digiKam Overwrites XMP Sidecar when "Write Metadata to Files"

[Chai Yunxuan]

Hi,

I encountered a strange issue in digiKam that seems to occur only with
certain images. I’ve attached one such image that consistently reproduces
the problem.

Here’s the step-by-step process to reproduce it:

   1.

   Import the image into digiKam.
   2.

   Use *Album → Read Metadata from Files*. At this point, the tag list (in
   this case *Species/Blank*) appears correctly, and the *XMP* tab in the
   metadata sidebar displays the expected content.
   3.

   In *Settings → Configure digiKam → Metadata → Sidecars*, I’ve enabled *Write
   to sidecar files* with the option *Write to item and XMP sidecar*. Based
   on this setting, I expect that writing metadata will update or create a
   sidecar file with the correct information.
   4.

   Now, run *Album → Write Metadata to Files*. After this, the XMP data
   seen in step 2 disappears, and the output "empty" sidecar file contains
   only the XML header: <?xpacket begin="" id="W5M0MpCehiHzreSzNTczkc9d"?>
   The image file’s metadata remains unchanged, so if I delete the
   generated sidecar and redo step 2, the metadata appears again in digiKam.

I’m a bit confused, any insights or suggestions would be appreciated!
Thanks
Chai
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