Metadata Confusion

In Adobe Bridge, I made entries into the Document Title and Description fields of the metadata of an image. In Lightroom v. 3.3 for Mac OS-X, the same image has metadata fields named Title and Caption, but both are blank.
What is going on here?
FYI, the popular forum at flickr.com displays content of Document Title and Description fields of submitted images containing non-blank entries in those fields.

Jack wrote: 3 - Some editing tasks still need PS. My close-up work often requires a focus stacking application, which accepts DNG but saves in PSD. Some other operations are still (but see 1 above) better done in PS using PSD format, but instances of that are decreasing over time.
But for most processing workflows, I'm finding LR to be clearly the best solution.
No problem with using other tools to further enhance a photo; there are instances were you simply can't do without. What's important however is that this edit should be initiated from Lightroom (Right click and Edit In, or from the Photo menu and Edit In...then select the appropriate program to perform your changes). Once changes are done save the file with the external editor and exit the editor; the modified version will appear as a new photo alongside the original one (or stacked with the original). Don't rename the photo from the external editor as otherwise Lightroom will loose track of the file.

Similar Messages

LR3 JPEG/DNG Metadata Confusion

Hi,
I'm a little confused about XMP data and the LR3 catalog itself.
First, I understand that DNG files can have embedded keywords and other metadata -- and 95% of my files are CR2 files that I bring into LR3 as DNGs and keep them as DNGs. So I am NOT using raw files with sidecar files.
But where I'm confused is the "automatically write changes into XMP" LR3 catalog option and how it relates to JPEG files.
I was of the understanding that if I make changes in the develop module (eg. contrast) to a JPEG file (not a DNG), then these changes will NOT be saved to the original JPEG file, but will be "recorded" in the LR3 catalog.
But now If I allow LR3 to "automatically write changes into XMP" -- will this WRITE these develop module changes (e.g. the contrast change) to the original JPEG? Or does the "automatically write changes into XMP" only refer to the keywords and other metadata in a JPEG file?
Thanks for any help in clearing this up,
R

So just so I have this correct with JPEGs:
1, If I make changes in LR3 to a JPEG (e.g. contrast), this contrast change is saved in the LR3 catalog.
2. I can ADDITIONALLY save metadata (keywords, etc) in XMP data into a JPEG if I have the "automatically write xmp." settings checked or if I save it manually to the file
3. I can ADDITIONALLY save the develop settings (e.g. the contrast change I made in #1) by including the develop data in the JPEG in the same dialogue box.
But now if I opened this keyword, added contrast-adjusted JPEG in another program, only "XMP-aware" programs would allow me to see these keywords and contrast changes. Is this a correct assessment?
And lastly, if I do save the develop settings to the JPEG itself, doesn't that violate the "non-destructive" editing concept of LR3?
Thanks again!

Minimise Embedded Metadata Confusion

I am sending images off to magazine publishers and need to be able to send them with Copyright,IPTC Creator info and caption. as far as i can tell LR has 2 pointless options when you minimised metadata on export:
a) JPEG: Just the copyright & rights usage field. Without the owner contact details this is pointless isn't it. No caption
b) TIFF: Copyright, rights usage, creator name, caption. However no contact details and includes all the EXIF info.
As far as i can tell I cannot use minimise metadata as always leaves out improtant things or adds things you don't want!!! Is it possible to do what I want?
Thanks

But wont that wipe out all the metadata I want to keep for myself? Also the EXIF data will still be attached. I'm not sure why people don't want to sent this out, but guess something to do with restriciting information about how the picturew was taken.
Seems a bit odd that the minmise doesn't include creator details as well as copyright as 2 go hand in hand. Also typically anyone you send it too wants the caption. Wondered if I was being stupid!!!

HDV Print to Video not showing metadata

I'm running Final Cut Studio 2 and a Canon HV20 camcorder. I'm trying to consolidate footage from one tape to a new tape using "Print to Video" but the metadata such as date and time doesn't transfer. It works perfectly when I tested with DV format (consolidating 1 DV to another) but HDV only transfers video and audio with no metadata, and I'm guessing timecode too but I'm not sure. The original tape shows metadata.
I'ved tried with different settings. Captured using HDV Firewire, HDV Firewire Basic, HDV Firewire Basic NDF, AIC and print to video using HDV (1440 x 1080) 60i. They all record to tape fine but no metadata. I've even tried capturing and export to tape using iMovie with the same results (only video and audio with no metadata/timecode). What am I doing wrong?

Nope, I'm not talking about photo EXIF metadata, I'm talking about actual video. If I play DV or HDV tapes on my camcorder the date and time of the recording displays in the lower right hand corner of the LCD screen and the time even changes based upon when it was recorded. I've owned 3 DV camcorders and used friend's and they all do this.
When recording DV or HDV the date and time is registered somewhere. Even the new iMovie '08 will name the clips you import by date and time shot for DV or HDV (ex. clip-2003-02-09 13;57;34.dv).
Again, I can import any DV tape (video) now, export it to another tape, play it and the date and time of when it was recorded is retained, even if I rearrange it's order in iMovie or FCP. This is something I've done for years. I just can't accomplish it with HDV. I'm sure it can be done I just need to see what I'm doing wrong in the chain.
Please don't let my use of the word metadata confuse you that I think it's photo EXIF metadata. I used the word metadata because it just means "a set of data that describes and gives information about other data."
Thanks.

Confused Metadata after import from catalogue

I have two catalogues on this machine. I just imported one into the other in order to merge them. The images in each catalogue have never been in the other.
After the import, most, but not I think all, imported images have an icon either saying either:
The metadata for this photo has been changed by both Lightroom and another application. Should Lightroom import settings from disk or overwrite disk settings with those from the catalog?
or
The metadata for this photo has been changed by another application. Should Lightroom import settings from disk or overwrite disk settings with those from the catalog?
My confusion is because I can't see how either of these statements can be true for most of the photos, which have either lived in one or the other LR catalogue all their lives. Unless by "another application" it is just referring to another instance of LR in the past?
I also don't understand whether "overwrite settings ... with those from the catalog" means using the metadata in the current catalogue, which came from the old catalogue (and which I therefore want), or whether it means overwrite the images embedded metadata with the (blank) metadata in the new catalogue after importing.
Assuming Metadata really means literally that, and not Keywords or presence in Collections etc, then it's no biggy, as I don't use Metadata very much. But still, can someone guide me through the safest option for the 6000 imported photos?
thanks
Nic
Amateur user, LR3.6, Mac OSX 10.6.8

Ian-
After reading your post, I did some reading, and now I get how to us LR's Paint tool!
With only your jpeg selected in the Library module, go to grid mode displaying the other images you want to copy the keywords to. Select the Paint tool in the tool strip, and If you don't see it, select Metadata>Enable painting.
On the right-hand panel, there is a Keywording text box with a comma-delimited list of keywords in the selected jpeg. Use your pointer to select all the list, then copy.
Make sure the paint tool is set for Keywords, then click in the dim little text box next to the Paint: Keywords selection labels. It should turn white: copy the list into that text box.
Now, click on each picture in the grid you want the list applied to and it happens! A message comes up. The spray paint icon changes to an eraser, so if you want to remove the keywords from an image, just click it.
Pretty cool tool!
Tony

Metadata Caption Field confusion

In my Metadata, in the "Make" field it states "OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP". In the "Model" field it states "E-3". So far so good. However in the "Caption" field it also states "OLYUMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA". This caption data is not included in any preset I use. But what is more confusing is that this occurs with some cameras and not with others. It occurs with Olympus, Konica/Minolta, BenQ and Pentax sometimes but not with Canon, Fuji or Casio. Any ideas?

It's the camera itself that stores that piece of metadata.
You can prove it to yourself by running exiftool on a fresh out-of-camera file:
exiftool -exif:ImageDescription <your_filename>
If you want to get rid of it, define an import template with just an empty caption (don't forget to check the box next it).

I am a bit confused about unsaved metadata

I have set up LR to save metadata to the catalog. My pictures in the grid show unsaved metadata. Does this mean that I have not saved the metadata to an xmp sidecar (which I do not want to do)? What are the implications?
Thanks is advance.

It appears that Lightroom will warn you when your original file (or XMP sidecar) is out of sync with the Lightroom database. In other words, if you import an image with no metadata, then add metadata within Lightroom, the Lightroom database will have metadata that the file (or XMP sidecar) will not. That is what the warning is concerning.
Nothing more, and no worries if you choose to ignore it. All current data would be in the database.
Actually, I suppose it is a little more complicated than that, but basically speaking, there's nothing to worry about. That being said, if you edit metadata in an outside application, and then tell Lightroom to sync the folder, I expect the warning will appear because the file (or XMP sidecar) now has data that the Lightroom database doesn't. The point is still the same...
Anyone with more than a day's worth of knowledge care to jump in and correct me?

My iTunes library and metadata/ID3 tags issue

Since 2010, iTunes is the only media player I use to play music. My library consists of music purchased from the iTunes Store, CD rips and stuff many artists these days release as freebies on the internet to promote a new album. Also, M4A and MP3 are the only formats I use so far.
Since iTunes, I really got into editing my library's metadata tags by hand, in order to create a custom archive which serves my preferences best. I should mention that besides iTunes being the only software I use to play my music library, it's also the only software I use to edit their metadata. Also, before iTunes – when my library was on different media players – I never bothered with editing them.
A few days ago, I found how a lot of people in forums complain about the way iTunes edits and stores metadata. So, I experimented and moved a few of my songs to other media players after editing their tags within iTunes. And indeed the tags and/or artwork were often displayed messed up and/or incorrect, some times partially and some times completely.
Some people were referring to the version of the ID3 tags being the issue, while others suggested using the "convert ID3 tags" feature. I myself am a little bit confused. "Converting the ID3 tags" wasn't available for my M4A files and once I performed it for my MP3's I didn't know which setting I should apply or what version to choose. I chose one version randomly but I'm not sure what happened.
My goal is to make my music library able to play and display my custom metadata on the majority of the popular media players. I hope that firstly this is possible and that secondly it won't be a solution which requires me going through every single song individually.
I really hope that all those years work on my library wasn't for nothing.
I'm using a MacBook running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and my iTunes version is 10.7
While my music library is more important that my iTunes version, I do like iTunes 10 more than 11.
I apologize for any grammar mistakes, since English is not my first language. Thank you all for your time and any suggestion is welcome.

itsjamesd wrote:
Hello turingtest2 and thank you for your reply.
In response to "a possible cause of problems is multiple embedded tags", what exactly does that mean and how can I avoid doing it in the future?
Anything ripped with iTunes should get a single tag. If multiple tags in some of your older mp3 rips are the cause of the problems when you try to access the files elsewhere then you should apply the suggested remedy selectively, not to the whole library indiscriminately. Once fixed you shouldn't have the problem again unless you use different ripping software. If so check the options to ensure you generate a single ID3v2.3 tag. Downloads from elsewhere are pot luck.
If I use Convert ID3 Tags>None before converting to v2.3 as you suggested, how many times is "several times" and why do I have to do it more than once? Also, what are your thoughts on 'v2.3 vs. v2.4'?
Several is at least two, but more could be needed if a file has both v1 and v2 tags in multiple languages. If there are two tags, the first conversion to none should remove the first one, and the second conversion the second. Experiment, And stick to v2.3.
In response to "the process removes any embedded art but otherwise preserves the data that iTunes knows". All fields excluding cover art remain the same? Does that mean that I will have to start from scratch and apply new cover art individually for each album? That would be too time consuming given the fact that I embed custom art.
Yes, everything but artwork is held in the iTunes database and is restored with the final Convert ID3 Tags... v2.3. Use Doug's scripts SaveAlbumArtJpeg before you start and RestoreArtworkFromAlbumFolder afterwards to save and the restore your existing artwork.
Also, what happens with my M4A files' metadata? ID3 tags are only used for MP3's, right?
Yes, m4a/aac files have a different tag mechanism. Multiple ID3 tags is just one possible issue that you might have. You said:
So, I experimented and moved a few of my songs to other media players after editing their tags within iTunes. And indeed the tags and/or artwork were often displayed messed up and/or incorrect, some times partially and some times completely.
It might be worth going into some more detail about exactly what differences you noticed. iTunes can automatically associate (instead of embedding) artwork when it can match the album in the store which could be why some tracks didn't get artwork.
tt2

How can I use "date modified" from metadata to date iphoto events?

I am very frustrated trying to move photos from windows to iMac. I have a number of photos, all of them have some metadata with date created and date modified. This worked well in Picasa in Windows and kept everything in order. Now it seems iphoto will not read date modified or assigns date created (if there is no date in the metadata) as the date everything was switched over. I looked over some of the wrongly organized photos (there are thousands) and realized that under the old sustem, Picasa in windows must have used either date created or date modified, which ever came earlier or perhaps whichever was available. In iphoto, it doesn't read "date modified" or does this crazy thing where even if the modification date is before the creation date, puts all photos in the order or when they were brought over from windows. I have a lot of photos dated September 18 -- thousands.
Is there any way to get either iphoto or some other program (I'm not terribly impressed by iphoto) that will properly organize the photos in an imac environment. In other words, I want a program to look at (1) creation date or (2) modification date (which-ever is earlier).
Even Picasa is now confused (in the mac envirnoment).
Thanks,
Mark

No, as this is file metadata not photo metadata.
You can adjust the date and time using the Photos -> Adjust Date and Time or even the Photos -> Batch Change command.
Regards
TD

How can i NOT include top level keyword in the metadata of an image?

Hello,
I want to know how can i NOT include top level keyword in the metadata of an image. I know there is an option for not applying a keyword to an exported image, but is there an option for not applying the top level keyword to the actual image?
I have organized my geographical (by location) keywords like this:
Places
USA
New York
Miami
Spain.
If i add geographical keywords to all my images, all my images will have the keyword "Places", i dont think that it have any sence to have all your images with one keyword. How can i fix this? Any sugestion? i will appreciate it a lot any help or information that you could give me.
Excuse my english, i know it is not good. I hope that you could understand me.
Thanks,
Marcelo :)

Explicitly excluding a keyword only applies when "exporting". Unfortunately, there's currently no way to stop the keyword being written to the file when "Save Metadata to File" command is used. The natural reaction of users to this difference is to suggest that it is stupid. Nevertheless, there are good reasons why the difference exists:
1. "Export" creates a new file whereas "Save Metadata to File" writes the metadata back into the existing file.
2. There are very good reasons why certain keywords should not be written to file, and the example given in the OP is one. Saving metadata to file is more often used as means of backing up important image related metadata, independently of the catalog or allowing the metadata to be visible in other aplications. It would be rare that such a file would be shared with a third party, so the reason for not including certain keywords is less obvious. Actually, not including it can result in no end of confusion and grief. For example, if the top level (or any keyword) was excluded during the save metadata process then the other keywords would be orphaned when image is imported back into the catalog (e.g. buiding a new catalog).
The development team are aware of the need, in some circumstances, to exclude certain keywords when save metadata command is used. How and when the issue is resolved, without adding even more confusion/complexity, is some way off.

What are the different metadata fields for in the Metadata presets?

The metadata preset box has a comprehensive array of metadata sections and fields. I just don't know what a lot of them should be used for. Some of them appear to duplicate headings in other fields, albeit with different names.
Can someone tell me what kind of information the following fields are meant for?
Basic Info
Label - I've seen this used for the authors credit. The "Creator" and "Copyright" fields seem to take care of this though. Should it be used for something else?
Copy Name - ?
IPTC Content
Headline - I've read that this is for describing the content. Isn't the "Caption" field in Basic Info for this?
IPTC Subject Code - ?
Description Writer - The author/creator? If not, who?
IPTC Image
Intellectual Genre - Same as "Category"?
ISO Country Code - ?
IPTC Status
Title - This may seem obvious, but the title often appears in the caption.
Job Identifier - I'm assuming this is for applying information pertinent to the author's filing system. If I'm wrong, what is it for?
Instructions - as above?
Provider - Author again?
Source - Author yet again?
I'm sure there will be those who will argue that some or even most fields can be used for whatever information we wish to put in. My point is that they must be there for specific reasons.
Oh yes, before someone points me in the direction of the IPTC website, I've been there already and it was full of gobbledygook!
Thanks in advance.

Also on the IPTC photo metadata site is a more approach able guide to using the fields:
http://www.iptc.org/std/Iptc4xmpCore/1.0/documentation/Iptc4xmpCore_1.0-doc-CpanelsUserGui de_13.pdf
This guide was written for the original 1.0 IPTC Core specification, but I think it covers most of the terms you want to understand better. Specifically, it talks about the different roles the Headline, Title and Description (aka Caption) play as well as the Creator, Source and Provider.
Examples:
Headline:
A headline is a brief publishable synopsis/summary of the contents of the photograph. The Headline term should not be confused with the Title term.
Description:
The Description field, often referred to as a “caption” is used to describe the who, what and why of what is happening in the photograph. If there is a person or people in the image, this caption might include their names, and/or their role in the action that is taking place. If the image is of a location, then it should give information regarding the location....
Here are three other places you might want to look for or ask about how other photographers are using the metadata:
The PhotoMetadata.org web site
http://www.photometadata.org/
David Rieck's ControlledVocabulary.com
http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/
-See Resources > CV Forum to find the Yahoo! groups forum for the site.
Peter Krogh's, the DAM Book site and forum:
http://www.thedambook.com/
http://thedambook.com/smf/index.php
The "Label" field is used to control the colored label that's displayed for the file in Lightroom, Bridge and (when opening multiple files) in the Camera Raw plugin. Both Lightroom and Bridge ship with default values mapped to the six-standard label colors. In Lightroom choose the Metadata > Color Label Set > Edit... to change them. In Bridge, use the Label panel in the Bridge preferences dialog.
You can really use this for whatever you need, but unlike the other terms defined by the IPTC, you should not necessarily expect others to use them for the same thing. Putting the photographer's name there probably doesn't make much sense. I know one Photographer who's assigned the name of a stock agency to each of the label colors so he can track what file was sent to what agency.
-David

What does all does metadata fields mean?

So far, I haven't yet created a personalized Metadata Preset for all my photos because I don't understand most of the fields, what they exactly mean and where is that value going to be displayed/read by.
Can anyone help me on that or point to me to an article or guide about each metadata field editable in Lightroom?
For instance, Basic Info has fields like "Caption", "Rating", "Label" and Copy Name". Well, I believe Caption is the photo name (if we decide to give it one), Rating is self explanatory but Label and Copy Name I have no clue what are they for and where are they going to be used, etc...
IPTC Content, IPTC Copyright, IPTC Creator, IPTC Image and IPTC Status, what are all these for and what about each of their fields, I don't know what they mean and what are they for, where they will be read/used, all that...
After understanding what all those fields mean, which ones do you recommend to fill for a preset or how do you do it with your photos? I mean, I believe IPTC Image is something to do with a respective image, so, if I have a bunch of images from different countries, places and whatever, it makes no sense to have a preset for that unless I'm importing a bunch of photos from a specific place. But I'm talking about a more general preset that you use for all or most of your photos. What should I fill?
But more importantly, I need/want to understand all those fields, what are they for and how they will be used, etc, but the most important thing in all of this is to know what each field means, otherwise, I won't be able to know if I want to provide that information or not and if I know what to write there.
P.S: Try not to confuse me a lot ;)

See: http://www.iptc.org/IPTC4XMP/
Download: http://www.iptc.org/download/public/IPTCCore-CSPanelsOnly.zip

Acrobat X Standard User: How can I view PDF metadata from a folder level?

Hello All,
This is my first post to this community. I would not be surprised if the answer to my question can be found in a simple search or tutorial. However, I assure you that I have been searching, clicking, reading and even attempting to install new software all morning and have only succeeded in further confusing myself.
I'm running Adobe Acrobat X Standard on a Windows 7 machine. My job includes the management of legal documents of conveyance. All conveyance instruments have a set of unique identifiers such as the county where the deed was filed, the book and page where it is filed, the type of instrument, and the date it was filed. Historically I have tried to jam all of this information and more into the file name of a pdf. For example: "105_Bk109-Pg188_Assignment_05251950" is the name of a file that I have open right now that indicates an Assignment filed in Crockett County, Texas (code 105) at Book 109, Page 188 and recorded on May 25, 1950. I typically work in folders that contain around a hundred similar documents with all of the fields I have described varying. My objective is to begin moving this information into the metadata or properties of the individual PDFs AND then be able to view those fields in Windows Explorer from the folder level. As I understand it, this is not possible. When I began searching for an alternative solution, I found several references to Adobe Bridge and attempted to install it. The installation failed, but more importantly I am not interested in becoming a CC user as I don't feel like it is necessary for what I am trying to accomplish. I'm not working with HD photos or video.
So my question is this: Is there a way (that doesn't involve purchasing and learning Adobe Bridge) that I can modify the attributes/metadata/properties of a pdf, and then see the modifications in a folder viewer without opening the pdf? Thanks in advance for your help.

Thanks for responding. I suspected that my understanding of metadata was incomplete or inaccurate. As I understand it, the metadata for any given pdf can be found by first opening the pdf; clicking File -> Properties, which opens a dialog box titled "Document Properties". The first tab in the dialog box is "Description" and includes the fields File, Title, Author, Subject, and Keywords. The values for these fields are what I'm referring to as metadata. Additionally, from the Document Properties dialog box, clicking on the "Custom" tab allows you to create custom properties and values, which I also considered to be metadata. I have manipulated these fields for a certain pdf as shown in the two screenshots below:
After making this changes, I saved the pdf and closed it. I then navigated to the folder where the pdf is stored using Windows Explorer. As you can in the following screen shot of WE, that the pdf I have made the changes to is the first in the list. The Windows Explorer columns include: Title, Pages, Author, and Subjects, but their values are all blank and fail to show what I have assigned them in the PDF properties (or what I thought was metadata). As for my custom fields, Windows does not give me any kind of option to display those. Windows inability to display something as simple as the number of pages in the PDF is completely baffling to me.
My objective is to be able to modify the standard document properties of a PDF with usable information, those being Title , Author, Subject, and Keywords. I would also like to be able to create the custom properties with additional useful information. I would then like to be able to use a file manager, to view the contents of a folder full of pdfs, similar to the screenshot above, and see the properties and custom field values that i have assigned to the pdfs in columns of the list of pdfs. Windows Explorer is the only file manager I have ever used. It's possible that the solution to my problem could be as simple as changing file managers. It may be that what I'm after is not possible at. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

How do I import Bridge keywords and metadata to CS6 from CS4 so that I don't lose them if CS4 is not

I have hundreds of keywords and metadata including Ratings and Labels using CS4 and Bridge CS4.
It is time to replace my PPC Mac with a new Intel Mac.
I am going to install CS6 on the new Intel Mac without installing CS4.
By default.... this eliminates ALL keywords and ratings and labels from my Bridge browser. The keywords will still be present on the files but Not present in Bridge keywords list and all ratings and labels will be lost.
Making a copy of Bridge CS4 metadata to another computer is quite simple.
Simply copy All of the Bridge CS4 application support folder to the other computer.
The question then becomes.... can I aslo do this with CS6 without introducing an incompatibility?
1. incompatible due to CS6 application support.
2. incompatible due to transfer from a PPC (APM) to Intel (GUID).
This concern results from an Bridge CS4 export problem I experienced.
Bridge CS4 will export all of your keywords and you can import them from a text file but it has some odd troubles. (try it and you will see)
This does Not mean that CS6 has the same troubles.
What do I require to preserve existing metedata and keywords that exist on a PPC using CS4 and import them into CS6 using Intel?
Sound simple?
I doubt it.
The points are.
1. CS4 not installed.
2. CS4 source is PPC not Intel.
3. Ratings and Labels are metadata that Are Not part of the file metadata and unique to Bridge only.
4. Keyword Search and keyword Use requires that Bridge have keyword list, otherwise Finder is the far more useful browser and the new version of Bridge will require hours of keyword listing.
I don't want to spends hours retyping keywords lists in Bridge.

Ratings are NOT placed into the file under CS4 Bridge and neither are
Labels.
That depends on your file type and settings voor Camera Raw.
Like Curt stated usually metadata is written in to the file itself. Only Raw files can't be written to and by default they create a XMP file, also called Sidecar XMP files (and do have the same filename, only a different extension called .xmp). These files are also by default hidden in Bridge but If you use Bridge to move files they travel along with the original.
If you move or copy them using finder you have to be sure these XMP files are also copied with the originals to the new location.
Using the menu View / show hidden files should reveal the XMP files.
An other option for the Camera Raw prefs is to set metadata to the Camera Raw database instead of written to sidecar XMP files ( to my knowledge using sidecar files has been the default since about CS3).
Now here it becomes a bit tricky and I only can tell you my findings, not to be confused with true facts. (and mind you, it is at least 5 years ago I was on a PPC and not even remember which OSX 10 was able to work on it, I just present the acting of CS6 on an intel Mac Pro with OSX 10.7, but I don't believe the difference in location is that much)
Having written the Metadata to the Camera Raw Database your image settings get written to a file in the user library preferences folder called logically "Adobe Camera Raw Database". But also some info gets added to the Camera Raw Cache folder (User library / Caches/ Adobe Camera Raw) in a file called index.dat.
Also not having set metadata to xmp sidecars stores the ACR settings in a new .dat file with a unique number (not to be traced as a corresponding filename. And also the default maximum is set to 1 GB of space and when full the oldest files are overwritten with the new ones.
Personally I use converted DNG files that are capable of writing metadata to so all info and settings are in the file itself and I don't need to bother about central storage that can get lost. The downside is that changes to a DNG need to save the whole file instead of a small xmp file and probably reading cache takes more time then getting info from central storage but I like to be on the safe side and speed is not really needed to be nailed down to split seconds in my workflow.
Keywords are stored as a file in the Bridge preferences but Like Curt already stated exporting the old list first and then via the same route import again to CS6 should solve your problem and they will be back as persistent, otherwise the files in the content window show as italic and sadly enough have to be made persistent one by one with right click mouse menu, so that is not really an option for you.
Exporting the list does create a text file that can also be altered manually with a simple text app and as said, again be imported in newer versions as Curt described earlier.
Making a copy of Bridge CS4 metadata to another computer is quite simple.
Simply copy All of the Bridge CS4 application support folder to the other computer.
Well, in fact it is true to call copying this folders a simple task but replacing the existing new CS6 would not be my method. The biggest change for Bridge CS6 was the transition to 64 bit and I lack the knowledge for this but also cache format for thumbs and previews has been different for every version.
But if you have located the CS4 folder for Bridge in your PPC user library / application support / Adobe / Bridge CS4 you should find a file called 'Adobe Bridge Keywords.xml' and it is fairly safe to replace this CS4 version with the new CS6 version.
Also custom settings for the output module can be copied (however to my memory the option for custom settings in Output where introduced in CS5) and collections can be copied.
So for your keywords the copy option might work, rating and labeling for Raw files they will be read in CS6 if they are stored as XMP. ACR settings idem but CS6 ACR has a new (2012) conversion mode that has different settings that do not work with previous settings (unless you first choose to use the 2010 conversion as default Raw setting.
If it is in the Central Data Base I would start trying to replace the CS4 with the CS6 edition (after back up of existing CS6 version) and see what happens. If it works your out of trouble.
You can also open the Camera raw Database as a text file but there is a lot of data in. Maybe scripting would be able to reveal those data and transfer to XMP but you have to visit the dedicated Scripting forum for this.
And while you state to have not installed CS4 anymore it might be wise to reinstall it (but first make a proper back up of the previous mentioned folders and files to be on the save side.
This gives you the opportunity to export keywords properly and if needed you can use Show Items from subfolders option with filter and set preferences to XMP sidecar to refresh the rating and labels to those XMP files. Just an escape route that might not be as painstakingly as it looks at first sight, just use the options for Bridge to filter.

XMP Custom File Info panels vs. Custom Metadata

Sorry if this question is a little confused, but I don't exactly know what I am talking about yet.
I use Rob Cole's custom metadata plug-in, which is great as far as it goes. As I understand it, it is a way to create custom data fields in the Lightroom database, give them labels, and manipulate and sort images according to those values. It is very useful for what it is. However, where it shows its seams is when you want to edit an image outside of Lightroom and then import the image back into Lightroom (for instance exporting the image, or editing it in Photoshop). In that case there is no way to get the data in the original into the derived copy except by doing it by hand, which can be very labor intensive if you, say, export a few hundred or a few thousand images. And, of course, you can only see the custom metadata in Lightroom, since it doesn't live in the file.
If I understand it correctly, "Custom File Info panels" for xmp data should just solve this problem. You would define your data, and it would be understood by "standard Adobe applications". A brief search of the web does not indicate that Lightroom is one of these "standard Adobe applications", so I assume that while I can use these panels in Bridge and in Photoshop, the data would not be available to me in Lightroom?
Any insight?
Thanks
Alan
robcole

alanterra wrote:
there is no way to get the data in the original into the derived copy except by doing it by hand
Better ways:
1-1 or 1-many:
(on the file menu: plugin extras) which brings up:
If you want to do "many to many-others-like-them", you have to use a different plugin, like Relative Antics..
alanterra wrote:
If I understand it correctly, "Custom File Info panels" for xmp data should just solve this problem.
Many of us are hoping Adobe enhances Lr to provide better support for custom metadata - as you've noticed, Lightroom is not one of those "Standard Adobe Applications" referred to in the above link.
Rob

Metadata Confusion

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for