Spotlight search issue with CR2

[whistlerdan]

When I upgraded to PM5 I made a silly mistake of not paying attention to the settings in the preferences menu for IPTC/XMP  This menu has always been by far the most confusing thing for me in the program so I think I subconsciously blocked it out!

In PM4 I always had the checkbox ticked For Tiff-based Raw files add embedded IPTC4XMP. 

In PM5 I see that this option seems to have been renamed to For Tiff-based raw files add embedded metadata to 'IPTC and XMP'  is that correct ?

Well initially I did not have that checkbox ticked and I edited several hundred cr2 images in various folders.  When I went to search for them using the spotlight quick search I noticed that it was not finding them.

I assume then that spotlight only searches embedded XMP and so because I did not have that little box checked, all of those CR2 files that I edited will not be searchable with spotlight because the information was only written to an external XMP file.

If that is the case is there a way to retroactively force PM to go back and write all that external XMP info into the file internally ?

(Although I have seen you write in the past that a workflow that also contains Adobe programs should ideally be kept as an external XMP file only, though I'm not sure I fully understand why since in this post http://forums.camerabits.com/index.php?topic=6524.msg30756#msg30756  you said at the bottom that to transfer color ratings of raw files between PM to LR you would need to check the embedded IPTC4XMP box so I'm quite confused on this.  Especially since color labels have been transferring correctly for the most part from PM5 to LR even though I did not initially tell it to add embedded metadata for tiff-based Raws.  Perhaps the change of wording in this section of the preferences menu between PM4 & 5 is adding to my confusion....)

[Kirk Baker]

When I upgraded to PM5 I made a silly mistake of not paying attention to the settings in the preferences menu for IPTC/XMP  This menu has always been by far the most confusing thing for me in the program so I think I subconsciously blocked it out!

In PM4 I always had the checkbox ticked For Tiff-based Raw files add embedded IPTC4XMP. 

In PM5 I see that this option seems to have been renamed to For Tiff-based raw files add embedded metadata to 'IPTC and XMP'  is that correct ?

There are two choices in that popup menu.  Embed only XMP or embed IPTC and XMP.  We dropped the IPTC4XMP nomenclature since XMP now encompasses so much more than IPTC4XMP today.

Well initially I did not have that checkbox ticked and I edited several hundred cr2 images in various folders.  When I went to search for them using the spotlight quick search I noticed that it was not finding them.

I assume then that spotlight only searches embedded XMP and so because I did not have that little box checked, all of those CR2 files that I edited will not be searchable with spotlight because the information was only written to an external XMP file.

Spotlight searches do not work well with RAW files.  Apple refuses to parse XMP metadata and index it for Spotlight.  I brought this issue up with them in 2005.

If that is the case is there a way to retroactively force PM to go back and write all that external XMP info into the file internally ?

Sure.  Just change your settings to be the way you want them and then apply an IPTC Stationery Pad that clears some unused field.  The metadata will be updated according to your new settings.

(Although I have seen you write in the past that a workflow that also contains Adobe programs should ideally be kept as an external XMP file only, though I'm not sure I fully understand why since in this post http://forums.camerabits.com/index.php?topic=6524.msg30756#msg30756  you said at the bottom that to transfer color ratings of raw files between PM to LR you would need to check the embedded IPTC4XMP box so I'm quite confused on this.  Especially since color labels have been transferring correctly for the most part from PM5 to LR even though I did not initially tell it to add embedded metadata for tiff-based Raws.  Perhaps the change of wording in this section of the preferences menu between PM4 & 5 is adding to my confusion....)

The changes in layout of the IPTC/XMP settings is intended to streamline and simplify the settings, removing extraneous settings and the ability to make choices that end up causing more problems down the line.  We still recommend using an XMP sidecar file only workflow with RAW files if you're using Adobe products.  Some users used to also embed IPTC only in previous versions of Photo Mechanic but PM 5 no longer supports embedding IPTC only.

As for my response on that thread you referenced, I was speaking specifically about non-RAW file formats like JPEG, TIFF, and PSD, not RAW files.

HTH,

-Kirk

[whistlerdan]

Thanks as always Kirk!

I see my confusion at the bottom comes from me asking one question on that old thread and you replying to a slightly different one which I did not pick up on.

In which case if you don't need to embed the info in the RAW to get it to work with LR then I guess I don't really need that option now moving forwards in PM5.