Photos 6.0 app on Big Sur doesn't export keywords in EXIF data

News.... Apple Care have shown me PNG format work. Repeat PNG WORKS!!!

It's a known bug in Photos 6.0. Be sure to report it via Feedback - Photos - Apple.

There is a workaround. Export file as a tiff and convert the tiff to jpeg or HEIC with an Automator workflow. This way the metadata is embedded in the file itself. Thanks to léonie for the workaround.

The Automator tiff to jpeg or HEIC looks like this:

I found that it's not working on some photos I've downloaded from the internet. But those I've taken with my iPhone or from other family member's iPhones it works as it should. I'm not surprised as many photos that are posted to websites are stripped of their IPTC fields for privacy.

Hello,

Quite frankly, I do not understand why the EtreCheck report should help to solve the problem. If Apple Photos does not export keywords, then this is an issue of the app and not an issue of the operating system or the performance. So far, I have not found anybody in this forum (and others) who states that the export works. It just does not work irrespective of the hardware or anything else. To me, it is just a software bug in apple photos. If Apple does not intend to work on this softwar bug (so far Apple does not care about the complaints) it will just continue unchanged.

In case I should be wrong and the EtreCheck or a safe mode start has helped to fix the problem permanently, please let me know.

Best regards

Stefan

As of May 8th 2021, nothing in the Photos app (6.0) under Big Sur (11.3) works. Exporting either as tiff, png or jpeg wipes absolutely all metadata clean: day, year, month, location, etc. and replaces them with the date of export. So the tiff suggestion from this post does not work.

Exporting as "unmodified original" defeats my entire purpose: export edited raw images as smaller files, delete the originals and import the exported files. Now, Apple does not allow me this. I have filed the bug with via the official channel but it might never get solved. This has been present since Photos 5.0 and Catalina since 2019.

I had to do a few restarts. Seems to work now. Anyone else wondering why we use Apple anymore?

I have pushed it as hard as I can. Apple told me it requires a fix in the operating system rather than photos. They can’t say when it will be fixed.

Sadly this Apple Big Sur bug is STILL in the newest download 11.2.2. I keep hoping a patch update will fix this. It is adding a huge amount of extra work and I now have a large external set of images missing Caption and Tags. I have submitted this as a bug twice to Apple. And it is well reported in online forums. Can't understand why Apple can't fix something that was working before?

It does not work consistently for me with some photos taken on my iPhone and synced to my Mac via iCloud Photo Library. I've restarted Photos and rebooted my machine, to no avail.

This is a completely stock scenario--there are no third-party components in my workflow--and clearly represents a defect in Apple's software.

I have this problem, also; if you search around a bit, you'll see that others do, as well. You can try filing a bug with the Feedback Assistant, but I'm not sure how useful that will be.

Restart your Mac a couple of times and then check.

This is apparently fixed in the 11.4 update, but it still isn't working correctly for me.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211896

Anyone have better luck?

Hi there, rusty415.

It appears that you're having a problem exporting photos from the Photos app on your Mac. They're not including the keyword you've added, and we're glad to help with this.

Export photos, videos and slide shows from Photos on Mac - Apple Support -- This section of the Photo User Guide, explains how to export your photos to include the keywords you've been assigning.

Get Support -- If your keywords still aren't being exported, please contact Apple Support. Choose Music, Apps & Services > Mac apps > Photos > The topic is not listed. Briefly describe the issue, then Continue.

All the best!

TIFFs also don't have almost all of the Metadata. I've been trying to use an astrophotography app on Big Sur 11.2.3 and the metadata in Photos, AND with exported TIFFs is missing. Very annoying and, frankly, over-stepping the mark. The latest software update seems to have removed the data, which I first noticed when my photos' ISO data was missing. Delving further showed that most of the data was missing. Really needs to be addressed quickly as the usefulness of the Photos app is considerably reduced.

I cannot understand either that things got worse with Apple BigSur. Many new features of BigSur are just an optica "facelift" but not really adding value. On the other hand, important and helpful functions (e.g. exporting keywords) don't work any longer.