Elements Removing Author and Copyright from Metadata ???

Don't know what to tell you, Buckskin. Just tried it with FastStone and PSE15, and the info was retained after being opened and editied.

What I would do is find your plug-ins folder and copy it somewhere. Then you can just copy it back.

That said, I doubt very much if uninstalling and reinstalling would solve this problem.

BuckSkin,

Does it happen with the original files (e.g., PSD's or TIFF's) or with the exported JPEG's?
(i.e., isn't this caused by "Save for Web" command?)

After my initial panic, and after considering the two excellent points/questions you guys brought up, I have just spent the last couple hours performing some process-of-elimination tests.
I did change one step in my habitual workflow, thinking in this particular instance it might speed things along; what is sad is that this couldn't have happened to a little batch of a dozen or so images --- there are some 600-plus images in this batch and every last one of them is going to have to have those two properties re-written to them once the editing is finished. >>> Or, and I just thought of this, I could bring the unmolested original jpeg into the Editor, along with the affected files, then drag the processed image on top of the original jpeg, thus the original jpeg would be the background and all EXIF info would come from it; hence I could then route the resulting files back into my original habitual process and all would be right again >>> plus I will have learned a lesson that I will not soon forget........On second thought, it would be quicker/easier to just wait until I am finished, select them all in FastStone, and insert the missing info in one fell swoop.  

To answer fotofrank:  Just to be clear, in all cases, the info is still intact immediately prior to being opened in Elements Editor.
Once a test file is opened in the Editor, the very first thing I did with each test image was to check File > File Info; depending on wherever/whatever has been done to any particular file, if the info was going to missing once I saved the file, it would already be missing as soon as it was opened.
If the info was showing in File > File Info, it would remain intact throughout the process.  

To answer Andrei:  It does not happen to originals; it does happen to files that have been either key-word tagged, or geolocated, or both, in digiKam prior to Elements Editor.

Always before, this has been my workflow:
1. Copy into the computer, rename, and folder by date via DIM (Digital Image Mover --- an excellent FREE program)
2. Process/convert the RAW files via the excellent program DxO Optics Pro 9.5 Elite, using their "Prime" feature.
3. Using FastStone, to the DxO files, write properties information including Title, Subject, Comments, Lens make and model, Flash make and model, and Author and Copyright if this info hasn't already been applied in-camera, plus correct any date/time discrepancies or add a date/time to any scans and such that lack this.
4. Route all of the DxO files through the Elements 7 Editor, doing such edits as are not possible in a non-layer program, plus saving a PSD file of every image, and a full-resolution finished product jpeg for viewing and for making various resized files.
5. Write FastStone jpeg comments to the finished Elements jpegs (if I write them prior to the Editor, it removes them) 
6. Run the finished Elements jpegs into digiKam, where I add specifically descriptive key-word tags and geolocation information.
7. Resize copies of the digiKam tagged, geolocated, FastStone jpeg commented files to accommodate their various destinations.
If I follow the steps in this order, all of the properties info, geolocation info, and FastStone jpeg comments will remain regardless of what or where they may go.

What I did different this time that brought on the problem is that I decided to tag and geolocate in digiKam PRIOR to the Elements 7 Editor; in my subsequent testing, anything I tag, geolocate, or both, prior to the Editor, will have the Author and Copyright stripped away.

The funny thing is, I can take a file that has already been through Elements, then tagged and geolocated in digiKam, and for whatever reason open that file again in Elements, the info will remain intact --- so long as the file has seen Elements prior to being tagged/geolocated in digiKam.

Even more puzzling is that, instead of Elements stripping away the tags and geolocation info, it instead strips away the Author and Copyright --- very curious indeed.


I apologize for this being such a lengthy explanation of the situation; but, I figure this is better than me just saying "I got it figured out" and leave everyone hanging as to the how.


Thanks, everyone, for their help, fatherly advice, and moral support.

I'm not sure the plot is doing anything.

In my humble opinion, It looks like you process is modifying the EXIF data in a way elements cannot read. In your example above, how do you get TWO sets of Camera Data? Was the image taken from two different cameras? The down arrows probably keeps track of previous information - it is not in later versions. EXIF information is not universal, it varies.

This is what my file info looks like:



I have my copyright, comments and artist information placed in the EXIF data from my camera. Does your camera allow for that information?

Sepiana, What shows up in Camera 1 & 2 Data?