Lightroom Classic 8.1: Altitude metadata doesn't export

When I export a file as a tif or psd (haven't tried other formats), all metadata seems to export correctly except Altitude (geoencoding). When I look at the metadata in Bridge or Photoshop, the Altitude field is blank.

G Mike

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Posted 5 months ago

5 months ago

Tom Mickow

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Appears to be working fine for me with Lr Classic 8.1 on Win10. I tried exporting to jpg, tif, & psd and all the resulting files contained altitude data.

The left side is the metadata displayed in Bridge for an exported file and the right is the original in Lr. One is displaying in meters and the other in feet, but both show the altitude.

Image httpsd2r1vs3d9006apcloudfrontnets3_images1766806RackMultipart20181212-79758-1k05xpa-Capture_inlinePNG1544635120

Some additional description of the steps you're taking and screenshots of your LR metadata info, export options, and metadata tab in Bridge would be helpful.

Also, are you on Mac or Windows?

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1 person likes this

2018-12-12T19:25:04+00:00

G Mike

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Hi Tom,

Thanks for your quick reply. I'm using Windows 7 Professional, and have had the 'Altitude' problem with previous versions of Lightroom as well, for many years.

However, after seeing your results, I looked a bit deeper, and have concluded that your end is fine, but I appear to have some problem at my end. I'm using a combination of Jeffrey Friedl's “Geoencoding Support” Plugin, and sometimes additional elevation data from the Google elevation API server.

When I simply type in an elevation in Lightroom and export, the elevation transfers (to Bridge) just as you show. However, if I use the plugin or Google entry for elevation, even though it appears on the surface to be identical information, it does NOT export.

Looks like I'm going to be using a hex editor to see what's really going on with formatting 'under the hood'.

I'll post results if I find anything meaningful out.

Thanks again for your quick reply and thorough effort. I really appreciate it.

Mike

5 months ago

G Mike

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Hi Tom,

As with many things, it's simple if you know where to look, or what to look for.

The format of the Altitude data in the xmp sidecar file that correctly exports, i.e. that which is generated within Lightroom, either by typing it in or using the Lightroom tracklog facility, is:

GPSAltitude="1391107/10000"

The format of the same data from the 'external' sources is:

GPSAltitude="139.1"

While both display correctly in the Lightroom metadata area, this latter format does NOT export, while the 'official' format of couse works correctly.

Thanks for getting me the info which pointed me in the correct direction.

Mike

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5 months ago

John R. Ellis, Champion

4298 Posts
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The XMP standard requires exif:GPSAltitude to be represented a rational number of the form numerator/denominator. So it's a bug in whatever plugin or program added the altitude as "139.1" -- that doesn't conform with the standard. (LR should also ignore the non-conforming field rather than display it in the Metadata panel.)