Edited photos lose original metadata
Using Immich to perform a simple exit, I.e. rotating an image 90 degrees, results in the newly saved image not having any of the original metadata. The edited photo jumps to the front of the timeline with the current date/time instead of original date/time and no longer shows camera information.
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:wave: Hey @biglilsteve,
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If this ticket can be closed you can use the /close command, and re-open it later if needed.yes, this is tracked in a feature request already
Apologies - thanks.
@Zeus - may I ask if there is a link to that FR?
because all I could find was a discussion (which seems to have died off) in discord about this issue.
Discussions are the place for feature requests. Issues are only there to track bugs
You mean GitHub discussions hopefully?
How else is one going to keep track of this?
What I found is a discord discussion
Yes I mean GitHub discussions.
Can you please link the discussion?
Is it this one you meant?
https://github.com/immich-app/immich/discussions/11542
It does not even have an input of the developers, so I fear that is the wrong one?
[Discussion] [Feature] Edited pictures should get the same attributes than the original picture (immich-app/immich#11542)
Primarily #1695 which turned into a general "support editing" feature request. #11470 is kind of closer to what you're describing, though from a technical stand point it'll be solved by the former
[Discussion] [Feature]: Image rotation (immich-app/immich#1695)
[Discussion] [Feature] Photo editor: keep exif info, creation date and shared album (immich-app/immich#11470)
Tl;dr mobile currently has a half-baked editing implementation that simply duplicates the asset and then stores the edit as a new file on the device. That is completely isolated. We won't make it easier to merge that back in, since the proper solution will be to support (basic) edits within Immich (on the server) for both web and mobile
We probably never should have added that feature lol
I agree with Zeus at this point
I fear, in all the noise, what gets missed is that an edit is not a new picture.
- Either, we edit the original and that is a deliberate action. Up to the user to make that choice
- Or, we do it like macOS which does do duplicates, but merges them under the edited (so the user only see the edit but can "go back")
meta data is at all times preserved.
I did never notice the webUI currently does not support editing at all. So, from my part, I will for now go under the idea of "immich just does not support edit", it is easier to deal with looking at it like this
But I would really like to stress the importance of NOT duplicating an asset (visibly, as a second, "orphan" asset). This is just absurd (sorry, I am in lack of other words). It assumes the user wants to maintain mistakes as permanent artifacts, which makes no sense for a photo library.
I think no one expects immich to be a photoshop. Trivial things like fix up a rotation, perhaps a crop, is what makes, in the end, an image library and gallery "lookable"
Of the shared tickets I feel that none of both really stress this point. One wants immich to be able to edit images... the other that it edits photos and duplicates it truly
Both will, at the current state of discussion, not lead to the feature where a duplication is (at least visually) avoided.
In its current form? Agreed
It’s a known issue. If the current impl isn’t to your liking I would recommend not using it
Ha, you bet of course.
I can't use it lol. I would have to ... no, not even going there.
I am not saying you have to run because I say so, lol
What I am saying is that with what we have now, and what thesse tickets "request" - we have more mess than not having that feature (thus why, I agree, maybe should not be there at all)
However, a library withotu the ability to rotate a photo, while preserving metadata, is also borderline useful as an actual replacement to the known mega-tools, which immich does aim to be, after all.
And I guess, what I miss is a clear path on this issue
It seems a bit... a lot is requested, but in all the requests, the real issue is missed.
Typical case of needing to say "no" as maintainers at times. We missed it here
There can be a no to "too much" and a yes to "makes sense, but lets do it properly" 🙂
It might not be that explicit in writing, but we have a pretty clear idea in mind of how editing should look like and what it entails
Which includes not duplicating assets
OK, this does sound reassuring, I guess!
Planned for 2025 Basic editor Basic photo editing capabilitiesThis? https://immich.app/roadmap/
Yeah
At this point who knows if we still manage to get it in in 2025 though tbh, things are taking longer than expected
OK. If this
Which includes not duplicating assets goes with it, I am sold and happy.But we'll get to it eventually
Be that 2028, I do not care.
It does.
After all, it is a in-development tool. So, no one in his right mind can expect a soon or now
Thanks a lot!
Currently the plan is to store a list of edits with an asset, which is applied when necessary (e.g. when generating thumbs). That list can then be edited to undo edits
But TBD and might change!
Yeah, that is exactly how macOS does it too, and somehow, they always got the "just works" mojo
Very nice, thank you @Daniel and @Zeus for this short interaction here, I can rest calmly now lol.