Keywords CR3-Files <-> Synology Fotos

[ThePhantom79]

Hello,
I have a big bunch of picture, that I want to use now with synology photos. Within Synology photos I want to use "keywords", because of different reasons. If I use Synology photos for creating these tags, they re not saved inside my picture files (JPG, CR2 and CR3), they are saved in some other way. I dont like that ;-)
I tried now to find an application, that could insert these keywords inside the files - but this is much harder than expected :-(

For JPG and CR2 I could use exiftool with the option -KEYWORDS+="keyword" , and it works and it can be read and used bei synology photos.
Now I tried it with CR3 files. With the above command the CR3-Files will not be touched, so I found, that I have to use:

Code Select Expand

exiftool.exe -r -P -ext CR3 -use MWG -overwrite_original -mwg:KEYWORDS+="Shooting" <files>
Exiftool works now fine, but in Synology Fotos, these keywords are not readed.

Can someone tell me, if there a solution for this?
I found the following table for Syn Photos:

https://kb.synology.com/de-de/DSM/tutorial/What_metadata_standards_does_Synology_Photos_support

But I dont understand it 100% ...

[StarGeek]

Keywords are part of the older IPTC IIM/Legacy standard.  CR3 files are based upon the MP4 format and as a result of that, cannot have IPTC tags embedded in them (see the Supported File Types table).  The modern equivalent would be the XMP-dc:Subject tag and that should be supported by Synology, though you might have to reload the file, or remove and re-add the file.

If I use Synology photos for creating these tags, they re not saved inside my picture files (JPG, CR2 and CR3), they are saved in some other way. I dont like that ;-)

You might check to see if there are XMP sidecar files, as this would be the common place to store any metadata, especially for RAW file types such as CR2/3.

Exiftool works now fine, but in Synology Fotos, these keywords are not readed.

Can someone tell me, if there a solution for this?

I found the following table for Syn Photos:

https://kb.synology.com/de-de/DSM/tutorial/What_metadata_standards_does_Synology_Photos_support

English version for fools like me who never learned a second language.

From that page

Limitations

The following metadata cannot be read by Synology Photos:

    Photos: The General tag, Description, and Rating of heic, cr3, and x3f photos.
    Videos: The General tag, Description, Rating, and Location of videos.

Further down in the notes, it says

General tag equals the Subject tag in the XMP standard

The basic translation is that it doesn't read keywords/tags in CR3 files.  And, as I mentioned, they are based upon the MP4 format, this is a duplicated of the limitations of video files.

If the program doesn't support XMP sidecar files, which isn't clarified on that page, then there really isn't much you can do.  At best, you can add data into your files (or create sidecar files) and request such support and hope they add it in the future.  But from reading the notes on that page, I wouldn't expect it, as those notes indicate the program reads only a very limited set of data, such as only reading ImageDescription (an EXIF tag) instead of XMP:Description, as the EXIF tag, IMO, is very outdated.

[ThePhantom79]

Thanks for the detailed explanation - even it is not satisfying :-(