Import "title" field into Apple Photos

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Import "title" field into Apple Photos

I have several thousand scanned jpeg files (i.e. not originally digital) that I'd like to import into Apple Photos. I built a database that contains the filename, title, etc. of each photo, and used that to insert (with exiftool) the appropriate metadata into each jpeg file.

When I try importing these into Apple Photos, the caption and keywords are imported correctly, but I can't get the titles to import. I have tried a number of different EXIF, IPTC, and XMP fields but haven't yet found one that Photos recognizes as the "title" field.

Can someone enlighten me regarding which metadata field Photos is using to display the image Title for imported photos, so I can finally import these? I'm not about to manually edit each title in the Photos UI.

Thanks!

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 12.3

Posted on Jul 10, 2022 10:11 AM

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Answer 1

Chuck Weger Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 10, 2022 11:44 AM in response to Matti Haveri

Hi Matti,

Thanks for your quick reply, but your suggestion didn't work. Here's the command I used:

exiftool  -iptc:objectname='test title' -xmp-dc:title='another test title' 7test.jpg

I've verified that both of those tags made it into the jpeg file, but neither string shows up in the Photos UI.

Any thoughts?

macOS Monterey version 12.3.1 (21E258)

Photos version 7.0 (441.0.120)

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Answer 2

Jul 10, 2022 11:15 AM in response to Chuck Weger

I insert the filename YYYY-MMDD-hhmm-ss (2022-0416-1545-10.jpg) to the filename so it is automatically displayed in Monterey Photos.

But if you prefer to insert it to the metadata use either of both of these tags:

exiftool -a -G1 -s .
[IPTC]          ObjectName                      : Title Photos 7
[XMP-dc]        Title                           : Title Photos 7

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Answer 3

Jul 10, 2022 12:10 PM in response to Chuck Weger

hmm ... works for me ... Monterey 12.4 prefers 'XMP-dc:Title' over 'IPTC:ObjectName'.

try to rebuild metadata because sometimes ill-behaving apps don't otherwise grab the correct metadata:

exiftool -m -P -overwrite_original_in_place -all= -tagsfromfile @ -all:all -unsafe -icc_profile image.jpg

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Answer 4

Chuck Weger Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 10, 2022 1:12 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thanks Matti and Richard.

So just in case, I updated to Monterey 12.4, which now gives me Photos version 7.0 (450.0.160). But that didn't help.

I even created a new empty Photos library and imported some test images with the metadata in them. Also didn't help.

Then I created a new user, and in this new user's account I created a new Photos library. THAT works. I can see the titles I added (using the -iptc:objectname tag) in newly-imported files.

However, if I bring that same Photos library back into my account (via the Public/Dropbox folder), and then add a photo into it using the same tags, Photos does not display the title for that image.

So something in my account is interfering with Photos ability to import an IPTC title. That seems truly bizarre.

I have a lot of stuff installed under my account (most of Adobe CC, Parallels, Xcode, tons of video and audio utilities, etc.) so I don't look forward to rebuilding this account.

My next step (unless either of you has a better idea) is to try disabling various plists in my ~/LaunchAgents directory to see if that makes a difference.

If that doesn't work, I'll just work in the newly-created account to do all the Photos imports.

Thanks for your help!

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Answer 5

Jul 11, 2022 12:45 AM in response to Chuck Weger

> something in my account is interfering with Photos ability to import an IPTC title

Weird. Have you used any 3rd party "cleaners" or virus apps that might explain this by corrupting the user account settings?

p.s. in my test Monterey Photos.app could grab the Title from either from 'XMP-dc:Title' or 'IPTC:ObjectName' but used 'XMP-dc:Title' if both were present. But sometimes apps grab the first or random such metadata they happen to see (I have seen that especially in image dates).

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Answer 6

Chuck Weger Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 11, 2022 7:43 AM in response to Matti Haveri

No, I don't use any "cleaning" software nor have I used any virus apps in the last couple of decades. I do have lots of apps, but if an app installed something that could somehow interfere with Photos, based on the behavior I'm seeing it would go in my ~/LIbrary, not /Library nor /System/Library. If it were in either of those latter two domains, it would interfere with Photos on the newly-created account as well. So that narrows it down a bit.

This bug only shows up during import and not viewing, i.e. it's not a UI problem. I know this because I copied a "correct" Photos library over to my account, and the images I added previously had the right title and other metadata.

So my guess is there's some .dylib or .framework file in my account that Photos is dynamically linking to for import assistance. Why that should be I have no idea, but I can't think of another explanation.

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Answer 7

Jul 10, 2022 12:17 PM in response to Chuck Weger

Photos uses the IPTC "Object Name/Title" metadata for its title.

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Import "title" field into Apple Photos

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