Picasa ExifTool filename2caption subtle change assistance request

[hamesdor]

Attached are 2 output txt files from the ExtifTool -a -g1 command - Before running anything on a (new) test file, and after running the command via Picasa.
The difference between the output is obviously the XMP and IPTC sections which were added upon running the batch command:
---- XMP-x ----
XMP Toolkit                     : Image::ExifTool 10.07
---- XMP-dc ----
Description                     : test3
---- IPTC ----
Coded Character Set             : UTF8
Envelope Record Version         : 4
Caption-Abstract                : test3
Application Record Version      : 4

How may we infer from this what might be the cause of the problem in Picasa?

[Phil Harvey]

Oh, OK.  You added this with the batch file.  That's not what I meant, but I have a question:  Does Picasa recognize the caption in the "after" file?  If not, use this as the start file and add the caption manually using Picasa. (I assume that Picasa has its own way of manually entering a caption.)  Or do the minimum that is necessary to get Picasa to display a caption in this image.  Then compare the exiftool outputs of the file that Picasa doesn't recognize the caption with the file that it does.

- Phil

[hamesdor]

I use the 'in-house' Picasa filename2caption button as this is my overall intention (and easiest for me in my current config).
Anyway, I've executed your idea. I chose to use the same actual text for the caption ('test3') for purposes of notepad++ compare func.
The before and after match! (PSA)
I reckon we may infer from this that the cause is something internal in Picasa.

Before I happily declare that Picasa is at fault -
Is there another comparison test you might suggest to further pinpoint the problem?

[Phil Harvey]

Those files are identical.  I assume then that Picasa doesn't display the caption of either.

It does look like a Picasa problem, although we still haven't tracked down the specific cause.  Adobe products once had a similar problem, and would refuse to display all metadata if any XMP timezone was "+00:00".  I tracked this down easily by systematically changing each tag from a file that worked towards one that didn't.  I think you could do the same thing here.

- Phil

[hamesdor]

The AfterPicasa_manual.txt from my previous post was generated after I manually edited the caption from the Picasa image editor and then saved it.
This is displayed properly by Picasa. Therefor I figured that this might be a specific Picasa problem.
Obviously I could bypass this by generating everything automatically by using the batch file,
isolate the ones that Picasa didn't display from some reason, and then just copy the XMP caption data itself onto the Picasa editor.
As this is just a smaller subgroup of images that require some manual intervention, I think that according to my needs I could live with it and leave it at that.
I might try browsing/asking around the Google Picasa forum for such an issue at a later time.
I just gotta get back to my original highest priority task at hand, which is sorting out all of my photos library.

So thanks for all the help with this issue 

[Phil Harvey]

The AfterPicasa_manual.txt from my previous post was generated after I manually edited the caption from the Picasa image editor and then saved it.
This is displayed properly by Picasa.

But the metadata is identical to the one that doesn't display properly.  Very interesting.  Assuming this isn't a problem with a database somewhere else, there must be a difference between these two image files.  If you could attach them here I will take a look.

- Phil

[hamesdor]

To be clearer - the last test trial I've performed involved a single image - first running the batch (within Picasa, by using the addon button which calls the ExifTool Batch Command),
and then by manually editing the caption.
The former fails to show-up in Picasa, the latter does.
As the aforementioned image is a large tif file, I could not add it here, so below is a link for the image from google photos
(though I'm not sure what can be inferred from a standard single tif Image uploaded to google photos, in relation to the discussed problem)
https://goo.gl/photos/B2yDEKojmiWuTxT5A

Please note that you might have to manually clear the XMP caption if you intend on 'playing around with it'.

Your assistance is greatly appreciated!

BTW, it's also worth mentioning that Picasa DB management is not so robust and I personally experience many difficulties with it.
For reference you may view my other Picasa-related problems:
https://groups.google.com/a/googleproductforums.com/d/msgid/picasa/210b38b7-cb16-43c1-850b-07318dcdc738%40googleproductforums.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer
https://groups.google.com/a/googleproductforums.com/d/msgid/picasa/9f654be6-10fa-497c-836b-e44f6caad3b4%40googleproductforums.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer

[Phil Harvey]

OK.  I don't think I can help much more at this point since I don't want to get into running Picasa.  All indications point to a Picasa quirk.

- Phil