Transfer keywords to photos on external hard drive

Question

Hello,

I need to transfer a large number of photos from my MacBook onto an external hard drive. I've previously gone through all the files in Bridge and many have keywords attached to them, which I want to keep.

My question is: if I transfer the photos onto the hard drive, will the keywords have been 'written into' the files and be transferred along? I will need to work with the images in Bridge again in the future, so it's crucial the keywords don't get lost and Bridge can still read them once the files are on my external hard drive.

In addition to this, some of the folders containing these images are already backed up on my external hard drive, however, the files within them do not include the keywords, which were later added on my MacBook. If I copy the files from my MacBook (with keywords) onto the hard drive, will they replace the files on my hard drive and 'attach' the keywords to them?

Alternatively (and maybe much easier): is there a way to simply copy keywords and 'attach' them to the files on my external hard drive? Rather than copying the files themselves.

Grateful for any help/advice!

gary_sc · Accepted Answer

Keywords are attached to TIF, PSD, JPG, GIF, and PNG files. Keywords are attached to the sidecar files for raw files unless you converted the raw files to DNG, and then they are contained within (as are all the other formats just mentioned). [This is one of several reasons I always convert raw to DNG so as not inadvertently lose or misplace the sidecar files.]

As far as duplicate files on your computer's external hard drive AND on your MacBook, as stated: the keywords are contained within each file. As long as you move (and replace) the files in the right direction, you'll be fine. Just be very careful that you're replacing the ones without keywords with the ones with keywords. Also, when you add keywords, because you are changing the original file, it will have a newer date than the others.

Lastly, as a check, you can always click once on an image in the Finder and click on Command-i to get the info panel. Keywords will show up here IN THE FILE. If there are no keywords, than that line in the More Info section will not even have the word "keywords" in it.

Hope that helps,

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