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How can I be sure of keeping pdf metadata when moving file?
A PDF file was emailed to me and saved to desktop. I can duplicate or move it to folders in my home directory and the metadata (at least: what can be seen with command-info) is retained. But metadata is lost when I copy or move it to a dmg Volume. For instance in the info panel I can no longer see who sent me the email.
MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.14
The term metadata is getting a workout these days. There is internal PDF metadata that can only be changed by a PDF Editor; Finder extended attributes as metadata (e.g. tags, comments, etc.), and Spotlight metadata gleaned by its indexing process. So, when you save a PDF attachment from Mail, Spotlight metadata is potentially (but not guaranteed) is aware of the sender's name and their email address for that document. A Spotlight query can be used to locate that PDF based on a text string in the known email address:
kind:pdf kMDItemOriginSenderHandle:Vik
Which finds the PDF on my Desktop that I originally sent to someone, and contains my email address as Spotlight metadata. I did a Finder Get Info on that PDF, it did not show my email information on that panel. If I email myself a PDF from another Mail account and save that PDF, there is no Spotlight information about my email address as the sender. Spotlight may only pay attention to emails originating from others.
When you move that PDF into that .dmg volume, I believe that you cloak it from being seen by Spotlight, and the email-related information is not found by Spotlight. I suggest that you copy/paste the sender's email address into the Finder Comment field of the PDF via Get Info and before you relocate it into that .dmg volume.
The term metadata is getting a workout these days. There is internal PDF metadata that can only be changed by a PDF Editor; Finder extended attributes as metadata (e.g. tags, comments, etc.), and Spotlight metadata gleaned by its indexing process. So, when you save a PDF attachment from Mail, Spotlight metadata is potentially (but not guaranteed) is aware of the sender's name and their email address for that document. A Spotlight query can be used to locate that PDF based on a text string in the known email address:
kind:pdf kMDItemOriginSenderHandle:Vik
Which finds the PDF on my Desktop that I originally sent to someone, and contains my email address as Spotlight metadata. I did a Finder Get Info on that PDF, it did not show my email information on that panel. If I email myself a PDF from another Mail account and save that PDF, there is no Spotlight information about my email address as the sender. Spotlight may only pay attention to emails originating from others.
When you move that PDF into that .dmg volume, I believe that you cloak it from being seen by Spotlight, and the email-related information is not found by Spotlight. I suggest that you copy/paste the sender's email address into the Finder Comment field of the PDF via Get Info and before you relocate it into that .dmg volume.
AFAIR Finder reports some metadata only for Spotlight-indexed volumes. Do you see the desired info if you copy the file to the internal volume?
Thank you. I'll use that workaround and mark this as solved.
You are welcome.
PDF metadata
