NAS - Warning: No writable tags set from....

[Jdstephens]

Not sure what I'm doing wrong and maybe my folder permissions on my NAS.

I have a QNAP NAS with all my photos and videos stored. I have all the files tagged using MacOS Finder Tags. Im wanting to write my Tag information into the Keywords meta data so I can manage my files using adobe Bridge. Im using the following terminal command however continue to get an error:

exiftool -r -use MWG -overwrite_original_in_place -addTagsFromFile @ '-Keywords+<mditemusertags' /Volumes/Download/1.\ RAW

The error I get is:

Warning: No writable tags set from /Volumes/Download/1. RAW/20190301 Soccer Club.DNG

However, if I move the directory from the NAS to my local drive it works brilliantly. But given I have over 7000 files and 4TB of data, this is not plausible.

Im wondering what I'm doing wrong to make this work from my finder terminal to the files stored on the NAS?

Thanks in advance for your help

[Phil Harvey]

ExifTool can only copy the metadata that it can extract.  Did you try this on the NAS file to see if it contains the information?:

exiftool -mditemusertags FILE

If not, then try this to see what it does MacOS metadata tags it does have:

exiftool '-mditem*' FILE

- Phil

[Jdstephens]

ExifTool can only copy the metadata that it can extract.  Did you try this on the NAS file to see if it contains the information?:

exiftool -mditemusertags FILE

If not, then try this to see what it does MacOS metadata tags it does have:

exiftool '-mditem*' FILE

- Phil

Thanks for your reply, I just did a test file on the NAS using:

exiftool '-mditem*' FILE

and this was the result:

MD Item FS Content Change Date  : 2019:04:24 11:00:27+09:30
MD Item FS Creation Date        : 2019:04:24 10:59:21+09:30
MD Item FS Creator Code         :
MD Item FS Finder Flags         : 10
MD Item FS Has Custom Icon      : 0
MD Item FS Invisible            : 0
MD Item FS Is Extension Hidden  : 0
MD Item FS Is Stationery        : 0
MD Item FS Label                : 5 (Yellow)
MD Item FS Name                 : 20190313 GoPro Hero  7 Harrison Actual Birthday Unwrapping presenst 50FPS 16-9 h265_1.MP4
MD Item FS Node Count           : -294625233
MD Item FS Owner Group ID       : 20
MD Item FS Owner User ID        : 501
MD Item FS Size                 : 4000342063
MD Item FS Type Code            :

The finder tag (Yellow) does appear. So the tags are readable, just can't write the new Keywords. Still think its a permissions issue but I have checked everything and have given full rights to these folders, but I could be completely wrong too!!

[Hayo Baan]

The mds labels are present, but you're trying to copy the user tags, those aren't present. Run exiftool -mditemusertags on the file in question and you'll see nothing is returned.

[Jdstephens]

The mds labels are present, but you're trying to copy the user tags, those aren't present. Run exiftool -mditemusertags on the file in question and you'll see nothing is returned.

Ill give it a try shortly, strange that if I move the directory to my local drive from my NAS it will work, but if I leave the files on my NAS I get the above. Will report back shortly

[Hayo Baan]

The mds labels are present, but you're trying to copy the user tags, those aren't present. Run exiftool -mditemusertags on the file in question and you'll see nothing is returned.

Ill give it a try shortly, strange that if I move the directory to my local drive from my NAS it will work, but if I leave the files on my NAS I get the above. Will report back shortly

That is indeed strange, but this could have to do with how the metadata system works, e.g. it might not have (fully) indexed the file yet. But what is more likely is that your NAS does not support extended attributes (that's where I found the  user tags are stored). Can you run xattr on a file with a tag (both on the NAS and a local copy)?

Instead of using the user tags, you could perhaps use the label instead? (you probably want to use some advanced formatting in that case to get only the label name).

[Jdstephens]

The mds labels are present, but you're trying to copy the user tags, those aren't present. Run exiftool -mditemusertags on the file in question and you'll see nothing is returned.

Ill give it a try shortly, strange that if I move the directory to my local drive from my NAS it will work, but if I leave the files on my NAS I get the above. Will report back shortly

That is indeed strange, but this could have to do with how the metadata system works, e.g. it might not have (fully) indexed the file yet. But what is more likely is that your NAS does not support extended attributes (that's where I found the  user tags are stored). Can you run xattr on a file with a tag (both on the NAS and a local copy)?

Instead of using the user tags, you could perhaps use the label instead? (you probably want to use some advanced formatting in that case to get only the label name).

The NAS Share:

xattr /Volumes/Digital\ Media/Bridge\ Test/2018\ Adelaide\ Fringe\ Port/20180224/Images/Bartys\ Inspire\ 2/1.\ RAW/20180224_Port\ Adelaide\ Fringe\ Festival\ Bartys\ Inspire_1.DNG
com.apple.FinderInfo
com.apple.quarantine
com.apple.lastuseddate#PS
com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags

The local drive:

When I run XATTR on my local drive it comes back with nothing. However if I run EXIFTOOL on the local drive I get:

  9 directories scanned
  107 image files updated
    1 image files unchanged

[Hayo Baan]

Hmm, what does xattr -l /Volumes/Digital\ Media/Bridge\ Test/2018\ Adelaide\ Fringe\ Port/20180224/Images/Bartys\ Inspire\ 2/1.\ RAW/20180224_Port\ Adelaide\ Fringe\ Festival\ Bartys\ Inspire_1.DNG show as content of com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags?

[Phil Harvey]

I think you are confused by what tags exist and are available to be copied.  Use this command to see them all:

exiftool -macos:all -a -s FILE

This will list all tags returned by both "mdls" and "xattr", giving the ExifTool tag names for each.  See the MacOS Tag Name documentation for details.

- Phil

[Jdstephens]

I think you are confused by what tags exist and are available to be copied.  Use this command to see them all:

exiftool -macos:all -a -s FILE

This will list all tags returned by both "mdls" and "xattr", giving the ExifTool tag names for each.  See the MacOS Tag Name documentation for details.

- Phil

Thanks guys for your help!

I ran this on the file stored on the NAS and the following is what returned:

exiftool -macos:all -a -s /Volumes/Digital\ Media/1.\ Personal/2018/2018\ Adelaide\ Fringe\ Port/20180224/Images/Bartys\ Inspire\ 2/1.\ RAW/20180224_Port\ Adelaide\ Fringe\ Festival\ Bartys\ Inspire_1.DNG
FileCreateDate                  : 2019:04:22 21:04:57+09:30
MDItemFSContentChangeDate       : 2018:02:24 19:43:04+10:30
MDItemFSCreationDate            : 1970:01:01 00:00:00+00:00
MDItemFSCreatorCode             :
MDItemFSFinderFlags             : 14
MDItemFSHasCustomIcon           : 0
MDItemFSInvisible               : 0
MDItemFSIsExtensionHidden       : 0
MDItemFSIsStationery            : 0
MDItemFSLabel                   : 7 (Orange)
MDItemFSName                    : 20180224_Port Adelaide Fringe Festival Bartys Inspire_1.DNG
MDItemFSNodeCount               : 31664996
MDItemFSOwnerGroupID            : 20
MDItemFSOwnerUserID             : 501
MDItemFSSize                    : 31664996
MDItemFSTypeCode                :
XAttrFinderInfo                 : Type='' Creator='' Flags=(none) Label=7 Pos=(0,0)
XAttrQuarantine                 : Flags=0082 set at 2019:04:14 03:33:28 by Preview
XAttrLastUsedDate               : 2019:04:14 03:33:26
XAttrMDItemUserTags             : 2018.3, Personal.2, Inspire 2.6, 45mm Lens.3, 16:9 Photo.3, Port Adelaide.3, Lighthouse.7

[Hayo Baan]

So, it looks like you need to use XAttrMDItemUserTags to do what you want

[Jdstephens]

So, it looks like you need to use XAttrMDItemUserTags to do what you want

Oh are you saying I should use this instead:

exiftool -r -use MWG -overwrite_original_in_place -addTagsFromFile @ '-Keywords+<XAttrMDItemUserTags'

[Phil Harvey]

Yes.  But you should check to be sure that the XAttrMDItemUserTags are split properly.

Afterwards, do this:

exiftool -keywords -sep XX FILE

If the keywords are not separated by "XX", then you should separate them when copying from XAttrMDItemUserTags, like this:

exiftool -r -use MWG -overwrite_original_in_place -addTagsFromFile @ '-Keywords+<XAttrMDItemUserTags' -sep ', '

See FAQ 17 for an explanation.

- Phil

[Jdstephens]

So, it looks like you need to use XAttrMDItemUserTags to do what you want

Yes.  But you should check to be sure that the XAttrMDItemUserTags are split properly.

Afterwards, do this:

exiftool -keywords -sep XX FILE

If the keywords are not separated by "XX", then you should separate them when copying from XAttrMDItemUserTags, like this:

exiftool -r -use MWG -overwrite_original_in_place -addTagsFromFile @ '-Keywords+<XAttrMDItemUserTags' -sep ', '

See FAQ 17 for an explanation.

- Phil

Thanks very much gentlemen! This has worked!!

Now to start the process, something I think will take days to complete but will see!

For your information I couldn't get this to return any values:

exiftool -keywords -sep XX FILE

But I imported into Adobe Bridge and the keywords appear fine.

Thanks again for your help this is much appreciated!!

Donation inbound!

[Phil Harvey]

For your information I couldn't get this to return any values:

exiftool -keywords -sep XX FILE

I meant to do this on the file after you wrote the keywords.  If this command didn't return anything, then the keywords weren't written.

- Phil

Edit: Donation received.  Thanks!