Import of images edited in Corel Aftershot Pro 3 overwrites xmp sidecar files

[jzinkweg]

Describe the bug/issue When trying out darktable as a potential replacement for Corel Aftershot Pro 3 on Linux, the sidecar xmp files generated by Aftershort were overwritten during import in darktable. Aftershot uses the same naming format as darktable: <basename>.<extension>.xmp.

To Reproduce

1. Use Corel Aftershot Pro 3 to edit / organize a photo
2. Open .xmp file and see Aftershot's metadata is present
3. Import photo in darktable
4. Open .xmp file and see Aftershot's metadata is missing

Expected behavior Possible solutions could be to:

• warn the user sidecar metadata will be lost as it is not recognized
• merge the unsupported metadata with the darktable metadata during write
  (this is done by Aftershot when re-writing metadata to an xmp file containing darktable elements)
• create a new nn version when importing incompatible xmp files and leave the original intact

Platform

• darktable version : 4.0.0-1.1 from graphics:/darktable/xUbuntu_22.04
• OS : Linux 5.15.0-43-generic
• Linux - Distro : Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS
• Desktop : Gnome 42.2

Additional context

• Can you reproduce with a RAW or Jpeg or both? both
• Is the issue still present using an empty/new config-dir (e.g. start darktable with --configdir "/tmp")? clean install of darktable

[ptilopteri]

there is an option to turn off or not generate xmp files on import. guess you missed that.

[jzinkweg]

I found that option after losing 3000+ xmp files (single directory import) which I'm now restoring from backup.

It still means I can't make edits to files as that will still lose my previous metadata which is stored in different xml namespaces.

[ptilopteri]

correct, the xmp files are not generated the same between darktable and bibble/corel

you can export tiff files from either and import into the other

[ptilopteri]

probably ought to alter the filenames on export, just in case :)

[saknopper]

I don't think this issue is about exporting/importing between different programs. But about darktable (silently) overwriting xmp files created by other programs and thus losing work in the process.

Although I don't have a fully thought out solution for this, I do think the default behavior of darktable should be "safe" in this situation.

[ralfbrown]

The "correct" behavior would be to preserve any tags in non-dt namespaces. That would require storing them in the database somehow on import (both initial when reloading the xmp) and writing them out along with dt's tags.

[gi-man]

@jzinkweg When you add the images to darktable, are you using Add to Library or Copy & Import? Is the xmp behavior different in Add to Library?

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