I often get the IPTCDigest out of sync warning.
I fix it by doing
exiftool -iptcdigest= FILENAME
That seems to resolve the issue, but it is the proper way of handling it? Should I do something to avoid the "out of sync" state to start with?
As best I can tell, it means the legacy IPTC-IMM fields and the IPTC-XMP fields don't match. Is that correct?
I am usually working with JPG files. Exiftool version 12.52
Out-of-sync Photoshop:IPTCDigest caused weird date errors on a Mac so I deleted them (macOS 12.4 Monterey apps like Photos.app 7.0, Preview.app and Finder preview erroneously grab the date from 'IPTC:DateCreated' & 'IPTC:TimeCreated' or display the time as "0.00" if the time tag is missing in them instead using 'ExifIFD:DateTimeOriginal' (luckily usually those dates are the same):
exiftool -m -P -overwrite_original -if '$Photoshop:IPTCDigest' -Photoshop:IPTCDigest= .
Or sync 'Photoshop:IPTCDigest':
exiftool -m -P -overwrite_original -if '$Photoshop:IPTCDigest' -Photoshop:IPTCDigest=new .
"Personally, I just remove this tag. It's extra work to keep it up to date with little return for the work."
https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=13273.msg71697#msg71697
- Matti
Another link (https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=14065.msg75864#msg75864) about IPTCDigest and my opinion on it.
On the technical side, you would want to make sure that the IPTC IIM and XMP tags are actually in sync before running -IPTCDigest=new, as there is no actual check done to make sure they are in sync. The warning only will appear if the IPTC data has been changed.
C:\>exiftool -G1 -a -s -IPTC:All -XMP:All -*Digest -warning y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
[IPTC] Caption-Abstract : test
[IPTC] ApplicationRecordVersion : 4
[XMP-x] XMPToolkit : Image::ExifTool 12.62
[XMP-dc] Description : test
[File] CurrentIPTCDigest : 7b041c32dffe3d70e4e2f5d6b7f0940d
[Photoshop] IPTCDigest : 7b041c32dffe3d70e4e2f5d6b7f0940d
C:\>exiftool -P -overwrite_original -Description="Something Else" y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
1 image files updated
C:\>exiftool -G1 -a -s -IPTC:All -XMP:All -*Digest -warning y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
[IPTC] Caption-Abstract : test
[IPTC] ApplicationRecordVersion : 4
[XMP-x] XMPToolkit : Image::ExifTool 12.62
[XMP-dc] Description : Something Else
[File] CurrentIPTCDigest : 7b041c32dffe3d70e4e2f5d6b7f0940d
[Photoshop] IPTCDigest : 7b041c32dffe3d70e4e2f5d6b7f0940d
C:\>exiftool -P -overwrite_original -Caption-Abstract="Different test" y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
1 image files updated
C:\>exiftool -G1 -a -s -IPTC:All -XMP:All -*Digest -warning y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
[IPTC] Caption-Abstract : Different test
[IPTC] ApplicationRecordVersion : 4
[XMP-x] XMPToolkit : Image::ExifTool 12.62
[XMP-dc] Description : Something Else
[File] CurrentIPTCDigest : 449bce1ba1bc68f9250d18091cd40026
[Photoshop] IPTCDigest : 7b041c32dffe3d70e4e2f5d6b7f0940d
[ExifTool] Warning : IPTCDigest is not current. XMP may be out of sync