is again in a mess.

2. Some tags aren't saved to the xmp sidecar file.

I set digiKam up to only write to xmp sidecar files and to only write 
the Xmp.digiKam.TagsList tag, which is a wonderful new option if it 
actually works.

Selecting some images and then choosing "Item/Write Metadata to Selected 
Images" does result in the file manager showing that the xmp sidecar was 
indeed modified. But not all the tags are being written to the sidecar file.

3. After giving up on writing only to the xmp sidecar file, I wrote all 
the tags out to the image files and closed and reopened digikam. And now 
a lot of tags are missing, plus the remaining tags still aren't as I 
actually left them when I closed digiKam. And some tags still refuse to 
be saved to the image file and also refuse to be saved to the sidecar file.

4. So I suppose the next step is to delete all the image files and start 
again with the backup files that still have the old tags. But this seems 
rather pointless.

FWIW, I've been working on this problem for several hours last night, 
several more hours this morning, and also for several years 
(https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=268688, 
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=309058).

Best,
Elle