after exiftool removal of 'all' Geo/GPS, still appearing in Digikam afterwards?

Started by rs4756, July 07, 2019, 10:34:04 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

rs4756

I've finally got my photos consolidated & imported into Digikam6.10 on linux.

It became quickly apparent that the metadata was a mess of years-long cruft etc.

I've been using exiftool v11.50 to clean it up.

Mostly done now, but still notice that lots of my photos in Digikam display a "has geolocation data" icon.

In the "Edit Geolocation" dialog, I don't actually SEE any of it.

Assuming it's in one of the non-Exif metadata locations, I'm attempting to use ExifTool to simply get rid of all the Geo/GPS data.  Clean slate is the goal.

Reading bits & pieces from

https://exiftool.org/faq.html#Q3
https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php/topic,4686.0.html
https://askubuntu.com/questions/236455/how-can-you-delete-only-gps-metadata-from-a-jpeg-file
https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php/topic,6037.msg29731.html#msg29731

, I understood that what should do the clean-slate trick is

cd Photos
exiftool -r "-gps*=" .

  131 directories scanned
  809 image files updated
7913 image files unchanged

After that exec finished running over all the various img files, and their .xmp sidecards, it finished with no errors,
LOTS! of "Warning: [minor] Fixed incorrect URI for xmlns:MicrosoftPhoto",
& a few "Warning: [minor] Maker notes could not be parsed"

After that exec, I reopen digikam -- and am STILL looking at a bunch of Geo-location icons :-/

What I'd expected was that after a complete exiftool removal of "all GPS" data, that when I opened the collection in Digikam I'd *not* see any Geo data.

Did I miss a step here, or a use a wrong command?


StarGeek

Try moving/copying one of the changed files to a different folder and import that to digikam.  It may be that digikam is showing you data from its database. 

Ah, try the Album → Reread Metadata From Images menu
* Did you read FAQ #3 and use the command listed there?
* Please use the Code button for exiftool code/output.
 
* Please include your OS, Exiftool version, and type of file you're processing (MP4, JPG, etc).

rs4756

Hi.

In my Digikam 'Album' menu, I don't HAVE

  Album → Write Metadata to Images
  Album → Reread Metadata From Images

Instead I have

  Album → Write Metadata to Files
  Album → Reread Metadata From Files

I guess somebody changed that for a reason in the new version, so I'm not sure if it's the same thing?

StarGeek

Yes, it would be the same.  Try "Reread Metadata From Files" on one of the geo tagged images.
* Did you read FAQ #3 and use the command listed there?
* Please use the Code button for exiftool code/output.
 
* Please include your OS, Exiftool version, and type of file you're processing (MP4, JPG, etc).

rs4756

I selected a single geo-tagged image.

Selected "Reread from files" for it.

Did a 'refresh', then closed/opened Digikam for good measure.

The image is still displaying the geo-location info icon :-/

rs4756

I've tried re-cleaning every GPS-related flag I found in the posts using exiftool.

I'm still stuck with these photos with Geo information being flagged in Digikam.

If it's not in the exiftool-accessible information, is it somewhere else?  I thought exiftool was "supposed" to be able to get at ALL of an image's metadata.

StarGeek

Can you share one of these images, before and after cleaning?  You can message me on this forum with a link if you don't want to publicly share the image.

I'll install Digikam and see if I can replicate the problem.
* Did you read FAQ #3 and use the command listed there?
* Please use the Code button for exiftool code/output.
 
* Please include your OS, Exiftool version, and type of file you're processing (MP4, JPG, etc).

StarGeek

Ok, no need to share anything.  I was able to replicate the issue.

Even if the GPS data is removed from the image, Digikam still has the data in it's database.  The only way I found to get rid of it is to move the image out of the Digikam directory, rename it, and move it back in.  But even then, you have to keep the new name, because if you rename it back to the old name, Digikam still has the old data and re-applies the geotagged data.

To be clear, your original command clears the gps data from the images.  The data only exists in the Digikam database at that point.

You might want to post on the Digikam Forums to see if there is a way to remove the data from the Digikam database.

Edit: It seem that even though the GPS data still exists in the Digikam's database, it only appears in the map sidebar.  It doesn't appear in the GPS editor and it appears the only way to get it back into the file would be to copy it by hand. 
* Did you read FAQ #3 and use the command listed there?
* Please use the Code button for exiftool code/output.
 
* Please include your OS, Exiftool version, and type of file you're processing (MP4, JPG, etc).

rs4756

> Digikam still has the data in it's database

Hm. I guess I've misunderstood how it all works.  I *thought* the idea was that Digikam would read, then integrate into its DB, the corrections we've externally made with exiftool.

There appears to be a sync-direction option in the Digikam 6.10 menus at

  Tools->Maintenance->Sync Metadata and Database -> From image metadata to Database


It's help link,

  https://docs.kde.org/trunk5/en/extragear-graphics/digikam/tool-maintenance-features.html#tool-maintenance-features-sync

unfortunately only says

  The Metadata Synchronizer Tool
    TODO

Not helpful.

There's also the "Reread metadata from files" & "Write metadata to files" options.  Dunno how they all differ from one antoher.

I don't want to arbitrarily pull that trigger without a better idea of what it does and screw up the work I've already done.

In the meantime, I'll get setup over on the Digikam forums ...


StarGeek

Quote from: rs4756 on July 10, 2019, 02:17:38 PM
Hm. I guess I've misunderstood how it all works.  I *thought* the idea was that Digikam would read, then integrate into its DB, the corrections we've externally made with exiftool.

For everything else, that appears to be the case.

The problem might be related to this bug which doesn't allow the writing of gps data from the database back into the file.  This reflects part of what I encountered where Digikam still knew the gps data but wouldn't write it out to the file.
* Did you read FAQ #3 and use the command listed there?
* Please use the Code button for exiftool code/output.
 
* Please include your OS, Exiftool version, and type of file you're processing (MP4, JPG, etc).

rs4756

> this bug

That sure sounds like a possibility!

I'd join in and comment there, if KDE would actually LET me register.  Its automated systems have decided that I'm a spammer :-/  Atm, working on it with a human sysadm there ...

rs4756

Still can't get into KDE Forums or Bugs, but managed to post to the Digikam ML about this.

fyi

https://mail.kde.org/pipermail/digikam-users/2019-July/029069.html