Find photos missing metadata

Overview

Find Missing narrows the current selection to the files that lack a chosen metadata field — for example, images with no caption, no photographer, or no GPS coordinates. It is read-only — it never writes metadata or moves files; it only changes which files are selected.

Pick a field from the same category-grouped dropdown (General, Creator Contact, Location, Editorial, Rights & Licensing, Technical, Classification & AI, Scientific — Taxonomy, Scientific — Observation, and Archive). The label above the dropdown reads 'Find files missing:' in this mode.

There is no value picker. Find Missing is a presence check: Archyv scans the selected folders and keeps the files where the chosen field is absent or empty, so the run is fully set up the moment you start it. The aggregate fields run their full alias chain — 'Missing Photographer', for instance, treats a file that carries any one of the photographer tags (such as an EXIF Artist) as present, not missing.

The four date fields — Date Created, Date/Time Original, Modify Date, and Metadata Date — are read the same way Metadata Review and the Metadata Editor read them. Date Created uses a photo's own Date Created when it has one, and otherwise falls back to the camera's capture time, so a camera-original RAW file that only carries its capture time is no longer reported as missing a Date Created. As a result, what Find Missing keeps here agrees with what Metadata Review and the Metadata Editor show for these dates.

Scanning covers the whole folder hierarchy, and cloud files are read within a built-in timeout — large or slow-syncing files may need to finish downloading first.

When to Use

Reach for Find Missing when you need to find the gaps in a collection — the files that still need work before a delivery or publishing run. It keeps only the files that lack a chosen field, so it suits quality-control sweeps such as surfacing images with no caption, photos that have not yet had a photographer attributed, or archive media without GPS coordinates. Because it only selects, it is the safe way to round up the files that need fixing before sending them to attribution, the Metadata Editor, or another Archyv process.

Requirements

Select the folder(s) to scan in the left Folder Navigator panel; the scan includes every subfolder
Choose a field from the 'Find files missing:' dropdown, where fields are grouped under the ten category submenus
Supported formats: common images (JPEG, PNG, TIFF, HEIC, and more), RAW files from major camera brands, and video (MP4, MOV, M4V, and more)
Cloud files are read within a built-in timeout; large or slow-syncing files may need to finish downloading first
Find Missing is a presence check with no values to pick — it keeps the files where the chosen field is absent or empty, reading each field with the same per-field extractors Find Existing uses
The aggregate fields (Photographer, Location, Camera, Date) run their full alias chain, so a file that carries any one of the underlying tags is treated as present, not missing
A 0,0 GPS coordinate — the placeholder a device writes when GPS was off — counts as missing, and a star Rating stored as 0 ('Unrated') counts as missing
File Type, File Extension, and Size are not offered here — every file has them, so 'missing' is meaningless for those

How to Use

Select the folder(s) to scan in the left Folder Navigator panel; the scan includes every subfolder
Open the 'Find files missing:' dropdown and choose a field by name — fields are grouped under the same category submenus
Click 'Start' — there is nothing else to pick. Find Missing is a presence check, so the scan runs straight through and selects the files that lack the field
The matching files are selected in place in the left Folder Navigator panel, ready for another Archyv process — for example, attribute a photographer to the files that were missing one
Use 'Refresh' to clear the selection and try a different field or folder

Tips & Important Notes

This process replaces the current selection — it is folder-based, not additive
The selection stays until you run again, click 'Refresh', or change it yourself
Large folders take time to scan, and cloud files are read within a built-in timeout — large or slow-syncing files may need to finish downloading first
There is no value picker and no fixed-vocabulary shortcut — Find Missing only asks whether the chosen field is present on each file, so the run is fully set up the moment you click 'Start'
An aggregate field can surprise you: 'Missing Photographer' skips a file that carries even one photographer tag, so a file credited only in an unexpected field (an XPAuthor or a QuickTime author atom) is treated as already attributed
Use Find Missing for quality control — rounding up the files that still need a caption, a photographer, or coordinates before a delivery or publishing run