When a file is transferred from an iOS prior to Monterey into a newer iOS, the comments added to every file information window have vanished. Particularly annoying because the comments contained details of copyright owners for hundreds of video files which I use to build documentaries.
Is there any way to recover this missing and crucial information, and is there any way to prevent this happening in future?
iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 12.7
Finder comments are fragile and might very well disappear when moving files, especially between different file systems like exFAT etc.
But make sure the files are on a Spotlight-indexed volume like the internal drive should be, because some metadata is not displayed on non-Spotlight-indexed volumes.
Can you see the comments from some old backup or in some other Mac?
It is more robust place to write such metadata to image XMP tags (IPTC tags is another such place but IPTC is being phased out so I recommend using both or only XMP).
Movie tags are not so well standardized but I have used GraphicConverter or exiftool to write tags such as Author, Title, Description, Keywords, GPS, date etc to QuickTime:Keys tags which Apple's apps support. From there it is a breeze to copy them to other tags, if there is a more proper standard in the future or if some non-Apple app insists using some other tag like QuickTime:ItemList or QuickTime:UserData (Apple's apps have a more limited support for those).
If you can find the Finder Comments, you can use exiftool to copy them to those robust QuickTime:Keys tags.
Comments deleted from file information when switching iOS
