unable to add metadata to SOME (but not all) heic files

[30west]

Receiving this message on some photos: "Unable to save metadata for ....2026orig/2026_01_Bath_35.HEIC.

Cannot update XMP with multiple 'mdat' in file ..../2026orig/2026_01_Bath_35.HEIC'.

This file has no sidecars (xmp etc) associated with it, so does anyone know how to solve the issue? I know HEIF files can be a problem, but I have many other "HEIC" files that do not have this issue.

thanks....gary

[ahoward]

We'll need a sample file to be able to investigate how to have Photo Mechanic deal with these files, but as Photo Mechanic didn't create multiple mdat boxes in your file it would ultimately be up to how that came to be in the first place. How was this file created? Did other software modify the file before you tried to update the metadata in Photo Mechanic?

[30west]

I am uploading a file taken on iPhone 17 pro in panorama mode. There are 12 other HEIC files taken with iPhone 15 pro. I know the file uploaded is straight from the iPhone with no editing.

I appreciate any insight or resolution of the issue.

thanks...gary

[ahoward]

We tried files creating panoramas from those phones and did not have this issue. Our devices are on 26.2. Yours appears to be on 26.1. I don't have a device on 26.1 to tell you if there's a difference there. Other than that, our developers will need to dig in to the file and see if there's any adjustments they can make in Photo Mechanic to get around this issue.

[30west]

Thanks. I have since updated to 26.2, but a series of photos were taken prior to the IOS update. FWIW, I HAVE added metadata in other apps, but it is not appearing in PM+

thanks

gary