Curious why sometimes metadata write-back can take more than one refresh

greg · April 27, 2020, 09:41:04 PM

Sometimes an additional write-back is necessary to clear the indicator. Perhaps it's when there are deletions and/or additions prior to writing the metadata back. Admittedly this is a question to indulge my curiosity, certainly not worth spending more than 30 seconds to respond.

Mario · April 28, 2020, 08:13:32 AM

This has been discussed many times in the community.
It's usually out-of-sync keywords between legacy IPTC, IPTCExt and XMP that require two write backs to synchronize them.
Check your files in the ECP or Metadata Wizard to learn more about the state of the metadata before the write-back.

DigPeter · April 28, 2020, 01:02:41 PM

I find this happens when I delete a category assignment and apply another one. I get round this by saving the change to database (ctrl + S) after deleting the assignment.
This was actually solved in an earlier version, but has crepy back.

Mario · April 28, 2020, 01:27:35 PM

Categories don't change metadata or cause write-backs. Or Do you mean IPTC categories?

DigPeter · April 28, 2020, 02:10:20 PM

Quote from: Mario on April 28, 2020, 01:27:35 PM
Categories don't change metadata or cause write-backs. Or Do you mean IPTC categories?

Sorry loose wording in my OP. Should read:

I find this happens when, in the Keyword panel, I delete an @keyword assignment and apply another one. I get round this by saving the change to database (ctrl + S) after deleting the assignment.
This was actually solved in an earlier version, but has crepy back.

Mario · April 28, 2020, 02:23:06 PM

I don't understand.
When you change keywords you change metadata. And this will mark the file as pending.

DigPeter · April 29, 2020, 12:58:57 PM

Quote from: Mario on April 28, 2020, 02:23:06 PM
I don't understand.
When you change keywords you change metadata. And this will mark the file as pending.

Well - that is what happens!

Mario · April 29, 2020, 01:03:31 PM

Check the keywords in your files before the write-back. Are they in sync? Use the Metadata Analyst App to check.
Check your thesaurus and the flatten settings under Edit > Preferences > Metadata. It used wrong, this can produce "new" keywords during the re-import after write-back.

It is impossible for us to see what you see, know what keywords you use, what your thesaurus contains, which settings you use for keyword mapping, what the file contains before the write back etc. All this may cause IMatch to require two write-backs to synchronize all metadata between XMP, IPTC, GPS and EXIF. It might not even be keywords, it might be something else.