IMatch 5.1.14 not reading XMP data

[hsegars]

I have a problem with IMatch reading and writing the XMP data of raw files. This started after version 5.1.10. I would write the description into the metadata and add keywords, click the check mark at the top of the metadata panel and then click on the yellow pencil in the selected photos. It would give me a message that it was writing metadata to the database. I would move on to do another file and come back to the first and all the new information is gone. This does not happen to tif or jpeg files. If I open the raw files (.orf) in bridge, the metadata description is correct. I have tried rescanning and also have built a new database with only the folder and subfolders that I am working with (about 1800 files) and nothing changes. I have uninstalled and reinstalled IMatch but nothing changes. I need help. Thanks.

[Mario]

As always, such issues are caused by the data in your files, your metadata settings, which data you update etc.
We need a lot more info to determine the source of the problem.

If you see the message about IMatch storing the data only in the database (I assume this is what you mean?) the data is not written to the file, it's just stored in the database. Or do you write back manually afterwards?

What are your Metadata and Metadata 2 settings?
Do your ORF files contain embedded IPTC and/or XMP data?
Please provide a log file (in debug mode) of one of your sessions.
Please open the ExifTool output panel, write back a file and attach the output.
This gives us a minimum of information to work with.

How to report bugs

[hsegars]

I partially fixed my problem. In the metadata tab in preferences in "Configure File Formats", ORF files were set not to write IPTC or XMP. I changed both to "Yes" and things are working better. I still have two issues. When I choose "Metadata Write back For All Files" some of my descriptions change to either "Olympus Digital Camera" or that phrase is added to descriptions. The second issue is that the metadata that shows in ORF files in Adobe Bridge CS6 does not show in IMatch even when I rescan the folder. IMatch shows a generic description that I put in all the raw files (all were taken in the same place) and then I adjust each file as necessary. I don't know where to go with either of these. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Ferdinand]

You may have dealt with the symptoms of your problem, but you may not have dealt with the cause.   Are you sure you want to write to your RAW files?  Some people do and some don't.  If you do then that's probably fine as is, but if you don't then you need to find the cause of the problem.  Which may be that these files already have embedded metadata, as Mario suggested, which you would need to remove.

[hsegars]

I looked at the metadata with the exiftool and it shows the correct description in the raw file but IMatch shows an old generic description that I put in. The raw file does not update to show the new information. My workflow has always been to write keywords, descriptions and headlines along with my basic information into raw files before I convert them to tiff. This way if I ever have to go back to them, all the info is already there.

[Mario]

The usual reason for such problems is out-of-synch metadata.
If you have a XMP sidecar file for your RAW and your RAW also contains embedded XMP data, for example. This is a common source for this problem. There is even a FAQ on this:

https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=2624.0

You should have only one XMP record for a file. Or configure the per-file format options to ignore or favor one of the two XMP records.
You will run into similar problems if your files have embedded IPTC data and you don't allow IMatch to synchronize IPTC and XMP on write-back. Per Metadata Working Group rules, IMatch imports IPTC->XMP on import, doing the required mappings. If your files have legacy IPTC, but you set IMatch to only update XMP on write-back, you create conflicting data. And on import, IMatch may replace newer XMP data with older IPTC data.

Only you can answer these questions:

Check your RAW files for (using the ExifTool Command Processor):

1. Embedded XMP data
2. Embedded IPTC data

See the info in the FAQ I linked above for solutions and best ways to handle this. If you want to use XMP sidecar files with RAW files (The suggested method, and also the default in IMatch) you may want to strip embedded IPTC/XMP data from your RAW files.