Export metadata from catalog

[Phil5F94]

I have lost a large number of files (entirely my fault) and am trying to recover what I can.

I have extracted the previews from the catalog entries using the script supplied in Adobe's help documentation. These will supply many of my needs of the images if not all - cosiderably better than nothing!

However, the extraction does not include the metadata in the extracted files - is there any way of extracting the metadata from the catalog entries?  I am particularly keen to transfer keywording. Camera and lens details would also be useful. 

[smathia]

The extracted previews don't contain any metadata from the original image.They also don't contain an ICC profile. So, if you import the extracted previews back into Lightroom, the images are imported with the sRGB profile.

[Phil5F94]

I know they don't - which is the problem.  Is there a way of exporting the metadata from a catalog?  It's in there, can I get it out?

The only way I can see at present is to cut and paste the keywords from the lost file entry to the new entry for the extracted preview - 7,000 times.

[Rob_Cullen]

I think a Plugin such as Syncomatic might do the job.

It apparently ( I have not used) syncs metadata  [File > File],  but I do not know if it will sync metadata ['Missing Preview' > Recovered file]. Worth a try! 

http://lightroomsolutions.com/plug-ins/syncomatic/

[johnrellis]

I think the Extract Cached Image Previews plugin also extracts catalog metadata and stores it in the extracted images.

[Phil5F94]

Spot on - quite slow, but does the job nicely - I have my keywodring back.  

Many thanks.

[johnrellis]

Glad you got it recovered.

The Extract Cached Image Previews plugin uses the Exiftool utility under the covers to write metadata fields into images, and that utility isn't very fast (but it's the most capable such utility out there, and the most authoritative app for examining metadata).

[Phil5F94]

Initial delight has faded - the transfer of keywords is only partially successful. In many cases a long list of keywords becomes a single keyword containing the first N characters of the total. The concatenation is a pain, but the loss of the later keywords is a problem.  My guess is that there is a limitation in the number of keywords the plugin can handle.

I shall try Sycomatic once I work out how best to use it.

[johnrellis]

Roughly how big is N?  Are you on Windows?  

You might drop a note to the plugin author about the problem.

[Phil5F94]

Okay, I have checked it more carefully.

The orignal keywords are all converted into a single keyword including comma seperators.  This single keyword is limited to 64 characters - anything beyond the 64th character is discarded.  The 64 character limit may be the extraction software or it may be an EXIF limitation, I don't know. 

Here is an example:

Orignal 10 keywords are

Carron Co Falkirk, Devon, E2R, Newton Abbott, pair, post box, TQ12 52, TQ12 53, wall box, WB2116/4

Extracted single keyword is

Carron Co Falkirk, Devon, E2R, Newton Abbott, pair, post box, TQ

64 characters..

There is another, lesser, issue - the orientation is lost, all extracted images are landscape.  Not a big problem but a mild irritant.

I have tried LRTransporter. Extracts the keywords to a text (TXT) file for each image - but the import requires a CSV file with different formatting - or so it seems to me!  To be fair it's not designed for the purpose I have in mind, but it seems to require me to do some coding to turn the extracted data into an importable format.

[john beardsworth]

The Syncomatic suggestion would eliminate all this metadata export, providing the extracted files have names that match the problem items in the catalogue. You'd get the extracted files into the catalogue too, and then use the plugin to copy the problem files' keywords to the extracted files. In unregistered mode, it's limited to 10 photos at a time which should be enough to see if it will work for you.

[Phil5F94]

My problem with Syncomatic is that I cannot see how to synchronise metadata between a catalog entry and a file only file to file. 

[john beardsworth]

My problem with Syncomatic is that I cannot see how to synchronise metadata between a catalog entry and a file only file to file. 

By @Phil5F94

I don't understand this comment.

Imagine the plugin's normal use where your catalogue might contain a set of DNGs and a set of JPEGs, and you want to copy metadata from one group to the other. You have to simulate this in your catalogue which has the keywords but has missing files, which I'll assume are raws. So import the extracted images too (assumed as JPEGs) and use the plugin to copy from raws to JPEGs using the filenames to match.

Use a copy of the catalogue with the keywords.

Does that make the processes clearer?

[Phil5F94]

Thanks - I have sorted out my misunderstanding and got Syncomatic working.  I was confused by the tool not having a way of selecting two folders to work on - so I thought all files had to be in the same folder (impossible when one folder is lost). Whereas all you have to do is select both folders simultaneously in LR and then select all the contents before running the tool - moral of this story, read the instructions, carefully.
My workflow is to use Friedl's Extraction tool to collect the images from the catalog - setting it to maintain the folder structure and filenaming.

Import to LR

Copy keywords, ratings (pretty much everything) with Syncomatic.
The only outstanding issue is orientation (portrait shots have become landscape) - which I can live with.

[Phil5F94]

Two more steps in the workflow!
1 Export (Friedl's Extraction tool)

2 Import to LR

3 Delete all keywords

4 Copy keywords (Syncomatic)

5 Purge unused keywords (get rid concatenated keywords from the imported Friedl extracts)

[johnrellis]

"This single keyword is limited to 64 characters - anything beyond the 64th character is discarded."

I poked around a bit with the plugin and it does have some problems, probably originating from its relatively old age (2009?) and lack of updates. If you can't get Syncomatic to work well for you, you could contact the author Friedl -- the issues are straightforward to correct.

- The 64-character limit comes from the old IPTC standard -- each keyword is limited to 64 characters, though LR seems not to care about that limit, and the plugin could ignore it.

- The plugin is writing multiple keywords separated by commas as a single IPTC keyword record. I believe very old versions of LR would interpret those commas as keyword separators, though the LR 12.5 doesn't. The plugin should write each keyword as a separate IPTC keyword record.

- The plugin should write also write keywords into XMP:Subject, which doesn't have these issues.

[john beardsworth]

Yes, if the OP wishes to bring those extracted files back into LR, Syncomatic should be able to copy metadata from the originals. It would depend on the filenames (roughly) matching.

Two plugins are designed to export metadata. LrTransporter is a dedicated metadata exporter/importer, while my own ListView provides a list view inside LR and can also export values.

[Phil5F94]

Thanks guys - these sound very useful, I shall give them a go.