unwanted writing/updating of raw files (not sidecars only)

[Bolitho]

Just updated to IMatch 2023.3.2

Metadata write back now also updates raw (.CR3) files - not sidecars only.

For years I have .CR3 Metadata2 configured as follows:

Write IPTC: No
Write EXIF: No
Allow reate IPTC/EXIF(GPS: No
XMP sidecar file: Default
Use XMP Crop: No
Use data in THM files: No

The .CR3s have an embedded XMP.Rating record (out of camera)
The configuration above worked perfectly until now - XMP were only written to the sidecar, never to the raw original.
Now XMP location info is written to the sidecar plus raw file too.

How can I protect my raws from being touched by IMatch?
(Setting "XMP sidecar file to "Force XMP sidecar" did not help.)

[Mario]

I'm not aware of any intentional change in this area.

Must be a side-effect of some of the many changes in IMatch 2023 regarding proper handling and synchronizing location data between EXIF, GPS and a wide range of XMP data namespaces.
IMatch should of course not write XMP to Canon RAW files.

You can remove the XMP data using the corresponding preset in the ExifTool Command Processor (this also removes the useless rating=none).

I'll see if I can reproduce this over the weekend or next week and provide a bug-fix if required.

[Bolitho]

Did some tests and can confirm your guess:

Changing e.g. label does not induce raw file updates.

Changing Country induces raw file updates.
(Did no further tests.)

Any quick fix or workaround?

Writing and afterwards deleting XMP data via Exiftool is very very time consuming since I currently work on thousands of files (bird photography...) each 50MB :-(

[Mario]

Any quick fix or workaround?

You have reported this issue today. I have not had time to look into this yet.
I'm currently looking at an issue reported several days ago, which is also related to location metadata.

As usual, I will comment in this thread when I looked at the issue and have more information.

IMatch writes metadata to your RAW file anyway. It just adds XMP on top, for some reason.
If you really have to add GPS data now, mark the files (e.g. put them into a category) so you can later remove the XMP data for all files at once.

[Bolitho]

Probably your answer addresses a different thread?

IMatch writes metadata to your RAW file anyway.

It definitely did not before 2023.3.2 and should not starting now.

If you really have to add GPS data now, ...

It's not about GPS data, it's location (shown) - even without GPS - which I entered for years if not decades successfully.

Workaround: No option to generally prevent raw file updates (besides protecting the files at OS/file system level)?

[Mario]

It definitely did not before 2023.3.2 and should not starting now.

Incorrect.
IMatch always updated legacy IPTC, native GPS and EXIF data in RAW files (when available).
This is required to ensure that the copies of GPS data and EXIF metadata in XMP match the native data.
Otherwise you would end up with two sets of GPS/EXIF data, one in the image file and one in the XMP. Not good.

The problem in your case is that IMatch for some reason writes XMP location data to the RAW. I commented on that above.
This data should of course go in the sidecar file. I sometimes write GPS when I mean GPS and location data, it's one pack,. e.g. in IPTC location shown and IPTC location created in XMP. These structured tags contain location data (city, country, ...) and GPS coordinates.

I will look into this in order. There are older issue reports from this week and I process issues usually in the order they come in. Currently I work on some tickets from Tuesday and one from last week.

I will reply to this thread once I have looked into this.

[Bolitho]

Further info:

After deleting the XMP block from the raws via Exiftool (and of course rescanning) the yellow pencil appears - IMatch now wants to write GPS tags.
(GPS tags had successfully been written to the images with an IMatch version before 2023.3.2 - there was no pending metadata writeback)

Currently I refrain from writing back for fear of raw file damage.

[Mario]

Currently I refrain from writing back for fear of raw file damage.

After writing back to RAW files since IMatch 5 and probably dozens of million of files written (including 800,000 of my own RAW files), I think it is safe to do this.

Since IMatch 5, IMatch updates legacy IPTC, EXIF and GPS data in RAW files. XMP always goes into the sidecar file.

The issue that IMatch accidentally writes XMP location data to RAW files and the XMP sidecar file has been resolved for the next release. It was caused by Composite tags not being properly filtered out by IMatch when setting up the commands to write back for ExifTool. My bug, I apologize. Composite tags should never been written, IMatch maps them internal to their "real" tag counterparts. The logic was in place, but due to a change in an unrelated code section was no longer triggered.