Faillure writing metadata to some DNG files

I'm having a problem writing metadata to some dng files using Lightroom 2.6.1. When I try to apply a metadata template to a batch of files most of them get changes but a few don't. This only effects DNG files so far JPEG and TIFF seem to be OK. I have tried running the problem files through DNG converter and the new files have the same problem. Lightroom won't write to them.
I can change the metadata of these files from Bridge. The changes then appear properly in Lightroom. Afterwards I can change the metadata again from Lightroom.
I'm working on a MacBook Pro (Late 2008) and running OS 10.6.2.

I created a preset to export to same folder as original, same format as original, and stack with (above) original. I used this on the seven files, and it has solved the problem without losing any metadata.
The jpegs had at some point been processed by Photoshop Elements as they were imported/edited using that application in 2010 but the metadata problem didn't show up until recently when I was making some adjustments in Lightroom. I somehow think this may be related to the GPS tag though I don't have sufficient evidence.
The DNG file was strange in that it was straight the camera with no Lightroom adjustments, although I did add GPS info in the Map module. Anway it is now fixed as well as the jpegs.
With this preset it would be possible quickly to fix a large number of image files. Just create a Smart Collection to display the problem files and run the preset on them all in one go. The only things that I am aware of that you would need to look out for are (1) if they are in a collection other than a smart collection, or have been published to a service like Flickr or to the Hard Disk the link will be broken, and (2) If you like to sort photos by date/time added, they will be out of the sequence (capture time is fine).
When you are satisfied that this has worked OK then you can delete the images from the "Metadata Not Up To Date" smart collection. Select all, go to all photos, they should remain selected and press Delete. You could do a thousand in one go if you have the nerve for it
Hope this helps.
Peter

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Metadata loading forever from some DNG files

Hello guys,
I have LR4 under Win7 and for some folders containing DNG files the metadata loading takes forever. I.e. for the first 10 dng files the metadata will load in 5 seconds, for the next 10 files the metadata keeps loading forever and for the last 10 files the metadata will load in 5seconds.
Do you have similar experience? Any resolution?
Boris

I tried to load the images in a program of my own for the analysis of raw images; it said, that those files were not TIFFs at all. Then I looked at the file content with a "neutral" program, without interpreting it and found, that it starts with "8BPS", which is the internal identification of PSD files. I renamed one and loaded in PS with success. The JPEG file to can be easily recognized when viewing the content in binary format.
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Bridge 4.1.0.54: Error writing Metadata to some [....].jpg

I am sorting my files (.JPG) with bridge. Some files just can't get rated (bridge fails without giving me an error), and if I try to set other metadata (like keywords), bridge tells me "There was an error writing metadata to ".....JPG".
I have full access to the folder, it is an internal disk, the files are not locked. It affects about 5% of all files - this is the second shooting (&folder) where I have this problem. I don't see any differences between the files I can change and the ones where I can't.
I can rename the file with bridge, but that does change nothing. I tried purging the cache, it changed nothing.
I just found out: I can change the tags with Windows Explorer, Bridge does show them, and afterwards I can change them with bridge too. Someone got an Idea how I can avoid this step?
[Win7Pro x64, i7]

Jingshu Li wrote:
I tested your issue but haven't reproduced yet. Could you please provide more info?
1. You mentioned usually you will select tens of images (in the smart collection or search result) and apply metadata, and then you get the error. I'm wondering can you apply metadata successfully if you only select one image and then apply metadata?
2. Before you apply metadata, do you wait for the images thumbnails genaration complete?
3. Can you apply metadata successfully if you selete the images at their real location (not in the smart collection or search result?)
4. Your OS info, mac or win, and version?
I just set up a quick test, and it failed immediately. I haven't even been using Bridge today...
The computer runs CS5 on Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. I used to run CS3/CS4 on a different computer loaded with Windows XP Professional. I'm always up-to-date with OS/driver/application updates. Both systems exhibited the same problem.
The raw image 3-tier folder hierarcy is on a separate internal drive: P:\Camera\2011\08-15 Location\, P:\Camera\2011\08-16 Location\, etc.
The Bridge cache is on a separate internal drive: T:\BridgeCS5\, Camera Raw's cache is in T:\CameraRaw\.
The images are mostly Nikon NEF (D300), and ACR saves settings to 'sidecar' files. Most of the images have settings, and many have crops.
I created a new Collection, and dragged the contents of 7 image folders into it - a total of 407 images. None of these files have had keywords applied, but most had been worked in Camera Raw already. After waiting for thumbnail/preview generation to finish, I selected the collection, created a new sub-keyword, selected all images in the collection, and ticked the new keyword (automatically ticking the parent keyword). Within a few seconds, I started getting the "Error writing metadata..." warnings, and had to OK 15 images.
The failed images were spread across 3 of the 7 selected directories. Trying the same thing 30 minutes later resulted in the same errors. Trying each failed image individually gave the same error (either as part of the collection, or from it's own folder).
I opened one of the problem images in Camera Raw, and adjusted Blacks, clicking Done to save the settings. I then tried to apply the keywords again. This time it worked.
To answer your questions directly:
1. I have never experienced this problem keywording files individually (apart from after the errors, as mentioned above), but then I wouldn't usually be selecting lots of images to keyword individual images.
2. Yes, I always wait for the spinning circles to disappear, sometimes even longer!
3. I just tried applying keywords to a single folder of 102 images, and 2 failed to update. So the answer is No, it fails at real locations too.
4. Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, running on Intel Core2 Duo and 4GB RAM. Same thing happened before on a Windows XP Professional PC, running on an Intel Pentium 4 and 2GB RAM and a single hard drive.
I hope that helps.

How to add lens metadata to existing DNG files?

I shot some images with a fully manual optic, so lens data was not embedded in RAW files, hence they are not existant in DRG files after conversion.
Is there a way to edit those DNG files in Lightroom so they would include lens name and focal lenght I manually enter?
Regards,
Romuald

>That said, I would love a secret mode for this.
It's called a Text Editor and it doesn't even and to touch the raw file (i.e. CR2, NEF, MRW, etc). Save out the metadata to XMP sidecar, use search and replace to overwrite the lens info, then read the metadata back in Lightroom. Lightroom will use the edited metadata instead of the embedded EXIF data. I've used this method for years. TextWrangler (Mac) or similar on Windows can run a search/replace on a batch of files (thousands if need be).
For example:
Find:
24.0-70.0 mm
replaced with
EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM
You can't use above method on DNG directly. So, you create and edit the XMP sidecar before converting to DNG. Either way you're leaving the original Makernotes intact and therefore running no risk of screwing the file.
At some point in the future it should be possible to skip above and write the lens data directly into the Lightroom database and back to the sidecar or DNG if required. Unfortunately, not this cycle.

Option to store xmp metadata outside of DNG file

This would serve to improve differential backups, as the xmp file format is text based and easy to tell differences.

Walt,
No, you totally misunderstood what I meant. I'm not talking about LR catalog backups, I'm talking about backing up scores of dng files completely outside of LR, from the OS or some other external tool. With my suggestion, the xmp file would be right next to its dng file, and i would be backing up the whole directory hierarchy that hold my files. One of the benefits of LR over Aperture is that I can access, manipulate, and/or backup my files outside of the app rather than having them locked up in a vault which must be backed up in one huge blob.
If I change the brightness of 500 dng files using LR, then back up all my dng files using rsync (for example), I will be copying 500 large binary files around. If my edits were saved in separate text files (xmp), then my backup program could only copy the DIFF of each of the text files (one line added to each file, so one line, or five in a normal unified diff format, is all that needs copied around). This would be exponentially faster.
Embedded xmp edits is not a good practice, from an OS-level backup point of view. Since not everyone will agree on that, I'm asking for a checkbox option - I'm fine with it being embedded by default.
With xmp data being stored inside the dng file, and LR changing the dng file every time I edit something, LR is hardly non-destructive from an OS-level point of view when dng files are used.
No where in the spec does it state that xmp changes data MUST be stored in the dng file. I'm simply asking for the option to store that data outside of the DNG file, so that the dng file only needs backed up once or rarely, rather than every time I make an edit.

Move some dng files (and their settings)

I like to review photos with the client on my laptop/Apple TV. So I make all the stars, flags, labels on the laptop. When I copy the dng files to a thumbdrive and copy them from the LR import dialog into my desktop/different catalog - they come in missing all the metadata.
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Are you using Lightroom or other Adobe on your client’s computer or Apple TV to rate the photos? It is up to whatever app you’re using to rate the photos to write the data into the DNG. Depending on what app it is, it may not know what to do with DNGs enough to do that.

I can't import some DNG files

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I used 2 lenses on my camera : the kit lens (a 14-42mm zoom) and a Voigtlander manual lens.
All photos taken with the kit lens were rejected by iPhoto in the import process.
I also tried to open them with Aperture, QuickLook and Preview.app : doesn't work.
I was only able to open the DNG files taken with the Voigtlander lens.
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Welcome to the Apple Discussions. Have you tried a different DNG converter? Adobe released Adobe DNG Converter 5.3 in March of this year. Maybe, if it supports your camera, this version will create a more compatible file.

Cannot read or extract NEFs from some DNG files

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help.
I've got a subset of DNG files from an older shoot that have somehow become undreadable. There are 119 bad files out of 1436 total images from the shoot. All of the bad files are in a consecutively numbered range (e.g., they are not randomly distributed).
I'm on a 64-bit Windows 7 system. The bad files do not open in Bridge, Photoshop, CaptureOne, etc., nor will the images thumbnail in Windows Explorer using either the Adobe or Ardfry DNG codecs. I have no idea when or how the corruption occurred, whether is came about from use of a software program, or had something to do with a bad file copy operation. But my current backups are also corrupted.
However, I always embed the original NEFs or CR2s in my DNGs, and so I was hoping to extract the originals. However, the DNG Converter refuses to operate on these files, though they appear to be of the right size.
Does anyone know of a way to salvage the original RAW NEFs from these damaged files? Is anyone at Adobe looking for a little science project? :-) I would be grateful for any suggestions...
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Itunes can't read metadata from some mp3 files

I'm running itunes on windows 7 64. I transferred my library from my old xp machine and everthing seems to be fine except that about 20 albums have lost their metadata (some have the album name, but no tracks - most have nothing). When I attempt to use the 'get track info' option, it tells me that it can only retrieve track information for files that were imported using iTunes - which mine all were. The tracks all play just fine.
The odd thing is that windows media player has no issue pulling the track info out of the files. In fact, it even displays a field indicating that the mp3 files were created originally using iTunes.
Just for kicks, I copied the files over to a machine running win xp and attempted to do the import there (thinking that iTunes may be flaky on win 7), but no joy.
The tracks all have their data intact, as demonstrated by wmp and I really want iTunes to be able to read it out because it would take forever to hand tag each one all over again. If I don't get them tagged, I'll have a lot of trouble syncing these with my iPod. Suggestions anyone?

When I attempt to use the 'get track info' option, it tells me that it can only retrieve track information for files that were imported using iTunes - which mine all were.
You mean when you go to iTunes menu Advanced -> Get CD track names.
That is different than right click - get info on a track.
In order to Get CD track names, the songs must be rRIP'd using the same iTunes library on the same computer. It will not work if you RIP on one computer and copy them to another computer.
Try this...
Select one of the songs in iTunes, right click - Convert ID3 tags and select V2.3.

Help: "There was an unknown error while writing metadata to this photo" file-by-file???

I see exclamation marks in the top right hand corner of every thumbnail in the library. When I click that exclamation mark I get the above error message. Now, this can be resolved by clicking "Retry Metadata Export", but this only seems to work on a file-by-file basis. How can I do this for hundreds of files all at once?
Thanx for your help.

Try, Selecting all affected. Then do XMP/Export. THis may do the multi trick. With luck a future release will take care of this problem of dealing with many such files.
Don
Don Ricklin, MacBook 1.83Ghz Duo 2 Core running 10.4.9 & Win XP, Pentax *ist D
http://donricklin.blogspot.com/

Lightroom not finding DNG files in the folder

I am using Lightroom 2.5. My library includes a folder with approximately 5000 images which is located on an external hard drive as is my Lightroom catalog. I use the external dive because it is part of a RAID 1 array to backup my images.
My problem began when I used Lightroom to convert the 600 RAW files in the folder to DNG files. Prior to the conversion, the library tab showed that there were 5000 files in the folder. After the conversion, the library tab shows that there are only 4400 files. The DNG files are actually there but Lightroom will not recognize them. I can use windows explorer to see them and that there are 5000 files in the directory.
I have tried to synchronize the folder, but it did not help. I have also tried to write metadata to the files to make sure that was not the problem and it was no help. As a test, I also copied the directory to my local hard drive and imported that into Lightroom. That folder has the correct 5000 images, but of course non of the ratings that I had applied to the 5000 files to organize them so the local folder is useless.
Can anyone suggest a means of convincing Lightroom that it should recognize the missing DNG files that are actually there?
Thank you.

John,
Thank you for your suggestions. I do have filters off.
I started up Lightroom today and again, the Folders tab only showed that the folder had 600 files which corresponds to the missing 600 DNG files. Furthermore, in the grid view, only the 600 DNG files were appearing. But, after a minute and without my input, Lightroom loaded up the 4400 JPEG images into the grid and the DNG files disappeared both from the file count and the grid view.
When I look at the All Photographs folder in grid view, I can find the missing DNG files so they are in the All Photographs folder.
I did as you suggested and I optimized the catalogue. Now when I launch Lightroom, I see the missing 600 DNG files in the grid view and the file count for the folder. But that only lasts a few seconds before the 4400 JPEGS appear and the DNG files disappear. So the optimization made the loading faster as it should, but did not help Lightroom to find the DNG files.
Now when I try to synchronize the folder, It does show that there are 600 files to be added. However, synchronization does not help and DNG files are still missing.
I can see the DNG files in a folder called “Already in Catalog” from when I tried to synchronize the original folder. After optimizing the catalog, I told Lightroom to write metadata for the DNG files. Once I did that, some of the missing DNG files did appear in the grid view of the original folder (but not all of the 600 missing files). However, the library still only shows 4400 files in the folder.
One last oddity. When I change the sort to “user order” from “capture time”, I see only the 600 missing DNG files in the grid view. The 4400 JPEG files are gone. But when I change the sort back to capture time, the JPEG files and the few DNG files are there again and most of the DNG files are gone.
This bugginess is only occurring on the external drive. The same files saved to the local hard drive all appear in the file count and the grid view.
Thank you.

How can I import DNG files into iPhoto 8?

Shooting with a Canon Rebel XT, I've downloaded RAW files onto my hard drive, edited them in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) and saved them as digital negatives (DNG) with the .dng extension. Bridge and iPhoto work with these just fine, but iPhoto doesn't seem to want to import them.
Aside from saving them as jpegs or TIFFs, is there any way to get these files to play nice with iPhoto 8?

I'm having the same problem with iPhoto after editing my images in Bridge and converting the files to DNG before importing to iPhoto. The metadata on the DNG file will not show up in iPhoto when I import DNG files. Yet, if I convert the DNG files to JPEG and import the JPEG files into iPhoto all the metadata and keywords in the original DNG files is imported. I use Bridge and CS3 for editing but want to use iPhoto for asset management.

Pushing Keyword and Descriptions in PE4 to DNG files

I have a quetsion on assigning keywords to files. I use DNG files and want the descriptions and keywords I assign in the PE4 organizer to flow to the metadata of a DNG file. (I would like to use the organizer in PE4 becuase its well feature offers advantages over the Bridge CS2 options.)
When using DNG files in Adobe Bridge the keywords and captions posted in the metadata of the DNG file flow directly to the PE4 organizer.
When using PE4, I think I would need to go to the File Edit mode to change metafile properties. Saving this information in this mode creates a second file -- something I don't want right now. Does anyone have expereince in pushing keyword and captions/descriptions from PE4 organizer to the metadata of a DNG file? (I am a convert to DNG becuase it does not use sidecar xmp files, rather the metadata is embedded in the image file itself.
Thanks in advance to any thoughts or suggestions.
Douglas Meredith.

Dear Colin:
Thanks for the suggestion; however, I have tried to use the File/Write Tags for both DNG and JPEG photos and the metadata for the original photo file did not change.
So, my quest continues.
Douglas.

To update a DNG file?????

Lightroom v1.1 has the following in its Help File----
Save metadata changes to the file manually
* Select one or more photos and choose Metadata > Save Metadata To File.
* In Grid view, click the down arrow icon in a thumbnail image to save (update) the metadata in the file.
Note: The Save Metadata To File command does not update metadata in a DNG file. To update a DNG file, choose Metadata > Update DNG Preview & Metadata.
My 1st question is--
If one maintains their photos in DNG format, based on the above statement does it make ANY sense to check the option File->Catalog Settings->Automatically write changes to XMP?
Taken literally, it seems to me that LR DOES NOT write changes (either manually or automatically) to XMP in a DNG file, unless one specifically uses the "Update DNG Preview & Metadata".
My confusion comes from the process in v1.0 for DNG metadata changes. v1 would save metadata, but you needed ACR 4.X to separately update the JPG.
Which leads me to my 2nd question-
Is Adobe using Preview and embedded JPG as the same thing? I'm assuming :) that what's being updated is the embedded JPG in the DNG and perhaps also any preview in the database.
Obviously, any comments would be appreciated.
Dave

GreSep wrote: I saw another LR discussion that said that with LR 4.3 updating Capture Time would also update Date Time Digitized but it does not do so for me on my DNGs (and as of last month ALL my images were converted to DNGs).
One or two intermediate versions of LR 3 (perhaps Lr 3.6) set DateTimeDigitized when you gave the Metadata > Edit Capture Time command. But for people managing scans in which the capture time of the original image was different than the scan time, this behavior overwrote their scan times, so Adobe backed out of that change. Before and since those versions, the Metadata > Edit Capture Time command just changes the EXIF:DateTimeOriginal and related fields in XMP and IPTC.

Preview in Mac OSX opens DNG files

But what is it actually opening? I believe it is opening the jpeg preview stored with the DNG. Is this true or does Preview support DNG an RAW natively somehow? The particular image I opened, just to try it, looked brighter and more saturated than opening the same image in a converter.

MacOS can render some DNG files (only for cameras that it knows about, which doesn't make sense) natively.
If they opened the JPEG preview, it would be very low res.

Faillure writing metadata to some DNG files

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