Writing FotoStation tags fails if no FotoStation tags exist before

[gandhi]

Hi Phil,

is it possible that writing FotoStation tags to a jpg file is only possible if FotoStation tags already exist in that image, but not with images that have no such tags embedded before writing? Or maybe I am not doing it the way it is supposed to work.

I tried with ExifTool 7.98 and 8.28 (Linux).

Test case
=========

1) Updating image file with existing FotoStation metadata

$ exiftool -X sample_fs.jpg | grep 'FotoStation:CropRotation'
<FotoStation:CropRotation>0</FotoStation:CropRotation>

$ exiftool -FotoStation:CropRotation=90 sample_fs.jpg
    1 image files updated

$ exiftool -X sample_fs.jpg | grep 'FotoStation:CropRotation'
<FotoStation:CropRotation>90</FotoStation:CropRotation>

=> Ok. CropRotation changed to 90 degrees.


2) Updating image file without existing FotoStation metadata

$ exiftool -X sample_no_fs.jpg | grep -i fotostation

$ exiftool -FotoStation:CropRotation=90 sample_no_fs.jpg
    0 image files updated
    1 image files unchanged

$ exiftool -X sample_no_fs.jpg | grep -i fotostation

=> Nothing.

Output with option "-v2":

Code Select Expand

$ exiftool -v2 -FotoStation:CropRotation=90 sample_no_fs.jpg
Writing FotoStation:CropRotation
======== sample_no_fs.jpg
Rewriting sample_no_fs.jpg...
  Editing tags in: FotoStation
  Creating tags in: FotoStation
JPEG APP1 (372 bytes):
JPEG APP13 (348 bytes):
JPEG APP1 (3973 bytes):
JPEG DQT (65 bytes):
JPEG DQT (65 bytes):
JPEG SOF0:
JPEG DHT (27 bytes):
JPEG DHT (81 bytes):
JPEG DHT (25 bytes):
JPEG DHT (54 bytes):
JPEG SOS
Nothing changed in sample_no_fs.jpg
    0 image files updated
    1 image files unchanged

... btw - once I remove the FotoStation header using ExifTool from the image with existing FotoStation tags, I can't add anything there, either:

$ exiftool -FotoStation:all= sample_fs.jpg
    1 image files updated
$ exiftool -X sample_fs.jpg | grep -i fotostation
$ exiftool -FotoStation:CropRotation=90 sample_fs.jpg
    0 image files updated
    1 image files unchanged
$ exiftool -X sample_fs.jpg | grep -i fotostation

=> Nothing.

Maybe you can help me here.

Thanks,
André

[Phil Harvey]

Hi André,

Yes.  If you check the Fotostation support (in many locations throughout the documentation, including on the ExifTool home page), you will see that Fotostation information has R/W (read/write) but not C (create) support.  Therefore it can only be edited if it already exists.

- Phil

[gandhi]

Oh ... yes. It seems I wasn't looking carefully, always following the path "Tag Names", "FotoStation" - now I found under "Supported File Types".

Thanks for the clarification and a thousand thanks for ExifTool in general.

André