I have a brand new Mac mini operating on Sonoma 14.2.1. Finder keeps dropping/losing the 'Comments' part of my files on my external drive (SEAGATE Expansion Drive formatted MAC OS (Journaled)). Sometimes I can get the information back by relaunching Finder but I still lose a percentage of the information.
This Mac mini replaced an iMAC 27" that never exhibited this problem.
Mac mini, macOS 14.2
Do you use any workflow that might delete filesystem XAttrMDItemFinderComment (and MDItemFinderComment) tag that holds that info?
For example, routing files via non-Mac filesystems like FAT? Or compressing and decompressing them in a certain workflow or using 3rd party metadata utilities that might clear that info?
Finder comments have always been an unreliable place to put important info. In old System 1-9 rebuilding the Desktop file cleared them unless workarounds were used.
Do you use any workflow that might delete filesystem XAttrMDItemFinderComment (and MDItemFinderComment) tag that holds that info?
For example, routing files via non-Mac filesystems like FAT? Or compressing and decompressing them in a certain workflow or using 3rd party metadata utilities that might clear that info?
Finder comments have always been an unreliable place to put important info. In old System 1-9 rebuilding the Desktop file cleared them unless workarounds were used.
Edited Finder comments are stored in an invisible .DS_Store in the same folder as the document, and a secondary copy is generated in a xattr metadata com.apple.metadata:kMDItemFinderComment for the file.
Finder only seems to know about the first. Conversion between the hidden .DS_Store file and the file’s xattr is one-way. There’s no syncing in the other direction.
So if the .DS_Store file is lost (in non-Mac file system or via some backup workflow etc), then the Finder Get Info no longer displays the comment although the xattr metadata still has it. When testing, notice that Finder caches that info so peeking into the folder in some part of the workflow might make a difference.
https://eclecticlight.co/2020/11/06/finder-comments-worth-avoiding/
https://bombich.com/kb/ccc6/preserving-finder-comments-and-tags
...
Some tests:
cat .DS_Store
Bugcmmtustra.jpgcmmtustrFinder comment.
xxd .DS_Store
00000000: 0000 0001 4275 6431 0000 1000 0000 0800 ....Bud1........
00000010: 0000 1000 0000 0086 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
00000020: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0800 ................
00000030: 0000 0800 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
00000040: 0000 0000 0000 0002 0000 0000 0000 0001 ................
00000050: 0000 0001 0000 1000 0067 636d 6d74 7573 .........gcmmtus
00000060: 7472 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 tr..............
00000070: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
00000080: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0001 0000 0005 ................
00000090: 0061 002e 006a 0070 0067 636d 6d74 7573 .a...j.p.gcmmtus
000000a0: 7472 0000 000f 0046 0069 006e 0064 0065 tr.....F.i.n.d.e
000000b0: 0072 0020 0063 006f 006d 006d 0065 006e .r. .c.o.m.m.e.n
000000c0: 0074 002e 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 .t.
exiftool -G1 -a -s -api RequestAll=2 -MDItemFinderComment -XAttrMDItemFinderComment a.jpg
[MacOS] MDItemFinderComment : Finder comment.
[MacOS] XAttrMDItemFinderComment : Finder comment.
xattr -l a.jpg
com.apple.metadata:kMDItemFinderComment: bplist00_Finder comment.
Finder comment edited with xattred.app -- these tags are not synced and Get Info still shows the old "Finder comment." saved in .DS_Store anyway:
exiftool -G1 -a -s -api RequestAll=2 -MDItemFinderComment -XAttrMDItemFinderComment a.jpg
[MacOS] MDItemFinderComment : Finder comment.
[MacOS] XAttrMDItemFinderComment : Edited.
Thanks for the response.
I do not use any workflows that might delete info and I use strictly MacOS. Using my old iMac 27" I never had any problems losing Finder info (I use information in the comments to facilitate refining searches through 8 TB of files).
Finder loses file info on external drives