Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
If I export photos (JPEG, High, Most Compatible, Full Size), check both Info boxes (Title/Keyword/Caption and Location Information), File Naming (Use File Name, None) to a desktop folder, then import those photos back into Photos Version 6.0 (321.0.110), only the location information is retained. The titles, keywords and captions are lost. Using macOS Big Sur 11.1.
Is this a bug?
Note: Feedback already submitted to Apple
Photos is simply currently not writing the metadata to the JPEGs right now. You can see this in the Inspector in Preview, when you check an exported JPEG in Preview (Tools > Inspector), while the TIFFs are showing the metadata.
When you select all exported TIFFS at once and open them together in Preview, then select all imaged in Preview, you can export them all together as JPEGs and convert them this way with one export command. That is one extra step, but you will have JPEGs with embedded the titles, keywords, locations.
I hope, any users will send feedback to Apple and report the problem. It is really irritating, that we can no longer export JPEGs with embedded metadata.
Photos is simply currently not writing the metadata to the JPEGs right now. You can see this in the Inspector in Preview, when you check an exported JPEG in Preview (Tools > Inspector), while the TIFFs are showing the metadata.
When you select all exported TIFFS at once and open them together in Preview, then select all imaged in Preview, you can export them all together as JPEGs and convert them this way with one export command. That is one extra step, but you will have JPEGs with embedded the titles, keywords, locations.
I hope, any users will send feedback to Apple and report the problem. It is really irritating, that we can no longer export JPEGs with embedded metadata.
FYI: I wondered why sometimes exporting .xmp from Photos and copying its metadata to a .jpg put it in a completely wrong location. It is caused by a missing minus (-) sign:
macOS 11 Big Sur Photos.app 6.0 "Export Unmodified Original, Export IPTC as XMP" omits minus (-) sign from western and southern hemisphere coordinates in the exported .xmp.
For example Santiago, Chile (-33.45, -70.666667) is put on the other side of the globe near Islamabad, Pakistan (33.45, 70.666667).
Just tried that with 5.0 (Catalina) and the data is successfully imported. So if you are sure you have exported correctly it looks like a bug in Big Sur.
To be certain, have a look at the exif and iptc data in the exported file using the inspector tool in preview app. Check that the data you set up is in there.
Yes, the exported photo in Preview app does not show IPTC data. Interestingly, this is using the File > Export menu item. If I drag the photo to the desktop, Caption is retained but not Title or Keyword. If I use File > Export and choose TIFF instead of JPG, then everything is retained. Appears to be a bug in JPG export for this version of Photos.
Yes this is a a bug in Big Sur Photos.app.
A workaround is to export TIFF or PNG. Or export unmodified originals with IPTC as a sidecar .xmp and combine them with other apps like GraphicConverter or exiftool.
Thanks for confirming this.
Is there also a bug in Shared Albums? Only Caption metadata is retained, not Title, Keyword or Location (with General Preferences sharing location checked). Another odd quirk is when viewing Get Info on a photo in Shared Albums. The window is more than double the normal width and then changes Get Info in a Library photo to double width as well, until quitting and restarting.
I spent a lot of time editing, labeling and adding locations to vacation photos to share with family, but it didn't work, either with Shared Albums or iCloud folder sharing as I expected. Very frustrating. I'm surprised Apple did not catch this before public release.
It may take a while, until the problem will be fixed. the same bug persists in the current macOS 11.2 Beta. I still cannot export JPEGs including the title, only the description.
It may be the intended behaviour, as iOS 14 is giving priority to the captions/descriptions and not the titles. On my iPhone and iPad I can now see the captions below the photos, but still no titles. And when I share a photo to a shared album, I can see the description, but not the title in the shared album.
I have now copied all titles from my photos to the description field, until it is clear which of the two fields will be the better place in the long run to keep the metadata available.
And when I am exporting photos, I am exporting them as TIFF.
I'm not sure if this is relevant, but I'm not using iCloud Photos because my Library has over 20,000 photos (228 GB) and I don't want to pay for more iCloud storage. Therefore, they don't show up on my iOS devices unless I put them there. I realize I can workaround by exporting TIFF, but I just want to share my edited photos (with location, title and caption) with family and not have a cumbersome process or huge files.
Thanks for all the replies!
Thanks. That was great advice for temporary workaround. Is there a generational loss in quality going from JPEG+RAW > TIFF > JPEG? Also, the export control is slightly different... Photos has JPEG quality options of Low/Medium/High/Maximum. Preview has a slider. The slider obviously gives me more fine-tuning, but I'm afraid to move it, not knowing exactly where it's currently set by default.
I tested one photo... Unmodified original is 7.7 Mb JPEG, 44.4 Mb RAW. Using Preview as intermediate step, it ended up 3.5 MB. Using Photos, High = 3.3 Mb, Maximum = 15.7 Mb.
> Is there a generational loss in quality
With jpg -> tif -> jpg there is generation loss because the same image is re-encoded back to lossy jpg.
If you want to avoid it (and especially if you have edited metadata in Photos), export unmodified originals with IPTC as a sidecar .xmp and combine them with apps like GraphicConverter or exiftool. I just tested this and GC seems to do the job well and easily.
With exiftool "tags from file" the .xmp to .jpg metadata copy works also but needs some fiddling in the Terminal and plethora of exiftool options to choose from (GC uses exiftool internally so its author has decided what is best for you). The following command is my current favorite although personally I have no real need for this (this sets also the file creation & modification dates):
exiftool -m -overwrite_original_in_place -ext jpg -tagsfromfile %d%f.xmp -all:all '-ExifIFD:DateTimeOriginal<XMP-photoshop:DateCreated' '-FileCreateDate<XMP-photoshop:DateCreated' '-FileModifyDate<XMP-photoshop:DateCreated' .
Thank you for that information. It's very helpful. The problem with exporting unmodified originals with IPTC sidecar is that I lose any cropping and adjustments I've made. I think it's always been the case that Photos.app does not import sidecar files. I don't understand Apple's reasoning. For now, there's not enough noticeable difference with JPG>TIFF>JPG for the purpose of sending photos (with titles) to family to be viewed on a computer screen. Another choice is getting Adobe Lightroom subscription, but that's another topic.
Have you files a bug report, Matti? This is horrible 🤭.
I can confirm it: The latitude and longitude are split - there are second entries GPSLongitudeRef with with "W" for western longitudes and GPSLatitudeRef with "S" for southern latitudes.
<exif:GPSLongitude>68.082104000000001</exif:GPSLongitude>
<exif:GPSLongitudeRef>W</exif:GPSLongitudeRef>
<exif:GPSHPositioningError>0.0</exif:GPSHPositioningError>
<exif:GPSLatitude>54.87226167</exif:GPSLatitude>
<exif:GPSLatitudeRef>S</exif:GPSLatitudeRef>
<exif:GPSTimeStamp>2015-10-08T16:14:06Z</exif:GPSTimeStamp>
<dc:title>Auf dem Beagle Kanal Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse</dc:title>
This should be the southern tip of South America.
Exactly the same issue here. This used to work correctly but yet another Apple Photos Bug on MacOS. One of Many.
Apple need to sort their QC out.
Export Title, Keyword, and Caption
