Having installed the CS4 upgrade (moving from CS2) I decided to try applying some keywords in Bridge to some of my existing image database. I established a minimal keyword system for testing purposes but immediately ran into a problem when trying to append the keywords to image files in Bridge. Every time I clicked a keyword box on the keyword panel with an image (or set of images) selected, I received an error message:
There was an error writing metadata to "Filename_XXXX.NEF"
This happens regardless of the file type--RAW files, PSD files, TIFFs. It's an across the board error.
So, in playing around, I opened a random PSD file in PS CS4 and simply saved it to a different drive and folder...and when I attempted to save a keyword to the newly saved file...no error. Checking the metadata panel, the keyword is successfully appended.
I don't see this opening/saving routine as a work-around...it would take forever...but I can't seem to find anything on Adobe's Web site as to why the aforementioned error is being generated in the first place. Version compatibility doesn't seem to be an explanation, since this is happening with RAW files as well as processed PSDs...and I don't see why files edited with CS2 couldn't have keywords appended in CS4 in any case. I suppose it is worth mentioning that manually adding keywords in the Metadata panel by typing them in doesn't work either...attempting to save such changes generates the same error mentioned above. This appears to be a global metadata editing error of some kind.
I have to believe I'm missing something obvious here, but I can't seem to figure out what it is. Any suggestions?
Posted by Buck Ward on January 2, 2009 at 11:12 PM
I can't help you, but I'm having a similar problem with Bridge CS3. The keyword functions simply don't work anymore.
The whole thing gets curiouser and curiouser. I've got my files backed up on multiple external hard drives. These are identical file sets, mind you. On some of them, I can edit the metadata. On others--duplicate files on different drives--I can't. And sometimes, when I copy the edited files from the "good" drives to the "offending drives," I can then edit the metadata...and sometimes I can't. Screwiest thing I've seen in a long time...and I smell some kind of a Vista issue here, but thus far I haven't been able to figure out what's going on.
And I'm not sure, as a practical matter, it makes much difference...because--and someone PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong--from what I can tell from the keywording function on Bridge, you can't use keywords to winnow a list of files down--only to enlarge it. For example, if I have files identified by, say, location as one keyword and "thing" as another, if I select both types of keywords, I get all files that meet ANY of the criteria, not ALL of them...and I see no way to flip this option around. So, if I WANT to get a list of all files that meet the criteria of, say, Illinois waterfalls, I can't select files that have both the "Illinois" and "waterfall" keywords. If I select both keywords, I get any file that's got "Illinois" AND/OR "waterfall" as a keyword, thereby giving me all kinds of extraneous files.
Part of me thinks that this is so ridiculous that I absolutely must be missing something but from what I can tell from the help on Adobe's Web site (no internal help for Bridge...another pet peeve, but I digress), I'm not missing anything and there's no way to make multiple keywords apply on an AND basis.
I'm about ready to chuck the whole thing...
Posted by Mike DiVita on January 4, 2009 at 9:29 PM
Kerry,
I don't have an answer for you but I'd suggest checking out Peter Krough's(The Dam Book)
forum. If you can't find an answer there, you can sign up and post your question there. Peter and the members are very helpful.
Mike
Posted by Mike DiVita on January 4, 2009 at 9:29 PM
Hi Andy. The filtering problem was solved by getting a good long look at the "find" protocol within Bridge. Once I got a look at the dialogue, I was able to see the entire set of sorting options, and those include a choice to compound keywords (i.e. a file must have X AND Y to qualify).
The other problem--the inability to write metadata to certain file sets on certain hard drives--remains unsolved and I'm positive now that this is an OS issue, not something related to Bridge per se.
Discussion
7 repliesThere was an error writing metadata to "Filename_XXXX.NEF"
This happens regardless of the file type--RAW files, PSD files, TIFFs. It's an across the board error.
So, in playing around, I opened a random PSD file in PS CS4 and simply saved it to a different drive and folder...and when I attempted to save a keyword to the newly saved file...no error. Checking the metadata panel, the keyword is successfully appended.
I don't see this opening/saving routine as a work-around...it would take forever...but I can't seem to find anything on Adobe's Web site as to why the aforementioned error is being generated in the first place. Version compatibility doesn't seem to be an explanation, since this is happening with RAW files as well as processed PSDs...and I don't see why files edited with CS2 couldn't have keywords appended in CS4 in any case. I suppose it is worth mentioning that manually adding keywords in the Metadata panel by typing them in doesn't work either...attempting to save such changes generates the same error mentioned above. This appears to be a global metadata editing error of some kind.
I have to believe I'm missing something obvious here, but I can't seem to figure out what it is. Any suggestions?
And I'm not sure, as a practical matter, it makes much difference...because--and someone PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong--from what I can tell from the keywording function on Bridge, you can't use keywords to winnow a list of files down--only to enlarge it. For example, if I have files identified by, say, location as one keyword and "thing" as another, if I select both types of keywords, I get all files that meet ANY of the criteria, not ALL of them...and I see no way to flip this option around. So, if I WANT to get a list of all files that meet the criteria of, say, Illinois waterfalls, I can't select files that have both the "Illinois" and "waterfall" keywords. If I select both keywords, I get any file that's got "Illinois" AND/OR "waterfall" as a keyword, thereby giving me all kinds of extraneous files.
Part of me thinks that this is so ridiculous that I absolutely must be missing something but from what I can tell from the help on Adobe's Web site (no internal help for Bridge...another pet peeve, but I digress), I'm not missing anything and there's no way to make multiple keywords apply on an AND basis.
I'm about ready to chuck the whole thing...
I don't have an answer for you but I'd suggest checking out Peter Krough's(The Dam Book)
forum. If you can't find an answer there, you can sign up and post your question there. Peter and the members are very helpful.
Mike
http://thedambook.com/smf/index.php
Mike
The other problem--the inability to write metadata to certain file sets on certain hard drives--remains unsolved and I'm positive now that this is an OS issue, not something related to Bridge per se.