Support for iOS .MOV tags?

[aussieboykie]

I tagged a few .JPG images and .MP4 and .MOV videos (in the same folder) with the keyword bird. A tag search for bird finds all of the tagged files except for .MOV files. I don't have any file exclusions set under tags properties and MP4 videos are found. The relevant bird tag is definitely present in the .MOV files. Is there something I have missed or are iOS .MOV file tags not supported?

[therube]

I tagged a few .JPG images and .MP4 and .MOV videos ... with the keyword bird

So you tagged the files.

red.jpg -> red bird.jpg
red.mp4 -> red bird.mp4
red.mov -> red bird.mov

Or you you placed a "tag" within the files?
And you're doing some sort of content: search to search for that "tag"?

If the latter, Windows does the see the "tag" within the .jpg & .mp4, no?
And Windows does not see the tag within the .mov?

[aussieboykie]

I have tagged 3 files in a test folder with the tag "bird". Only two of them are found. I have no folder/file inclusions or exclusions specified under Properties/Tags in Everything options. The screen grab confirms that the tags are present in all three files as reported by Directory Opus in the top half of the capture.

I tried renaming the .MOV file to .MP4 and to .jpg but that made no difference. I also tried with another .MOV file in case it was specific to the one I tried.

image.png (75.88 KiB) Viewed 5442 times

[tuska]

Hi,
in Windows 11 Pro (x64) Version 24H2 (OS Build 26100.2894) - 2025-01-14

... I have added tags to -3- .MOV files as a test - search queries:

D:\TMP\ tags:markierung
D:\TMP\ tags:abc
tags:Markierung

These were displayed without any problems.
 

2025-01-28_Tags for extension MOV.png (49.54 KiB) Viewed 5437 times

[aussieboykie]

From further testing on Windows 11 and Windows 10 systems it appears that tags applied to .MOV files taken recently with my iPhone are not picked up by Everything whereas tags applied to .MOV files taken last September with the same iPhone are picked up by Everything. The only thing I can think of that has changed is the iOS version. I am currently on iOS 18.3.

[therube]

Codec or similar could be different.


What does Windows (Properties | Details) show for said .mov file?
Does it show Tag?

What does MediaInfo show (compared to Windows itself)?


Have a sample .mov, with Tag, that you can throw up?

[aussieboykie]

On a short test .MOV video file which was shot yesterday I set tags and ratings using Directory Opus (see https://www.gpsoft.com.au). Directory Opus "sees" both tags and rating whereas Windows Properties sees neither. This is true for for any recent .MOV file from my iPhone 15 Pro Max.

The same tags and rating set on an older .MOV video file shot in September last year using the same phone are seen by both Directory Opus and Windows Properties. Windows recognises the older video as a video, but not the newer one (first screen grab) whereas both ARE recognised by Windows as .MOV files (second screen grab).

My guess is that a newer version of iOS has changed something in the .MOV file header which Windows doesn't recognise but Directory Opus does. See attached comparison of the first few bytes.

image.png (113.7 KiB) Viewed 5245 times

image.png (118.87 KiB) Viewed 5245 times

image.png (81.56 KiB) Viewed 5245 times

[therube]

(I have no idea about such things, but), Metadata on video files missing when downloaded to Windows 10 PC via iCloud.

[aussieboykie]

Good detective work. This is consistent with my experience. Older .MOV files shot when I was running iOS17 are fine. Newer ones shot on the same phone running iOS18 exhibit the problem. Thanks for your help with this.

[aussieboykie]

For anyone else experiencing the same issue, or the related issue of iOS18 .MOV file thumbnails not showing, the simplest solution is to use a recent version of Exiftool to tweak the file. I can confirm that Exiftool 13.18 does the job. The relevant command is:

exiftool -m -P -overwrite_original -Keys:FullFrameRatePlaybackIntent= iOS18.mov

..where iOS18.mov is the file you want to change.

See https://discussions.apple.com/thread/25 ... ortBy=rank and https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=16824.0 for more discussion.

Edit: Running the exiftool command above has the unfortunate side effect of removing at least some existing metadata, specifically tags and usercomments but there may be others. My knowledge of exiftool does not extend to knowing how to prevent this but there might be a way. I will ask in the relevant forums.