Created attachment 173463 [details] Showing settings in the situation where sidecar files ARE written successfully. SUMMARY Digikam 8.4.0, when settings are read & write from sidecars, Write to Item & XMP sidecar, and "Sidecar file names are compatible with commercial programs" is NOT CHECKED, then no sidecar file is written. This is true both when editing the file or metadata in the file (like tags), then saving, and also when doing "Maintenance" and "Sync Metadata and Database" in the direction database-> metadata. When "Sidecar file names are compatible with commercial programs" is changed to CHECKED, then the XMP sidecar file is written in both of the above cases. STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Settings set to:: Read & write from sidecars, Write to Item & XMP sidecar, and "Sidecar file names are compatible with commercial programs" is NOT CHECKED, then no sidecar file is written. 2. Edit a photo by changing a tag, changing description, or otherwise changing the metadata. 3. Note that no sidecar file is created. 4. Repeat the same process, but change "Sidecar file names are compatible with commercial programs" to CHECKED before editing a file's metadata. 5. Proper sidecar file is now created immediately. OBSERVED RESULT As above - no sidecar file created. EXPECTED RESULT Sidecar file created. SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Windows: Windows 10, Digikam ver 8.4.0. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION There is discussion about this in the forum at https://discuss.kde.org/t/xmp-sidecar-are-not-being-created/19724/2
Note the same bug happens whether the setting "Delegate to Exiftools backend all operations to write metadata to files" is checked or unchecked.
Can you try with the current 8.5.0 pre release to see if the problem remains. Files are there to test : https://files.kde.org/digikam/
I just tested it again - although I was sure - it works in both cases sidecars are created. Please test it again more carefully, otherwise we need a DebugView log of the process as described here: https://www.digikam.org/contribute/ Maik
Any feedback here? I have now tested it on 3 different Windows installations. In both cases the corresponding sidecar is created. In principle it is not even possible for the option to stop the sidecar from being created. Here is the simple code: https://invent.kde.org/graphics/digikam/-/blob/master/core/libs/metadataengine/engine/metaengine_fileio.cpp?ref_type=heads#L42 Maik