.MOV file Metadata (Image location) keeps reverting to Original Values

[moviemaker445]

Hi,
I have several old .MOV files created in 2012 by a Canon camera. Even though I have gone through the Metadata update process several times for these files, IMatch keeps reinstating the original values after I try to change them. .JPG images taken at the same time with the same camera are not a problem. Can someone please give me some tips on how I might fix this problem?
Cheers

[Mario]

Which metadata tags do you change?
Is there an .XMP file with the same name as the .MOV file in the same folder as the .MOV file?

Run the Metadata Analyst (Tools menu) on the .MOV. Does it report errors or warnings? If so, use the GREEN button at the top to copy them into the Windows clipboard and paste them into your reply.

Open the ExifTool Output panel (View menu > Panels) and then write back.
Does ExifTool report any errors or warnings in the output panel.

Note that metadata in video files is an even bigger mess than metadata in image files. So many camera and software vendors have created "problematic" metadata implementations over the years...

[moviemaker445]

Thanks Mario for your email directing me to your response to my post. (I kept checking 'My Posts' from the dropdown menu at the top of the photools community site. I could see the post but couldn't see an indication that it had a reply) :-)

I ran the the Metadata Analyst on one of the problem files and the results are:

Metadata Analyst Results. Version 2021.18.4. 2/20/2023 1:08:59 PM
File analyzed: V:\MEDIA SOURCE\Panasonic TZ10\TZ10 Movies & Stills (1k-2k)\TZ10_1334 [2011-08-11 @ 10;37;29]_mo.mov
Errors: 0
Warnings: 1

Warning: [XMP] Embedded XMP record (Adobe XMP Core 5.3-c011 66.145661, 2012/02/06-14:56:27        ) and XMP sidecar file (photools.com IMatch 21.18.0.4 (Windows)) found.

-----------------------------
This info was also in the Metadata Analyst output:

System
Background Indexing: all
Immediate Write-back: off
File last modified: 2011:08:11 10:37:29+10:00
XMP sidecar file found. Last modified: 2023:02:20 12:59:29+10:00
Ignoring embedded rating in RAW files.
Protect existing XMP on import: no
Protect Rating/Label on import: no
Protect unwritten metadata on import: no
Keep existing XMP: no
Protect hierarchical keywords on import: yes
EXIF time-zone:
IPTC time-zone:
Apply time-zone: no

Database
XMP Created Date: 2011:08:11 10:37:29
XMP Date Subject Created: 2011:08:11 10:37:29
IMatch File DateTime: 2011-08-11T10:37:29

GPS
No Native GPS data found.

XMP
Embedded XMP record (Adobe XMP Core 5.3-c011 66.145661, 2012/02/06-14:56:27 ) and XMP sidecar file (photools.com IMatch 21.18.0.4 (Windows)) found.
XMP Date and Time Information (embedded).
XMP-photoshop DateCreated: 2011:08:11 10:37:28+10:00
XMP-xmp CreateDate: 2011:08:11 10:37:29Z
XMP-xmp ModifyDate: 2011:08:11 10:37:29Z
XMP Date and Time Information (sidecar).
XMP-exif DateTimeOriginal: 2011:08:11 10:37:29
XMP-photoshop DateCreated: 2011:08:11 10:37:29
XMP-xmp CreateDate: 2011:08:11 10:37:29
XMP-xmp MetadataDate: 2023:02:20 12:59:28+10:00
XMP-xmp ModifyDate: 2023:02:20 12:59:28+10:00

Color
No EXIF Color Space defined.
No EXIF InterOp Color Space Index defined.

QuickTime
CreateDate: 2011:08:11 10:37:29
ModifyDate: 2011:08:11 10:37:29
Duration: 3


-----------------------------------
and, the ExifTool Output panel gave the following Warning:

----- Runtime: 1 s.
Warning: No writable tags set from V:\MEDIA SOURCE\Panasonic TZ10\TZ10 Movies & Stills (1k-2k)\TZ10_1334 [2011-08-11 @ 10;37;29]_mo.mov


Hope this helps..

[Mario]

Thanks Mario for your email directing me to your response to my post. (I kept checking 'My Posts' from the dropdown menu at the top of the photools community site. I could see the post but couldn't see an indication that it had a reply) :-)

You can subscribe to your posts (In the settings below your post) and the community will send you an email when somebody replies. You can also enable (in your profile settings) alerts for your posts so you get alerts and notices when you log in again and somebody has replied to your posts.
Note: If you use gmail, the messages sent by the community may be silently deleted. Google does that sometimes, for whatever reason. I could never figure out why, could not reach a person at Google and then decided to let Google do what they do...

Warning: [XMP] Embedded XMP record (Adobe XMP Core 5.3-c011 66.145661, 2012/02/06-14:56:27        ) and XMP sidecar file (photools.com IMatch 21.18.0.4 (Windows)) found.

That is strange. Since version 2021 IMatch embeds XMP metadata into MP4, MOV and QT files. This is how the industry standard has evolved. 

When IMatch 2021 came out, all users were instructed via the release notes to run a command to embed XMP metadata in video files and then delete the unneeded XMP sidecar file. See Importing XMP Metadata

There should be no XMP sidecar file for the video and IMatch should not create one.
I've just checked with a .MOV file and IMatch behaves exactly as it should. XMP data is embedded in the .MOV file and no sidecar file is created.

1. Perform the import step as described in the help topic I linked to.

2. Delete the XMP sidecar file.

3. Open Edit menu > Preferences > Metadata 2.
Click on the Configure File Formats button and scroll down to the entry for .MOV.
It should have the Use default settings option ticked and should show No, Default, No for the 3 entries.

4. Make some changes to metadata and write back. The XMP data will be embedded into the XMP file.

[moviemaker445]

Thank you Mario.
This problem appears to have disappeared without me acting on it directly.
Perhaps it has gone because I have set IMatch to always write sidecar files for MOV and MP4 files.

I know that this is not 'Industry Standard' but it saves me hours when making regular backups of my media. After substantial metadata changes, the XMP files only take minutes to backup instead of hours for the MOV/MP4 originals.

Cheers

[Mario]

Perhaps it has gone because I have set IMatch to always write sidecar files for MOV and MP4 files.

I don't recommend or support this. I would reconsider when I were you.

I know that this is not 'Industry Standard' but it saves me hours when making regular backups of my media. 

Do you still use a backup software which has to backup the entire file after some bytes were changed?

Current backup software like Macrium Reflect or Acronis TrueImage uses the shadow copy service integrated in Windows to backup only modified data.
If I add/change metadata on 50 MP4 files, the backup volume for that will be maybe 5 MB and it takes a few seconds to backup. Macrium Reflect (which I use) backs up only the modified sectors on disk, not the entire file.

When I do a full backup of my system the resulting backup file is about 2.5 TB and it takes 7 hours for the backup. I start with that every week (I keep multiple rolling backup sets on different disks). The backup runs in the background while I work.
But the daily backup volume (and I change a lot of files daily) is only 5 to 20 GB and takes a couple of minutes.

[Jingo]

Whatever you do - please think about cloning your system drive regularly as well... I have an auto windows clone setup every 2 weeks keeping 4 copies (2 months work) as well as my normal drive backups.  This saved me recently when (for some odd reason), my Adobe profile info was purged and I lost my scripts/workspaces, preferences, etc..  

Adobe saves these items deep within the user\appdata\roming structure which most folks wouldn't bother to include in their backups (I didn't).  But, my clones of course take care of that as part of the entire C drive capture and it was simple for me to just restore these files by browsing the clone.

[Mario]

\User\AppData (%APPDATA%) and %PROGRAMDATA are indeed two of the most important folders to backup regularly. Better, backup the entire disk as you wrote.

I lost a m.2 SSD a with a Windows 11 installation a couple of months ago.
(Happens much less with SSDs than regular hard disks in the old days, thankfully).

All I had to do was to
a) buy a new m.2 SSD,
b) replace the existing SSD
c) restore the C: disk from my Macrium backup

Took about 2 hours and Windows was back, including all applications, settings and other files.