Known Participant

Saving as GIF loses all EXIF information forever.

Forum|Forum|21 hours ago
May 7, 2026
4 replies
47 views

I usually start with a RAW file. Then save it as TIF16 and finally convert it to 8 bit and save it as JPG. If, by mistake, I save it as GIF, then all EXIF data is gone “forever”. If I UNDO the operation and go back to the 16 bit version, the elimination of the data is NOT undone. At this point I have to close everything, re-open the TIF16, convert it to 8 bit and save it again as JPG.

I don’t know if this is really a BUG but it wold be great if EXIF data could be part of the UNDO process as well!

By the way: (suggestion): It would be great too if there was a key combination to SAVE AS TIF or SAVE AS JPG directly, without going through the dialog box, choose the file type, click OK, etc. This place is where the above mistake usually happens!

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giorgiog65005265Author

Known Participant

N.B. I am on Windows 11

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

@giorgiog65005265

I have followed your steps and can’t reproduce this issue, I even closed and reopened the jpeg saved from the gif undo history steps and the metadata was intact.

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giorgiog65005265Author

Known Participant

On my setup all GPS data, Author, Copyright, Camera info, RollAngle, PitchAngle, etc. is gone.

The simplest case:

Open a JPG (File->File Info: all the data is there)
Save as GIF (File->File Info: all the data is still there)
Save again as JPG (File->File Info: all the data is still there)
Close and reopen the JPG (File->File Info: MOST DATA IS NOT THERE)

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giorgiog65005265Author

Known Participant

If you can’t reproduce it, could it be some settings in my Preferences?

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

Thanks for the clarifying steps. I’ll look into it.

I thought that you might be saving as GIF and reopening the GIF, as this file format doesn’t support metadata that would make sense… But using the undo key is a surprise to me that this would be an issue.

Yes, actions remember the file path, but they don’t have to record the file name. A modal override can be added to make the save step interactive so that you can set the name and path while taking advantage of having the file format options pre-selected.

Scripts are more flexible, they can use the current name or rename and save anywhere, either automatically or with user input to select destination folders or names, they can even save multiple formats in a single run.

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

I’ll try to reproduce, can you please confirm with sequential numbered steps? Please make it clear when you’re closing and opening and saving different file formats.

Actions or scripts are the best ways to consistently save different formats with specific settings bypassing dialog windows.

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giorgiog65005265Author

Known Participant

Open a RAW file in Adobe Camera Raw
Open it in Photoshop as a 16 bit Color RGB file
Save it as a 16 bit TIFF by pressing CTRL+S and then choose TIFF from dialog.
Turn it into an 8 bit image
Save it as a GIF (EXIF now gone) with SHIFT+CTRL+S
UNDO with CTRL+Z (it becomes 16 bits again)
Turn it into an 8 bit image again (its extension now is still GIF, of course)
Press SHIFT+CTRL+S and Save it as JPG.
Go look at the JPG image properties: all EXIF data is gone, i.e. the UNDO on step 6 did not put the data back in the photo!

This is what I usually do but it can be simplyfied:

Open a JPG that has EXIF data
Do a couple of things to it
Save it as a GIF
Undo everything until you go back to what you opened
Save it as JPG… EXIF IS GONE!

P.S. The problem with Actions and Scripts is that they memorize the path and name of the file when you created the Action, so all files will be saved in the folder where the original photo was with the wrong name, regardless of the actual one!

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