Copy a file name to its own metadata

I am re-organizing a large database of images. I do want to rename all the files but I need to keep the original file name for future reference. Is there a way to copy the original file name to the metadata without having to do it by hand (one by one)? I'm using Photoshop CS2, Bridge or Lightroom with a Mac running on OSX 10.4.8 and enough ram.

I have Bridge CS2 and CS3 and for some reason the CS3 version has the "Preserve Filename..." checkbox grayed out and I cannot figure out why. I was also looking for a way to view the "Preserved Filename..." and the only way I could do this was by using Bridge CS2 (since it isn't working for me in CS3), going to rename the file I am trying to view the old name on, and select "Preserved Filename" under the dropdown menu. This is a huge hastle and for some reason Lightroom 1.0 does not have the capability of preserving filenames at all! The DAM capabilities of Lightroom truly need work, but it is a wonderful application nonetheless, and I use it now for everything and haven't needed to use Bridge since I got Lightroom.

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Exporting File Name to "Raw Data" Metadata

At one time I was able to export a file's original file name in the "Raw Data" area of the metadata. I seem to have lost that ability in LR 4. I find this useful when a client renames a file and then wants me to find the original. I would open the file in Photoshop (or even a word processor) and the original name would be in the Raw Data area in File Info.
When LR 4 imports the file the first time, it apparently still creates the xmp file with the file name at the end of <rdf:Description rdf:about="" field and it looks like: crs:RawFileName="_DSC6501.NEF">
At one time Lightroom exported that info. But now I seem to have lost that file name info, even with "Export All Metadata" selected.
This is how it would look in Photoshop's File Info:
<rdf:Description rdf:about=""
            xmlns:crs="http://ns.adobe.com/camera-raw-settings/1.0/">
         <crs:RawFileName>DSC_8466.NEF</crs:RawFileName>
         <crs:Version>6.7</crs:Version>
         <crs:ProcessVersion>5.7</crs:ProcessVersion>
Now it just says:
<rdf:Description rdf:about=""
            xmlns:crs="http://ns.adobe.com/camera-raw-settings/1.0/">
         <crs:Version>7.0</crs:Version>
         <crs:ProcessVersion>6.7</crs:ProcessVersion>
What am I missing?
Thanks!
Stan

Hi John, Thanks for your reply. I actually use Metadata Wrangler, but there is no "copy original file name into metadata" switch that I can see. And when you ask it to export all metadata, it actually doesn't.
After several hours of testing I've found the culprit. Lightroom does not export all the metadata if you save it to a JPEG file, even if you tell it to. Neither does Photoshop's "Save for Web" even if you tell it to save all metadata. Both lose the field with the original file name (see my first post above).
But if you export the file to Photoshop using the "CMD + E" command, Photoshop gets all the metadata. If you then "Save As" a JPEG, the original file name travels to the newly created JPEG file. It's there in the metadata. If you then do the same thing with "Save for Web" with "metadata" "all" you lose the file name field.
So since you are asking all these programs to "save all metadata" and they don't, I would consider that a bug.
Wouldn't you?

Copy&paste file names when bouncing

too bad, after upgrading to 7.1.0 it is still impossible to copy&paste file names when bouncing, as was no problem in LP6! That´s very time consuming for me, because for film music I usually have long file names that contain smpte codes. Does anybody have a shortcut?

Hi Orbanl, I was going to post this myself and then found your post so will add to it.
'It used to be in Logic Pro 6 that normal copy/paste worked in the 'name' field of the save and bounce windows (even kept them seperate as far as clipboards went). Now, in Logic 7.1 the only way I can initiate a copy or paste when saving the song or naming the bounce is a right mouse click (cntrl-click)? to bring up these options. Are there no key commands for the navigation services anymore? This is a huge time killer for me as I often save 60~100 files with the same root name and was able to quickly initiate and save/bounce without stopping to pick up the mouse (now I have to switch back and forth between the keyboard and mouse to initiate, name copy+paste and modify name). Thanks in advance.'
Over at the Logic Pro Forum, Peter suggested in response to this post that the Pro App Support update v3 might have something to do with it as his Logic 10.3.9 DOES support normal copy/paste commands! Unfortunately I am running 10.3.8 and the Pro App update v3 specically notes 10.3.9 as its requirement. The only reason I have not upgraded to 10.3.9 is I use a lot of esoteric shareware music software and I understand 10.3.9 had some 'sprinkling' of Tiger in it that at least for several friends of mine broke older app's that were running fine in 10.3.8.
Here is the link if you are running 10.3.9.
Pro Application Update 3.0

Can't Copy a File Name?

I just upgraded to CS5 from CS2. I always used to be able to copy
the file name of a new file in the save screen and then paste that filename to new folder when I saved it. I can't seem to
do that any longer..any one know why or how to change that? It's really frustrating to have to re-type the file name every time I make a new folder and save a file...
And let me say ahead of time I'm sorry if this has already been addressed, belongs in another forum or whatever...I'm still learning how to navigate these forums and don't like being yelled at...

First, welcome. We don't usually yell at new users here, at least not the first time.
What is your OS? Copy and paste in a save dialog would be controlled by the operating system, not InDesign, and I've not had any difficulty in doing it here on Windows XP...

MacBook Pro-'the disk copy of "file name" was changed...'

My MacBook Pro has been running very slowly. Occasionally, the message 'The disk copy of "file name" was changed since you last opened of saved it. Do you want to save it anyway?" when attempting to save photoshop files. It also tells me my start up drive is nearly full but it is not. I'm guessing the these are related. Anyone else experiencing this?

I also just started experiencing this.
Quick Specs:
MBP 8GB 2.3Ghz 1.7 (Early 2011)
256 SSD
OSX Lion 10.7.2
I have seen this with Photoshop, Flash, and Dreamweaver CS 5, and Eclipse.
I am growing concerned that this is either the SSD starting to fail or possibly the new Spotlight index algorithm.
Would really like to see if anyone has a fix.

Network file printing on its own

Printed file off website a month ago, file prints on its own every couple days and I cannot stop it. What can I do to get file from printing? HP Photosmart 5520 wireless
This question was solved.
View Solution.

First try perform a hard reset. Unplug the power cord from the back of the printer and the wall out. Leave out for 30 seconds, and plug back in. If that doesn't change anything, uninstall your software and re-install.
**Click the KUDOS star on the left to say 'Thanks'**
Please mark a reply "ACCEPTED AS SOLUTION" if it solved your problem, so others can find it.

How to copy a files name and spotlight comments to a text file for an entire folder

I have movie covers saved as a jpeg for every movie my family and I own. There is about 700 and they each have a comment of the main actors, release dates, and descriptions. This makes it easy to find what to watch. I want my parents to have all of this info but they have a windows laptop so the comments don't transfer with the file and can't be searched like you can on a mac. Is there an applescript, automator, program I can download, or program code supported in xcode that will do at least one of the following things?
1)Take the name of the picture file and spotlight comment, copy and paste it into a text document like word that looks like this...
File Name1- Spotlight Comment for file 1
File Name 2- Spotlight Comment for file 2
. for all 700 files in a folder
2) It would be equally helpful if there was something that would take the name of the picture file and spotlight comment, copy and paste it to a movie file's comments with the same name but obviously has different extention. For an example
In a Pictures folder
Name: Dark Knight, The.jpeg       Comment: (2008) Genre: Action...             <- copy comment
In a Movie Folder
Name: Dark Knight, The.m4v       Comment:                                               <- paste
and do this for all 700 files
3) Is there a free photo program that works on mac and windows that I can put all my movie pictures in and have a description like I did with the comments? It would also need a place that to search the description for keywords. So Basically an itunes for pictures that works on both mac and windows. If so I still need a way to get the spotlight comments to the description.
4) I feel like this would make things more difficult, but if not I can put all of the .m4v files in itunes so instead of pasting all the comments back into a file in finder paste them in a description in itunes
5) At the very least a code that I can run one by one for every file that will paste the comments into the same document
Note: When I say spotlight comments I mean the comment box that is available when you click on get info of a file. The pictures are in the pictures section of finder in a folder called Movie Pictures. The movie files are on an external hard-drive in a file called Movies. Also I am slightly familiar with applescript and automater in that I have used both to create keyboard shortcuts and simple voice commands. I have programmed in c++ and C too. So If you give me a code for applescript I do know what to do with it.
Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read all of this and extra thanks to anyone who tries to help.

Clendenen02 wrote:
2) It would be equally helpful if there was something that would take the name of the picture file and spotlight comment, copy and paste it to a movie file's comments with the same name but obviously has different extention. For an example
In a Pictures folder
Name: Dark Knight, The.jpeg       Comment: (2008) Genre: Action...             <- copy comment
In a Movie Folder
Name: Dark Knight, The.m4v       Comment:                                               <- paste
and do this for all 700 files
This Bash script will do it.
Edit "PicDir" and "MovDir" to the location of your Folders
(Note: The comment is written to the m4v file using xattr, so the Spotlight comment field appears blank in Finder, but the comment metadata is still indexed by Spotlight (If you add a Spotlight comment from Finder, it is stored both as an extended attribute and in a .DS_Store file)
#!/bin/bash
PicDir=$HOME/Desktop/Pictures
MovDir=$HOME/Desktop/Movies
for f in $PicDir/*
do
     if [ ! -d "$f" -a "${f##*.}" == "jpeg" ]; then
          comment=$(mdls -raw -name kMDItemFinderComment "$f")
          if [[ $comment != "(null)" ]]; then
               picname=${f##*/}
               movname=${picname%.*}.m4v
               if [ -e "$MovDir"/$movname ]; then
                     xattr -w com.apple.metadata:kMDItemFinderComment "\"$comment\"" "$MovDir"/$movname
               fi
          fi
     fi
done

Receiving ERROR meassage when trying to copy..file name too long.

Hello.
There is an error code number, but didn't write it down...will do so, if no-one can answer this question at the minute. I am not at the Mac at the moment, so this post is pre-emptive.
Problem:
If I try to copy over a folder with photoshop images onto another drive, the copy is incomplete due to the name/s of the files being too long, apparently.
The error message says something to the effect: 'the names are too long can't complete copy'.
The file names are about 10-12 [at most]characters in length.
Please advise
Chris

If the drive is formatted HFS then you are limited to 32 characters on a file name. If it is formatted HFS + then you can have file names as long as 255 characters. I am not familiar withi the format you say the drive is formatted in so I can't speak to it.
If you are receiving -50 errors that can indicate a file name that is too long OR an illegal character in the filename regardless of its length.
If you are actually using 10.3.8 as your profile states then that may be part of the problem. Many of these problems existed in 10.3.X but were fixed in 10.4
I remember that 10.3.8 had issues copying to external drives when there were more than a certain number of characters in a filename. I don't remember the number but for some reason 10 or 12 is what comes to mind. It caused me many problems when I would try and copy files to a Zip disk that I used to have. Since I updated to 10.4 those issues have never occured again.
Since you know what folder the problematic files are in why not just open the folder and try to copy files one at a time. When you get to the one(s) that is a problem, change the file name to something shorter.
A better solution would be to update to 10.4 but with 10.5 coming out sometime in the Spring of 2007 this may not be the time.

Getting original file name to show in Metadata list.

I always convert to dng first thing. Then rename the files with clients name. I know that the original file name is still in the metadata, but how do I get it to show up on LR's metadata list?

Ah. Thank you very much. I figured it was simple, just did not have time to play around to try to find it. I do not often need it, but sometimes my boss will edit a shoot before giving it to me. I prepare it for the customer. Sometimes he has wanted an image that he has under the original file name. So, this helps. Thanks again.

CS5 does not let me copy & paste file names

Mac OS 10.5.8 Before upgrading from CS3 to CS5, I could open a folder of files, select one file, highlight the file name and copy it. I could then work on an image in CS3 and when ready, Save As. With the current name of the image highlighted, I could then paste in the name I had copied from the file in the folder. I can no longer do this with CS5. Any idea why I can't?

The only time I see this is when I'm having issues with Finder. Since the "copy" part is done in Finder and the "paste" is done from the Finder clipboard, It would appear to be that something in Finder is not putting the file name onto the clipboard.
I can do what you describe with no trouble, in CS5, but on Snow Leopard.
I've had similar troubles in Finder and with Office apps as well, when renaming files from the clipboard. Usually a quick relaunch of Finder cures it. If it doesn't, a reboot will.

How to stop adding " copy" to file names?

First off, I don't mind the save as a copy feature. If I have a psd file with layers and smart objects and such, and I Save As > JPG, I don't want the jpg open, I want the psd open. I like how PS does that behavior, but I don't like how that jpg gets " copy" added to it's file name. Yes it's easy to remove, but I'm using a batch action on over 300 pictures, I don't feel like renaming 300 jpg's. Yes it's supposed to be a safety net, but I basically never work from jpg's as original's, and if for some reason I do, I set them as read only and copy the files off to a safe location, so I don't need it.
I know it's possible because my old school's computers with photoshop CS5 never saved jpg's with copy in the file name. So, how do I stop PS CS5 from adding copy to my file names? Because I need photoshop to not add copy to my file names on my work computer (and it's my old school, can't use their computers or ask someone why it's like that).

ikumajap's response made me realize the reason the "save as copy" is greyed out is because it has layers. So all you have to do is add a "flatten image" action first, then a new "save as jpg" that does not include the copy. I tried adding flatten to my old action but it still added "copy" so you do have to make a new save action. This, of course, will not alter your original file as long as you don't add a plain old save in there first.
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How to dynamically define a file name and its path in a web application

Hi, I want to create a simple web application that reads from an XML file and displays the data back to the user. The xml file is created independent of my application on the same machine that the Application Server runs. How can I define my xml file name and/or path to be independent of my code and not hard-coded in my application?

By an external configurationfile? That can be a propertiesfile, a xml file, an ini file, a plain vanilla txt file, etcetera.

Add Original File Name in Exported Photo Metadata

It would be helpful if LR added the original filename from which the exported file was created. Like in Camera Raw, you can find the original filename of the RAW file in the metadata of files created and saved with ACR.
Thanks for listening.

Yes, you can use the Original filename token to be included as part of the exported filename, but the value disappears from the exported image's metadata. And I think that is what the OP is looking for. It appears that the Original Filename, which can be seen in the metadata panel for raw files, disappears in the exported image regardless of how it is exported (DNG, TIF, JPG, etc.).
If you open an raw image in PS and look for the Original Filename in the Advanced panel of File Info, it can't be found (at least I can't find it). So maybe this is a metadata field that is internal to LR, and can only be used to rename files within LR.

ITunes modifies music file info on its own.

Yesterday I noticed some music files would not play. It wasn't as though iTunes could not locate the files because I would right click on the songs in the music library then "get info" and iTunes listed the correct location. Today I noticed that another album would not play. I tested them in winamp and they worked just fine. So, I investigated more and saw that over 1/5 of the songs in my music library of 5015 songs had a modified date in January. Mostly on January 10th (440 titles tampered with between 4:40pm and 6:56pm), 24th (131 titles between 8:09pm and 9:21pm), and 25th (838 titles between 12:27am and 9:09am). After discovering the issues with the first two albums I replaced the files iTunes was reading with backups made on an external drive and then they worked fine in iTunes. BUT what gives with the rest of the modified files? They'd still play but I'm concerned.
As I search for more problems I noticed that when I'd double click a song to play it, the title below it in the music library was modified in the "date modified" column. I checked for an iTunes update and there was one. Were there problems with a recent version of iTunes? I believe I updated from 6.05 something. After installing the version available at apple.com today I have been trying to duplicate the issue (not really hoping to find it again) and haven't. Any bugs you know of?
Message was edited by: Sethmon

I hate to disagree but it happens to me and Safari was NOT in use.
I am wondering if it has something to do with the GSM signal from the iPhone. I noticed I had the 3G off so I could hear the interference from the phone as it was happening and that seem to make iTunes go weird.
Does anyone else having this problem have an iPhone? I have the 3GS.

When a group of files is selected, how can I copy just the file names?

I used to be able to select a group of files in a finder window, copy, then paste the names in an email or document. It no longer allows this. Is there away around this other than copying each file name individually?

I'm also at 10.5.4, just had forgotten to update my profile.
One "gotcha" can be if the application, such as Mail, is actually able to DO something with the files. In the case of Mail, it can add the content of many sorts of files to the message, or add the files to a message as attachments. That's why the Clipboard will say the content is "text/items" since what will be pasted depends on the destination. This is relatively new in OS X--I remember being astonished when it first turned up.
TextEdit, IF it is in Rich Text Format, can also handle a number of different sorts of files. If you want to use TextEdit as the "intermediate" destination to get a text list, be sure you go to the Format menu item, and select "Make Plain Text" before you paste. Actually, since I use TextEdit mainly for tasks, such as hand coding HTML, I have its default behavior to open all new windows in plain text, then if I actually want some formatting, I change it to Rich Text. In Rich Text it will accept pasting of all sorts of graphics files, so you see the jpeg, gif or png, you can even paste sound files in as actual sound files (and they'll play, too), plus the icons for folders and other files (such as PDFs).
Francine
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Copy a file name to its own metadata

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