Metadata on video files missing when downloaded to Windows 10 PC via iCloud.

iOS/iPadOS 18 introduced QuickTime FullFrameRatePlaybackIntent tag. It seems currently Windows might be incompatible. If that tag is present, Windows might fail to display thumbnails and most metadata items in its Details panel (Media created, resolution, frame rate, audio details etc).

Until this is fixed in Windows a workaround is to remove it with exiftool v13.09 or later:

exiftool -m -P -overwrite_original -Keys:FullFrameRatePlaybackIntent= movie.mov

High frame rate playback option in iOS/iP… - Apple Community

https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=16824.0

Thank you for this suggestion – it worked, but only after some additional tweaks.

1.  I first had to change the PowerShell path to the location where exiftool was stored.

2.  I found I had to insert “.\” in front of exiftool at the start of the command:   .\exiftool…

3.  I didn’t want to move all my problem videos into the exiftool folder, so I added a path to the video

file name folder:  d:\pictures\2025\'iphone pictures'\202502__\*.MOV

4.  Note that if the path names include a space, you need to include single quotes around the folder

name.

5.  Final command line syntax:  PS C:\Users\charl\downloads\exiftool\exiftool-13.19_64\exiftool-13.19_64>

.\exiftool -m -P -overwrite_original -Keys:FullFrameRatePlaybackIntent= d:\pictures\2025\'iphone pictures'\202502__\*.MOV

I don’t normally use PowerShell or Command prompt, so my years of using DOS 30 years ago came in handy to figure out the proper syntax to use.  It is very picky.  It cryptically prompts you with your error, but does not tell you how to correct it.

Using the above I was able to convert about 200 files in 6 directories in about 10 minutes.  Very handy!

Now, if we could just get Microsoft to make an update to do this automatically.

@mlhifi I've noticed the same thing since I updated my iPhone 12 Pro Max to IOS18 with all the Metadata removed from the MOV files. I use the Tags field to help filter my photo files and I'm not able to add this to the MOV files now, but if you convert them to MP4 I'm able to update the fields without any issues

I use my windows pc as my personal icloud. in fact 2 pc's 1 as a backup of the main files as i have them on demand. i delete the .aae files and all the ZERO length video files,this save s a lot of space, i cant just delete the smaller video files as some are 4 -5 seconds of actual video, i want to keep. i currently have 4TB of data kept going back to 2011 please fix the meta data for aspect, length especially length. I dont want to convert until i create my videos and it also wastes a lot of time just to sort and delete files not needed

Same problem for me , started somewhere early november .

DSLR Fuji X-T4 = Quicktime .mov files; HEVC ;codec id : hvc1; Rec 709 std file & BT 2020 Full color range;

chroma 4:2:0; 10 bit- Main 10@5.2@High and 100 to 400 Mb/s .METADATA ON EVERY FILE

Iphone : same but BT 2020 color range limited for Main 10@L5.1@High &bit rate from 50 to max 100 Mb/s

or +/- 700 Mb/s and Format profile ProRes 422 HQ in AppleLog .NO MORE METADATA except on 720 p.

Looking at this i think we can exclude the file types because it affects only the file from the Iphone but none from the Fuji.

The data is there because MediaInfo shows it, it's just not visible.

And, when transformed in .mp4 via Handbrake the metadata is visible again.

The big question is : Does it originate from WIN 10 ( yes i'm still on 10 ... and i know why ) or from Apple ?

And since september 2024 i had both the IOS & a WIN 10 update .......

Please Apple , make this right , i don't want to open 150 files in Metadata nor convert the original Apple files into .mp4

Thank you

Matti, you are a genius. I finally had a chance work on this project this afternoon. In about 10 minutes I successfully fixed over 150 .mov files with this workaround. Thank you so much for figuring this out and sharing with the rest of us!

Hi Matti , I don’t understand how to do this. I have just the metadata missing, thumbs are fine. Should I just install exiftool and use command prompt ( I still call it dos ) or is this done trough another type of command in exiftool.?

mlhifi,

I don't know much about coding either. But with help from these links, I was able to write a basic script in PowerShell to run the fix. Use an * to bulk edit the .mov files. And use the code Matti gives in his response to overwrite the 'faulty' tag.

Syntax for PowerShell https://rajatips.com/en/batch-change-metadata-exif/

Video on accessing PowerShell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwcmxMQBnwU

I hope this helps

Thanks for the quick response. I can confirm my photos are just fine and it's the videos that are not working. Unfortunately, my version of iPhone only offers the 'high efficiency' option at 4k and 60fps.

And I don't want to change the other setting to make all photos/videos high efficiency, because the heic format for photos also omits certain metadata fields I use on Windows.

Regarding a workaround, I've actually been using the 'ProCam' app for a few years now. It will (and still does) record videos in .mov format and allow all the metadata to work on PC. My main issue there is just remembering to open my phone and use ProCam instead of the ios camera that I can access from the lock screen.

My next step is going to be to look for some kind of converter app for either my phone or PC that will save all the metadata that is actually there on the new .mov formatting, but just won't show up on PC. It's just remarkably unfortunate that I have to go and find (and likely pay for) another app to work with my Apple videos on PC.

Thanks again; and good luck on your journey too. Let me know what you find.

that's why icloud is not really a good solve-all-your-problems type of service. Refrain from putting files on icloud unless if you absolutely need to. Always keep it local and make frequent backups, that is the best way to prevent syncing issues and loosing important metadata information from cloud services.

Bidou013 wrote:

I have just the metadata missing, thumbs are fine. Should I just install exiftool and use command prompt ( I still call it dos ) or is this done trough another type of command in exiftool.?

Metadata might be missing for other reasons. Social media sites like Facebook, WhatsApp etc delete metadata if the images were routed through them. AFAIK that new iOS/iPadOS tag might prevent both metadata and thumbnails from appearing.

But you might test it on some movies. exiftool can be downloaded from the page below and used via the Windows command line.

https://exiftool.org/

Mlhifi, Expanding on my first reply, I did contact Apple Support and the rep was very helpful and understood the issue.  We went thru looking at .mov files from IOS17 that showed thumbnails and meta data in Windows Explorer and then at files from IOS18 that did not show those items.  He was able to see the problem.  He then confirmed that Apple “messed” with the FullFrameRatePlaybackIntent tag in each .mov file (either added that tag or set it to “1”).  He then said that it is up to Microsoft to update their software to handle that new setting – Apple won’t change what they did.

I then contacted Microsoft Support and again got a rep who understood this issue.  He confirmed people have reported it and that “engineers are working it.”  (what ever that actually means).  I told him I had found workarounds but they appeared difficult or time consuming to implement and hoped Microsoft would

make this a priority.  After the call, he did send me an email again confirming Microsoft is working on it and a link to Microsoft’s answers.microsoft.com forum:

iphone videos transfered to W10/11 no longer have thumbnail images nor - Microsoft Community

This post is similar to Matti Haveri’s post in discussions.apple.com, but adds a couple necessary steps.  What I did is:

1.  Download the free “exiftool” for Windows 64 from exiftool.org. It is a zip file.

2.  Extract All from the location where you saved the download – in my case it put the extracted files in a subfolder

3.  Make a copy of the “exiftool(-k).exe” file and rename to “exiftool.exe”

4.  Open the command prompt – this may vary on what version of Windows you are using.  In Windows 11 Pro, right clicking the start menu and selecting “Terminal” opened PowerShell.  The default directory it opens in is your username folder.  Note, the exact syntax may depend on which version of the command prompt you use.

5.  Follow the steps in my first reply.

6.  Once you get the syntax of the command correct, pressing enter should run the exiftool program on the .mov files in the directory you entered.  Then just change to the next directory and run again.  It is very quick.

7.  I take screen shots of the Powershell window so I can refer back to see what worked and what not.  Then when I get the syntax correct, I copy it to a text file to save it for the future.

I didn’t move my .mov files as they are in folders by month taken.  So in my command line text in my first reply, I just changed the name of the folder containing the .mov files.  I did this for each month.  Processing 50 files only takes about 1 min, depending on how large the .mov files are (mine are usually under 15 seconds).

Similarly, you can keep the exiftool.exe in whatever folder you want.  Just change the command line prompt to that directory using the “CD” command.  Then in your command, include the path to the folder your .mov files are in, being careful of proper syntax for folders with spaces in their name.

I am 80 and was able to figure it out.  If you are only in your 70’s, and used to use DOS, you can do it too!

Charlie