Darktable won't read metadata / XMP from Bridge, XnView etc.

Hi,

Darktable is great and I love the approach to editing. However, I want to do the asset management separately (Excire, PSU, Digikam, Bridge - not finally decided yet). The problem I ran into is, that Darktable does not read the XMPs and keeps the tags, ratings etc. from the XMP maintained in the asset management (tested with Bridge).

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks!

Hi,

I would say you can enable in preferences → storage → look for updated xmp files on startup
To read updated xmp files.

Manual related page: darktable 4.2 user manual - storage

This is already checked unfortunately. Could it be that DT generates different XMPs with the Extension being part of the XMP file name?

I know darktable reads ratings, captions, titles, and keywords from digikam’s sidecars, as I use digikam to set those items, then edit in darktable…

As I set the metadata before importing in darktable, I don’t even need the option to check for updated files on startup.

Both digikam and darktable use filenames with the format <name>.<ext>.xmp

Well DigiKam stopped working for me unfortunately, crashing on startup. RCA ongoing.

But I am looking for general compatibility do avoid lock-in situations.

Good luck with that.
Between the two different naming conventions and the number of ways (xml tags) to store the different metadata items, general compatibility is going to be difficult to achieve.

I gave my experience with a combination that works for me, and for my approach, that’s all.

Yes, understood and thanks for that.

In principle there is a XMP/IPTC standard, which DT and DigiKam are not following in that case… :frowning:

Let’s not start that debate again. There are multiple post around the “standard”.

When you use add to library, darktable will read the xmp data once. When you export, it will attach tags to the files per the preferences.

Sorry I am not aware of those discussion, please direct me there. Though I must say I am surprised that a standard that is followed by many others is a matter of a debate…

I removed the folder from Darktable and re-imported, and then the tags, title & co is being mirrored in DT. Good to know - thanks!

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You will need to use the search function in the website.

As explained in the manual, the copy & import does not look at the xmp sidecar. Add to library does.

I agree with this, go fine one of the other threads if you want to talk about the standard.

The latest version of Digikam keeps on crashing on mine too, so I simply reinstalled the previous version. Digikam and DT works well together in this way