Metadata doesn't get remembered

[mozza]

Hi there,

Apologies if this has been asked before. I'm trying to batch tag a whole load of images (PNG,JPG and PDF) with Exiftool and a CSV file using a Mac running OS 10.9.

I'm using the following command, run from within the folder at the root of the subfolders that I want to process:
exiftool -csv=keywords_05.csv -sep ", " -r -overwrite_original_in_place

The csv file has the following column headings:
SourceFile,Title,Description,Headline,Keywords

and the keywords in the keywords column are separated by a comma and single space.

However, when I run exiftool, it doesn't change the metadata on the files. I tried using Marc Rochkind's ExifChanger app, which provides a GUI for Exiftool and, even on a one-by-one basis (as a test) it wouldn't store the metadata with the image. It would report that the file had been updated, but when I browsed to it within the program, there was no metadata attached.

I'm sure I'm being stupid here, but when I edit the same image with Adobe Bridge, the keywords stick. Is there some process I have to do to the image files before running exiftool - for example priming them to receive metadata, which Adobe Bridge does by default?

Thanks in advance

[Phil Harvey]

If exiftool says the file was updated, then it was.  Use exiftool to read back the metadata afterwards to verify.  If it doesn't show up in your other application, try re-importing.

- Phil

[mozza]

Hi Phil,

Thanks for the swift response. I'll take a look :-)

*after taking look...*

You're absolutely right, of course. It's all in there. Just neither Adobe Bridge nor the 'Get info' command from Mac's finder display the info. There must be another tag that gets set when Adobe Bridge writes the file which means that the info then displays within the Mac's Finder application.

Still, even without it showing, the Spotlight app can now search the images by keyword, which is exactly what I wanted!

Thanks again.