Can we get a complete list of information that will be stored in dop files?

The reason I’m asking is that I moved all my RAW files and their corresponding dop files to a new drive and noticed that the pick / reject flags (green light / red light) were missing. Not a huge issue as I typically delete the rejected images soon after culling, but I also usually give it a couple of days. I immediately delete the ones that are obviously technically garbage such as missed focus or when a bird has already moved out of my frame, but for ones I just don’t like immediately, I prefer to be able to change my mind. Either way, I now have a few folders of images to go through again and repeat the culling process.

Anyways, I wonder if there is anything else that may get lost when moving disks or continuing to edit the files on another computer.
The star rating gets written to the dop files along with keywords and most importantly any edits (albeit without history as it seems).
I also already figured out that all virtual copies of a RAW file are kept in the single dop file for the RAW file.

I suppose a complete list of things that are ONLY kept in the database might be helpful if that’s easier to compile.

DOP files are pretty complicated. Have you ever looked into one? You can open them with any plain text editor if you want to see.

As for a complete list, that could be difficult because it can optionally include FilmPack and ViewPoint.

I don’t find that the .dop files are complicated…
The question about what “things” are stored in these file is simple: It depends!

The things I can find in a .dop sidecar written by DPL5 on Mac

  • Customising settings (probably all)
  • GPS coordinates
  • Keyword hierarchy
  • IPTC (all fields that PL provides)
  • Owner and Copyright as set in camera
  • Misc. info like timestamps and file IDs
  • Name of the default preset used (even if it’s not matching the current name)

The things I can’t find in a .dop sidecar written by DPL5 on Mac

  • Customising history
  • Camera, lens etc. info (EXIF stuff)
  • Name of last preset used (see here fore details)
  • Pick/reject flags

:man_shrugging:

I agree with @platypus, the dop files aren’t complicated to read at all, probably even if you’re not familiar with XML. I actually have a little script to rename my RAW files as the original file names only have 4-digit numbers in them (e.g. IMG_1234.CR2 currently becomes IMG_31234.CR2 as I’ve shot more than 30k photos with my Canon 80D) that even modifies the dop file in case I forgot to do the renaming before I do any edits.

I just wanted to take the guess work as well as trial and error out of the equation by getting a high level list (such as: complete edits, complete keywords, no pick/reject, star ratings). If I start doing something new I need to know whether that will end up in the dop file or just the database.
For example, I expect that any edits get written to the dop file, but I don’t know if that would include the settings from any presets applied or would DPL5 only record which preset was applied ? (the latter would mean that if I change the preset later on and re-export an image, the result would be different, i.e not good). What about u-points or masks I used during the edit? (I haven’t actually tried whether I can revisit them at all, to be honest).

If you look at a .dop file with a text editor, you’ll not find a preset name, but all the individual settings that came with the preset.

att. @Musashi
CORRECTION: Preset names are stored too - but only the name of the default preset - but weirdly:

AppliedPresetDisplayName = “4 - Keine Korrektur”,
AppliedPresetUniqueName = “DEFAULTS/4 - No correction.preset”,

While written with DPL5, No Correction is labeled with number 4, which is not what the settings and the preset editor tell me…

I suspect that the preset number came in when the database was updated from DPL2 to DPL3 to DPL4 to DPL5 and was NOT UPDATED, even though I applied a different preset at a later time. This basically means that the preset info is true, but useless imo.

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I used to make these flags match my other software’s colour labels using an operating system script for PL4, but PL5 seems to ignore that setting in the DOP files. Now I use keywords.

Good morning,

Here is the typical sidecar but in pdf with my comments: DSC02626.ARW.pdf (398.3 KB)

Regards,
Svetlana G.

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