What Tag Does Google Photos Read For description

[Flakie]

Love exiftool. Saved me hundreds of hours of editing photos for dates (several thousand images and mp4). Many thanks.
Photos and mp4 all have correct dates in google Photos and Synology Moments apps.

Now I am trying to add descriptions to some images (all jpg).

I have discovered that Synology Moments reads the imagedescription tag (for Description). All good
But what does Google Photos read for their Description field. tried loads but none seem to work.

Many thanks.

[StarGeek]

Here is where I've documented some of what tags Google Photos reads.  I have to make a few edits regarding time zones but otherwise accurate as of my last test earlier this year.

I'd suggest using IPTC:Caption-Abstract or XMP:Description, as the other two are less commonly supported among most software.  Seriously, I can't think of another tool that even is aware of Ducky:Comment.

[Flakie]

Thanks. I tried:

XMP:Description
IPTC:Caption-Abstract
XMP-dc:Description
XMP-tiff:ImageDescription
Ducky:Comment

But none of them are showing up in the description in Google images

In Irfanview the IPTC Caption and exif imagedescription show the correct data.

This is what I am entering (there are no errors, files are reported as being updated):

exiftool -ImageDescription="test" -XMP-dc:Description="test" "-FileCreateDate<CreateDate" "-FileModifyDate<CreateDate" "D:\pics"

Not sure what I am doing wrong.

[Flakie]

I have it working now.

It seems that Google Photos ignores the IPTC:Caption-Abstract tag (well all tags are ignored) if modifying after it has already been uploaded.

Only option is to delete from Google Photos, make the edits and upload again.

Absolute pain to do this so I will take my time over the process.
At least going forward I am now confident that any new photos will have the correct description in both sources (Synology Moments and Google Photos).

Thanks again.

[StarGeek]

Yeah, all my testing was done by uploading, making changes, deleting, uploading again...

I think at some point I figured out that uploading the same image, even with a different name, wouldn't get you a new entry.

[Flakie]

Thanks for putting me on the right track. Hopefully the post will help others in the future

[peho]

And the description for videos on Google Photos, have anyone find the tag for that?
Ive tried a lot of alternativs and also asked at Google Photos forum, but no answer.

[StarGeek]

I made a quick test using the Quicktime ItemList and Keys tags that exiftool can write and it doesn't look like Google Photos doesn't read any of that data except for Keys:GPSCoordinates.

I didn't try any XMP tags in this test.

[wwcanoer]

Is this still true for Google Photos?  That to correct metadata:

    "Only option is to delete from Google Photos, make the edits and upload again."

I thought that I had uploaded test photos with added exif data and got duplicates.  So, I placed all of my existing photos in albums, so that when the revised photos are successfully uploaded into new albums I can delete everything in the old albums.  (Only one week left before the new high quality photos cost storage, so I am organizing and exif tagging (ex. place offline folder names into the xmp:description so that I can search those names in GooglePhotos) all my offline photos to upload.  I'm running out of time.... so many more old photos to sort.

[StarGeek]

I don't know.  You'll have to test it to see.

[Sodapop73]

Reviving an old thread as this is exactly what I'm trying to achieve and this thread comes up in Google search results. So I've tried to upload my photos to Google Photos with descriptive metadata. This shows up in web browser Google Photos as Other instead of Description. The problem is that the Other field isn't shown in iOS Google Photos app. So does anyone know how to populate the editable Description field in Google Photos with existing metadata. I've tried both IPTC:Caption-Abstract and XMP-dc:Description but they show up as Other. Below is a screenshot of what I'm seeing with a file that has both of the aforementioned data points populated with their corresponding names.

[StarGeek]

I just went back and checked.  Uploaded my image from the desktop with Chrome, checked and the four tags that I detail in the link in the second post all work correctly
XMP-dc:Description
IPTC:Caption-Abstract
XMP-tiff:ImageDescription
Ducky:Comment

Example of what I see after uploading the image


I don't get an "Other" category.  What browser are you using to view Google Photos?  What type of device and OS? Also, where are you uploading from e.g. U.S., European Union country?

[wywh]

Google Photos with descriptive metadata

In Google Photos .jpg I have used (as an old habit -- I have not tested which one it uses) both IPTC:Caption-Abstract and XMP-dc:Description for Captions/Descriptions and IPTC:Keywords and XMP-dc:Subject for Keywords/Subject as well as regular GPS and dates for 1902 or later (...although EXIF would support dates older than that).

All work OK ...although Google Photos does not show imported Keywords. ...and because imported Captions lose line breaks and long Captions are truncated, I must paste those in the Google Photos web browser (...I have list of images that need that). ...and sometimes metadata must be rebuilt until the correct date is imported although it sits there at ExifIFD:DateTimeOriginal. ...and I occasionally delete and upload images with updated metadata so other users don't have to use the clumsy Google Takeout to attach updated metadata to the .jpg they might download.

...and (the last time I tried it) it is not possible to search shared Captions or Keywords! Can you believe there is a Google product that can't search!! Search is only possible at the Google Photos main window, not inside albums. To do a Caption or Keyword search (I don't know if it searches both) users have to add the album to their own photos and do the search there, or download and open the album in other apps (...and at the moment my 1300 image album can only be downloaded in small chunks for some reason). This is a great pity because I have an album with dozens of carefully picked Keywords per image. Currently other users don't have an easy access to filter those >1000 images via Keyword searches.

In Google Photos .mp4, .m4v and .mov I have used QuickTime:CreateDate for 1970 or later and Keys:CreationDate for 1902-1969 and Keys:GPSCoordinates for locations.

.m4v and .mov display correct time combined with the timezone ...but in .mp4 the timezone must be subtracted from the inserted time for some reason.

...before year 1902 Keys:CreationDate might work even to year 0001 but then Google Photos might randomly display a wrong date and even if it displays the correct date, it might sort that movie incorrectly.

...so all image and movie dates are forced to 1902 or later (...the correct date is in the filename, though).

...movie Captions must be pasted in the Google Photos web browser.

...but anyways Google Photos was the best free or even commercial photos sharing alternative when I tested it and Dropbox, Apple and Microsoft cloud, Picasa, Flickr and SmugMug a few years ago.

...so there is a 3rd party opportunity to make a great photos and movies sharing app.

p.s. for some reason today the iOS 15.2 Google Photos app very randomly does not show the Caption while in iOS 10.3.4 Google Photos app and macOS 11.6.2 Safari it is always shown.

Here is an example of such Google Photos album with images and some movies dating back to year -7050:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/B8FoHCDkTyfZ8j4p8

[Sodapop73]

Thanks to both for your replies!

I don't get an "Other" category.  What browser are you using to view Google Photos?  What type of device and OS? Also, where are you uploading from e.g. U.S., European Union country?

I'm using the latest version of Chrome on Windows 11. Also tried on macOS 12 Monterey with newest Safari, same thing. Uploading from Finland so EU. Do you think it makes a difference on how the metadata is parsed?

In Google Photos .jpg I have used (as an old habit -- I have not tested which one it uses) both IPTC:Caption-Abstract and XMP-dc:Description for Captions/Descriptions and IPTC:Keywords and XMP-dc:Subject for Keywords/Subject as well as regular GPS and dates for 1902 or later (...although EXIF would support dates older than that).

This is great information, thanks. The images you linked were interesting, always nice to see old photos of Finland. On some of your photos, both Description and Other fields are shown. Have you always pasted the description afterwards inside Google Photos or have you managed to fill the Description field with metadata automatically somehow?

[StarGeek]

Do you think it makes a difference on how the metadata is parsed?

It's about the only thing I can think of.  It's not something I can figure out because I don't even see the "Other" listing.