Photo caption lost during transfer to PC

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Level 1

6 points

Photo caption lost during transfer to PC

I'm on iOS15.4. Took a picture and added a caption. When I transfer the photo to Windows 11, the caption is lost. I tried 2 different methods of transferring: 1) use Windows Explorer 2) Use Microsoft Photos import feature. With both transfer methods, when the photo lands in the PC computer, the caption is lost.

I tried both transfer methods with the SETTINGS > PHOTOS >TRANSFER TO MAC OR PC setting set to "Automatic" and "Keep Originals". Neither setting retained the caption after the photo was transferred to the PC.

I tried a third method: email the photo to myself on the iphone and then download the photo onto my PC from the email. When I did this, the caption was retained and showed in the title field!

Why doesn't the transfer of photos from iPhone to PC retain the caption using methods 1 and 2?

Posted on Mar 18, 2022 3:12 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

200,467 points

Mar 19, 2022 2:50 AM in response to tampa9iron

When you download photos from the device, the original 8mage file will be sent. It does not include the caption, because it is created later as a part of the current version. Photos is supporting a lossless workflow, where the original image file never will be modified. When you mail a photo, you are mailing the current version.

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Answer 2

tampa9iron Author

Level 1

6 points

Mar 22, 2022 8:18 AM in response to Matti Haveri

For the image that I emailed to myself, I see the caption, and the exiftool shows:

[IFD0] ImageDescription :<caption1>

...

[IPTC] Caption-Abstract :<caption1>

For the image files that I transferred using either Windows Explorer and Microsoft Photos, the exiftool does not show any ImageDescription field nor the Caption-Abstract field -- these fields are not present in the output.

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Answer 3

Mar 19, 2022 1:08 PM in response to tampa9iron

What does exiftool show for that file:

exiftool -a -G1 -s .

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Answer 4

tampa9iron Author

Level 1

6 points

Mar 19, 2022 12:19 PM in response to Matti Haveri

In Windows Explorer, right click on the image and select properties to see the metadata of the image. Caption that was captured on the iPhone, after the file transfer to PC, does not show the caption in any of the image metadata.

I also checked the metadata using GIMP, and could not file the caption either.

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Answer 5

Mar 19, 2022 11:21 AM in response to tampa9iron

How did you check that none metadata (IPTC, XMP, IFD0 etc) has the desired Caption/Description/etc? Windows has its own faults and gotchas in the muddy metadata field.

Captions from Images are gone - Apple Community

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Answer 6

tampa9iron Author

Level 1

6 points

Mar 22, 2022 8:21 AM in response to tampa9iron

Another observation: seems that none of the "[IPTC]" fields were transferred with the photo when using Windows Explorer to copy the photo from iPhone to PC.

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Answer 7

tampa9iron Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 8, 2022 7:53 AM in response to tampa9iron

Looks like the same issue and similar findings using the exiftool: Photo caption lost during transfer to PC - Apple Community

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Answer 8

tampa9iron Author

Level 1

6 points

Mar 19, 2022 12:11 PM in response to léonie

Where does the caption get saved to on the image file on iPhone? Is it the original image file or the modified image file. I'm assuming the latter, as the original image file is supposed to be that, the original, unmodified.

I am looking at the modified image, the one with the "E" (e.g. IMG_E0182.JPG), rather than the original (i.e. IMG_0182.JPG). Neither the original nor the edited image retain the caption when transferred to the PC either through Windows Explorer or Microsoft Photos.

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Photo caption lost during transfer to PC

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