Metadate (IPTC) Info Being Dropped When Posting To News Outlet by Sports Editor

[JmbAtlanta]

Photo Mechanic Version 6.0, build 6890 (ffcbb4c)
Apple M2 Pro macOS 14.2.1 (23C71)

This very well may be an issue totally unrelated to PM but the issue only seems to be happening with photos taken from my Nikon Z9.  Photos from my D5 do not have this problem.  All files come off cameras as RAW/NEF.  The JPG, when saved, contains all of the correct information when viewed from MAC/Finder/Get Info.  Files are delivered to the editor as JPG format using Dropbox Send File and when downloaded the info. is still present.  Only when the editor goes through his process to 'publish' the photos does the metadata disappear.  Again, 99.9% sounds like something on their side but wanted to post here just for reassurance that I'm not missing something that could be happening when I bake the metadata into the JPG.  Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[ahoward]

Only when the editor goes through his process to 'publish' the photos

What is this publishing process?

Can you send us a copy of a the file as it was received by the editor and then a copy of the file after it has gone through this process (the published version of the file)?

[JmbAtlanta]

The file that was sent to my editor can be downloaded here --> https://www.dropbox.com/t/VTR5G1F1qxXvOJhq

The file that was published to the Blox Digitial Content Management System can be downloaded here --> https://www.dropbox.com/t/EEnPVcC54WbYgBcm

My files are processed by me thru PM and sent to my sports editor who in turn uploads the files to their newspapers website album.  The process, as I understand it, is that he uses a web based application that he logs in to and selects the photos from his local computers drive for upload.

The PNG file attached to the message is a screenshot of the dialog the sports editor sees when he is uploading to BLOX.  The D5 created files that upload with metadata are 15, 16, & 17.  The Z9 created files are 18 & 19, and these files upload without metadata.

[ahoward]

The second file, the version that was published, is not actually a JPEG, but a webp file with a JPEG extension. If this Blox software is creating the webp file from the JPEG, that I would guess it is dropping the metadata at the time that it is creating the file. I can't really imagine why it would different for different cameras unless you were changing settings in Photo Mechanic's IPTC/XMP preferences. If you want to send us one of the files from the D5 we could see if there is something different about that and maybe make a suggestion, but I would imagine it would be more efficient to ask the makers of that software why it is losing the metadata when making a webp from the jpeg. If the editor wants to confirm that the metadata is present in the file that you are sending them, but they don't have Photo Mechanic,  they'll hopefully have some other software on their computer that can view the metadata such as macOS Preview or Photoshop

[Kevin M. Cox]

I worked with BLOX for a very long time at my last newspaper staff job. It has been about a year and a half but I'd be surprised if they were intentionally converting from JPG to WEBP on upload into the CMS.

How did the editor re-download (after upload) the photo to send back to you for sharing here? Did he grab it off their website (right-click save-as)? Or use the download original option inside the BLOX interface?

I'd also suggest he open a ticket with BLOX and send them a photo from each camera with screenshot you gave us. They should be able to get to the bottom of it, I usually had success dealing with them for problems like this.