Copying ONLY the XMP file from one computer to another

[rex176]

I'm a new user, so forgive me if this has already been asked. I searched the forum, but didn't manage to find anything.

I've got a folder of images, raw+jpg on one computer. I started rating them in Photo Mechanic 5. I then wanted to take that work with me, so I copied the folder onto a laptop and did further rating on the laptop.

I figured that when I want to continue my work on the first computer, all I would have to copy back are the XMP files. I tried that, and the updated stars and colours don't show up in the contact sheet or in the preview. I opened the corresponding XMP files with a text editor, and saw that the rating and colour information actually is in the file, containing the updates I made on the other computer.

Am I missing something? Are there some preferences settings I need to change to make it work how I'd like it to? Or is it not possible, and I have to copy back the entire updated folder, including the image files?

(I tried the "update XMP/IPTC" tool, but that wiped everything out.)

Thanks.

[Kirk Baker]

I'm a new user, so forgive me if this has already been asked. I searched the forum, but didn't manage to find anything.

I've got a folder of images, raw+jpg on one computer. I started rating them in Photo Mechanic 5. I then wanted to take that work with me, so I copied the folder onto a laptop and did further rating on the laptop.

I figured that when I want to continue my work on the first computer, all I would have to copy back are the XMP files. I tried that, and the updated stars and colours don't show up in the contact sheet or in the preview. I opened the corresponding XMP files with a text editor, and saw that the rating and colour information actually is in the file, containing the updates I made on the other computer.

Am I missing something? Are there some preferences settings I need to change to make it work how I'd like it to? Or is it not possible, and I have to copy back the entire updated folder, including the image files?

(I tried the "update XMP/IPTC" tool, but that wiped everything out.)

Thanks.

If you're using RAW+JPEG then both the JPEG and the XMP sidecar (and possibly the RAW file, depending on your IPTC/XMP settings) are all going to be modified when you make changes to things like rating/tag/color class.  Furthermore, when pairing RAW+JPEG the default setting is to use the metadata from the JPEGs for the pair.

I expect that if you copied the XMP sidecar files and the JPEGs from your laptop to your desktop then you'd see the changes (can't say for 100% certainty because I don't know what your IPTC/XMP preferences are.)

That said, using something like 'rsync' to synchronize the two folders will definitely take care of the problem and will do so without mistakes and will be the fastest way achieve this.  I recommend Grsync (a UI-based rsync that is free.)  http://www.opbyte.it/grsync/

HTH,

-Kirk

[rex176]

Thanks for the quick response. That's along the lines of what I thought might be happening in the background. Copying only the XMP files seemed to be too easy and quick a solution to be true, but I thought I'd give it a try.