ExifTool Forum

ExifTool => Newbies => Topic started by: madelvic on June 30, 2016, 03:39:50 PM

Title: Bad ExifIFD directory
Post by: madelvic on June 30, 2016, 03:39:50 PM
When trying to edit tags (ExifTool 9.2.9.0 under Win 7) some edits fail because of "Bad ExifIFD directory" (sample command and output below). Apologies if I've missed something obvious, but how do I fix this so that I can make edits? Thanks.

exiftool "-usercomment<xpcomment" "c:\users\daa\desktop\2014-07_006a.jpg"

Warning: Bad ExifIFD directory - c:\users\daa\desktop\2014-07_006a.jpg
Error: [minor] Bad ExifIFD directory - c:\users\daa\desktop\2014-07_006a.jpg
    0 image files updated
    1 files weren't updated due to errors



Title: Re: Bad ExifIFD directory
Post by: Phil Harvey on June 30, 2016, 04:01:35 PM
Adding the -m option will ignore minor errors, but beware that information in the affected directory may be lost.

- Phil
Title: Re: Bad ExifIFD directory
Post by: madelvic on July 04, 2016, 07:16:01 AM
Thanks for this, but using -m results in a longer error message, and the file still isn't updated:

Warning: Bad ExifIFD directory - c:/users/daa/desktop/2014-07_006a.jpg
Warning: Deleted bad ExifIFD directory - c:/users/daa/desktop/2014-07_006a.jpg
Error: Truncated ExifIFD directory - c:/users/daa/desktop/2014-07_006a.jpg
    0 image files updated
    1 files weren't updated due to errors


Does this error mean that I can't make any edits to this file, or does it only apply to the specific tag (in this case usercomment) that I'm trying to update? Thanks.
Title: Re: Bad ExifIFD directory
Post by: Phil Harvey on July 04, 2016, 06:39:30 PM
To make any changes to the metadata of this file it must first be rebuilt to remove the errors.  See FAQ 20 (https://exiftool.org/faq.html#Q20) for details.

- Phil