Saving metadata changes to the file system

[byerun2]

I'm new to Photoshop Elements 2018 and I'm confused about how Organizer saves changes.

In the folders view I see folders that correspond to files on my hard drive. If I for example add a caption to a file in Organizer it does not automatically update the file on my hard drive. I can export the image and the exported file will have my caption embedded in it. Is there a way automatically have the images on my folder on my hard drive that Organizer is presenting to me reflect the changes I made to the file in Organizer? Certainly I shouldn't have to to an export and then drill down to select the same folder the file originally came from to save it.

[99jon · Accepted solution]

It is possible to write the metadata into the files from Organizer.

Choose and Album and then use Ctrl+A (select all)

Then hit Ctrl+W or use the menu

File >> Save Metadata to Files

[byerun2]

Thanks, I completely missed the Save Metadata to Files menu item!

[MichelBParis]

The real question is that the organizer, like Lightroom, is an asset management system based on catalogs.

Catalogs have huge advantages over browsers like the Explorer/Finder.

Keeping the info about your files in a powerful database with multiple indexes allows:

- powerful multicriteria searches

- extremely fast recording and retrieving info in the catalog instead of having to re-write all files to include the information in the metadata header or the sidecar xmp file.

As indicated by 99jon, it's your choice to write metadata to files.

That is really a good way to convey info to other softwares or to get more safety.

But,

While it's a good idea to write metadata to files periodically or for custom purposes, it would be a horrible default choice because it would defeat the advantage of extreme speed for recording and managing data in a catalog instead of rewriting the files.

Do a test:

- assign one or several temporary keywords to ALL of your files in a catalog (even with catalogs over 100 000 items).

- remove those keyword from ALL files.

How long does it take?

How long would that take to write metadata to files?