Ratings (or Tags at all) not showing for Canon RAW .CR2 files under Windows

[skibum5000]

So I go through and stick a rating on (or a tag a file) and then I go look in the directory and notice that no files whether .JPG or .CR2 show that they have been tagged. The JPGs do show that they have been rated, but the .CR2 files do not. I'd like to hit the ratings or tags button and get all the files with a rating or tag together so I can grab those ones and move them to a special directory, but since tags don't show I can't do it with that and have to use ratings, but since those don't show for the .CR2 copies it makes it more time consuming (when I have both a .JPG and .CR2 copy of a file so I can at least which set to grab) and impossible when I only have .CR2 shot (nothing in evidence when i look in directory for which i had selected).

I could swear that once upon a time ratings (and perhaps even tags) showed for both .JPG and .CR2 files....

Is there something I have set wrong?

I am using Vista now (also started using Windows 7 where I think the issue is the same I have to go verify).

It completely ruins the efficiency of using PM.


EDIT: Furthermore if I try to do something like manually tag a rating under windows (not that I want to) but I get an error code with any RAW .CR2 file that PM has touched. ANy RAW file it has not touched and I CAN edit metadata from windows vista or 7 just fine.

I think there must be some bug in how PM is writing data to Canon .CR2 files....

[Kirk Baker]

So I go through and stick a rating on (or a tag a file) and then I go look in the directory and notice that no files whether .JPG or .CR2 show that they have been tagged. The JPGs do show that they have been rated, but the .CR2 files do not. I'd like to hit the ratings or tags button and get all the files with a rating or tag together so I can grab those ones and move them to a special directory, but since tags don't show I can't do it with that and have to use ratings, but since those don't show for the .CR2 copies it makes it more time consuming (when I have both a .JPG and .CR2 copy of a file so I can at least which set to grab) and impossible when I only have .CR2 shot (nothing in evidence when i look in directory for which i had selected).

I could swear that once upon a time ratings (and perhaps even tags) showed for both .JPG and .CR2 files....

Is there something I have set wrong?

I am using Vista now (also started using Windows 7 where I think the issue is the same I have to go verify).

It completely ruins the efficiency of using PM.


EDIT: Furthermore if I try to do something like manually tag a rating under windows (not that I want to) but I get an error code with any RAW .CR2 file that PM has touched. ANy RAW file it has not touched and I CAN edit metadata from windows vista or 7 just fine.

I think there must be some bug in how PM is writing data to Canon .CR2 files....

Unlikely.  Though you didn't mention which version of Photo Mechanic you're running?  It may be that whatever feature you're using in Windows Vista or Windows 7 may not like having XMP data embedded into RAW files and only would like to see XMP sidecar files.

It may be useful to post screenshots of your IPTC/XMP and Files tabs of the Photo Mechanic Preferences dialog to this thread.  Use the 'Additional Options...' link when you're composing your reply to upload your JPEG screenshots.

-Kirk

[skibum5000]

I'm using the latest 4.6.1 but it did the same thing with at least the last few versions.

Here you can see that I rated image 6346 and it shows up in the directory browser of windows as rated for the JPG but nothing shows for the CR2 copy of it:


Here you can see that if I then go to try to manually alter the properties using windows of a CR2 file that photomechanic had done something with it fails with an error, I tried to manually add 3 stars here but they won't take:


And yet on a CR2 file that PM did not touch I can use windows, no problem, to alter such values:


Here is a screen cap of the IPTC/XMP preferences dialog:


Here is a screen cap of the Files preferences dialog tab:


thanks.

[Kirk Baker]

I'm using the latest 4.6.1 but it did the same thing with at least the last few versions.

And yet on a CR2 file that PM did not touch I can use windows, no problem, to alter such values:

What does this Windows utility do to the CR2 files when you set the rating?  Does it modify the file?  If you transfer the file to a different system, do the ratings show up?

-Kirk

[skibum5000]

What does this Windows utility do to the CR2 files when you set the rating?  Does it modify the file?  If you transfer the file to a different system, do the ratings show up?

-Kirk

It's not a separate utillity, just right-click file and go to file property details.

Anyway, the rating I set using that on the CR2 file sticks, I can move the file to a different directory, boot into Windows 7 instead of Vista, etc.

It just writes to the file properties, just like PhotoMechanic does for JPG files but seems to fail to, at least in a way that agrees with Windows Vista or 7, to CR2 files.

Something about how PM writes to the CR2 files when it tries to write the ratings and/or whatever else it writes to the header, makes Windows properties be unable to alter the properties anymore.

Anyway, however PM is writing to JPGs seems to be fine but however it writes to CR2s seems to be off (or at least done in some way that windows messes up with).

unless there is some setting that i have failed to set to get it to write out the ratings, etc. to RAWs (although that still doesn't explain why windows can no longer access the header infomation completely)

[Kirk Baker]

What does this Windows utility do to the CR2 files when you set the rating?  Does it modify the file?  If you transfer the file to a different system, do the ratings show up?

-Kirk

It's not a separate utillity, just right-click file and go to file property details.

Anyway, the rating I set using that on the CR2 file sticks, I can move the file to a different directory, boot into Windows 7 instead of Vista, etc.

It just writes to the file properties, just like PhotoMechanic does for JPG files but seems to fail to, at least in a way that agrees with Windows Vista or 7, to CR2 files.

Something about how PM writes to the CR2 files when it tries to write the ratings and/or whatever else it writes to the header, makes Windows properties be unable to alter the properties anymore.

Anyway, however PM is writing to JPGs seems to be fine but however it writes to CR2s seems to be off (or at least done in some way that windows messes up with).

unless there is some setting that i have failed to set to get it to write out the ratings, etc. to RAWs (although that still doesn't explain why windows can no longer access the header infomation completely)

I suggest you try using XMP sidecar files exclusively and don't embed IPTC into your RAW files either and see if that works any better.

-Kirk

[skibum5000]

I found that if I change my preferences to toggle the add IPTC4XMP option on then PM DOES write the ratings to the CR2 files in a way that makes them show up in Vista/7.
So now I see them rating taggged just like the JPG files. (It doesn't actually make any difference whether I tell it to force creation of an .XMP sidecar or not under that preferences tab, it works either way.)

The important thing seems to have been toggling on the IPTC4XMP instead or in addition to IPTC under the TIFF-based RAW section of the IPTC/XMP preferences (actually I didn't think canon CR2 are TIFF based, but anyway the options do seem to affect them regardless).

I do still get the issue whereby windows can no longer set any IPTC info from right-clicking on CR2 so long as PM has touched the CR2 file, so PM is still doing something that upsets Vista and 7, although I can't say that I have been using windows to do that, so at least for now, for me at the least, I guess it doesn't really matter, but it does seem that either Windows or PM does have some sort of a bug going on there.

Anyway, thanks, I have the rating showing up in windows explorer for CR2 now.

[Kirk Baker]

I found that if I change my preferences to toggle the add IPTC4XMP option on then PM DOES write the ratings to the CR2 files in a way that makes them show up in Vista/7.
So now I see them rating taggged just like the JPG files. (It doesn't actually make any difference whether I tell it to force creation of an .XMP sidecar or not under that preferences tab, it works either way.)

The important thing seems to have been toggling on the IPTC4XMP instead or in addition to IPTC under the TIFF-based RAW section of the IPTC/XMP preferences (actually I didn't think canon CR2 are TIFF based, but anyway the options do seem to affect them regardless).

I do still get the issue whereby windows can no longer set any IPTC info from right-clicking on CR2 so long as PM has touched the CR2 file, so PM is still doing something that upsets Vista and 7, although I can't say that I have been using windows to do that, so at least for now, for me at the least, I guess it doesn't really matter, but it does seem that either Windows or PM does have some sort of a bug going on there.

Anyway, thanks, I have the rating showing up in windows explorer for CR2 now.

Please post a screenshot of your current IPTC/XMP Preferences tab.  I'd like to see what you've changed.

-Kirk