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sabines70216464
Inspiring
October 22, 2018
Answered

Bridge 2019 metadata gone - keywords missing from tif files only

  • October 22, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 2390 views

Hi all,

I'm a fairly inexperienced user of the Adobe CC programs. I just updated to Bridge 2019. I'm working on a project involving tagging thousands of photos of various formats with keywords, and I was about halfway through when this update occurred.

After opening Bridge 2019 and futzing around with the UI layout, I tried to get back to work but all the keywords are missing from tif files. I can't add new keywords to them either. And when I go back to Bridge 2018, I see a few keywords I put in up to yesterday, but most have vanished. Trying to add a new keyword to a tif file results in the following error message: "The file "filename.tif" cannot store XMP metadata. No changes will occur."

Because I'm pretty inexperienced with these programs, I'm not sure if there's something obvious that I'm missing. I slightly panicked that 6 months of work might be down the tubes if I can't get these keywords back.

Any advice would be appreciated.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer sabines70216464

    Success! I've discovered a fix, although I don't know why it works.

    After installing today's photoshop update, some of the tifs got visible thumbnails again. So I opened the Windows explorer locations of a visible photo and of one that displays just an icon. The file that only displayed as an icon was tucked in a folder along with a hidden file of the same name, which had a ._ at the beginning of the file name. A cache file? No idea, but it hadn't been deleted when I told Bridge to purge cache.

    But manually deleting these hidden files solved the problem! Then Bridge was able to purge cache and suddenly show me a thumbnail image and metadata!

    I'm not sure how I'm going to go through my 10 million folders and find and delete all these hidden files, but now at least there is a work around.

    2 replies

    S
    sabines70216464Author
    Inspiring
    October 30, 2018

    Tifs are now unable to be keyworded in Bridge 2018 either. Also, I get no thumbnails or previews, just an icon. The same is true of NEF files, although I can't be sure they were visible before.

    This is very frustrating! I can't use Bridge to find any files, it's just rows upon rows of icons!

    S
    sabines70216464AuthorCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    October 30, 2018

    Success! I've discovered a fix, although I don't know why it works.

    After installing today's photoshop update, some of the tifs got visible thumbnails again. So I opened the Windows explorer locations of a visible photo and of one that displays just an icon. The file that only displayed as an icon was tucked in a folder along with a hidden file of the same name, which had a ._ at the beginning of the file name. A cache file? No idea, but it hadn't been deleted when I told Bridge to purge cache.

    But manually deleting these hidden files solved the problem! Then Bridge was able to purge cache and suddenly show me a thumbnail image and metadata!

    I'm not sure how I'm going to go through my 10 million folders and find and delete all these hidden files, but now at least there is a work around.

    L
    Lumigraphics
    Legend
    October 22, 2018

    Either those are not actually TIFF files or they are on a disk that you can't write to (locked or no write permissions.)

    S
    sabines70216464Author
    Inspiring
    October 23, 2018

    They are in the same place they've always been, when I added the key words over the past 6 months. But they have vanished from just the tiffs, not the jpgs stored in the same Folders. Jpgs still let me add Keywords, tiffs do not.

    How can I tell if it's an imposter tiff file?

    Stephen Marsh
    Community Expert
    Stephen MarshCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 23, 2018

    Try resetting your Bridge 2019 preferences.

    Select a few affected TIFF files in Bridge and use File > File Info or open them into Photoshop and to the same. Then look at the Raw Data tab and see if you can find your keywords, similar to:

            <dc:subject>

                <rdf:Bag>

                  <rdf:li>mykeyword1</rdf:li>

                  <rdf:li>mykeyword2</rdf:li>

                </rdf:Bag>

            </dc:subject>

    Or if that is missing, do you happen to have:

             <lr:hierarchicalSubject>

                <rdf:Bag>

                  <rdf:li>Parent-Keyword</rdf:li>

                  <rdf:li>Parent-Keyword|Sub-Keyword</rdf:li>

                </rdf:Bag>

            </lr:hierarchicalSubject>

    Or perhaps there is also legacy IPTC:Keyword data which is not visible but may be in the file and usable… If you can provide a download link to a site like DropBox, WeTransfer etc. forum members can look at the TIFF files if you are not sure.

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