AVIF - cannot write EXIF data?

[duittenb]

Team,

First of all: in my quest to "fix my photos" - things like dates/formats/locations/etc XnView has been very valuable, good job!!

When using the AVIF format I noticed that
- JPGs converted to AVIF have GPS and time metadata in the Exif fields
- AVIFs where you edit the metadata Timestamp or GPS will not change.

So it looks like that the "metadata Timestamp or GPS" feature does not support updating AVIF exif data.
Is that a known limitation or a bug?

XnView MP 1.7.2 64-bit (MacOSX) - Libformat 7.180

Thank you!

[xnview]

yes currently, you can't edit EXIF on AVIF

[duittenb]

Are there any updates on the AVIF metadata edit support?

The past 2 years all of my photos are AVIF and I really really miss using XnViewMP!

What (seems to) works?
- Convert JPG with location, time etc set. to AVIF

What fails?
- Edit GPS location of AVIF or WebP --> not updated


Any workarounds?

[xnview]

please use latest version

[duittenb]

please use latest version

Thank you for the quick response!

Just ran the update from 1.9.9 to 1.9.10 (MacOS) and tested:
- Image: iPhone 13 HEIC image with GPS data
- convert to AVIF: gps data transferred = OK, expected.
- convert to WEBP gps data transferred = OK, expected.

Tested with both of these images:
- Right click photo, metadata, edit GPS
- Paste location copied from another photo or Google maps
- Write

Result: GPS data not updated (checked GPS data via several applications, but it has not changed)
Also restarted XnViewMP and laptop.

UPDATE
When starting XNview via commandline I noticed the following logging:

Code: Select all

Build for: macOS110000/26.2.0 25.2.0 16KB ARMv8 AArch64; libc++190102; Apple Clang17.0.0 (clang-1700.0.13.5); 03:47:27 Sep 30 2025. 
==> 1.000000  1.000000  110.000002  72.000000  (0)
dlopen: rwz_sdk 
    ->  dlopen(/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/rwz_sdk.dylib, 0x0001): tried: '/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/rwz_sdk.dylib' (no such file), '/System/Volumes/Preboot/Cryptexes/OS/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/rwz_sdk.dylib' (no such file), '/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/rwz_sdk.dylib' (no such file)
dlopen: libwebp 
dlopen: libJPEGXL 
dlopen: openjp2 
shell-init: error retrieving current directory: getcwd: cannot access parent directories: No such file or directory
shell-init: error retrieving current directory: getcwd: cannot access parent directories: No such file or directory
dlopen: libflif 
    ->  dlopen(/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/libflif.dylib, 0x0001): tried: '/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/libflif.dylib' (no such file), '/System/Volumes/Preboot/Cryptexes/OS/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/libflif.dylib' (no such file), '/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/libflif.dylib' (no such file)
dlopen: AVIFlib 
    ->  dlopen(/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/AVIFlib.dylib, 0x0001): tried: '/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/AVIFlib.dylib' (no such file), '/System/Volumes/Preboot/Cryptexes/OS/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/AVIFlib.dylib' (no such file), '/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/AVIFlib.dylib' (no such file)
dlopen: libJPEGXL 
dlopen: gpr 
    ->  dlopen(/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/gpr.dylib, 0x0001): tried: '/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/gpr.dylib' (no such file), '/System/Volumes/Preboot/Cryptexes/OS/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/gpr.dylib' (no such file), '/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/gpr.dylib' (no such file)
dlopen: libora 
    ->  dlopen(/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/libora.dylib, 0x0001): tried: '/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/libora.dylib' (no such file), '/System/Volumes/Preboot/Cryptexes/OS/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/libora.dylib' (no such file), '/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/libora.dylib' (no such file)
dlopen: packJPG 
    ->  dlopen(/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/packJPG.dylib, 0x0001): tried: '/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/packJPG.dylib' (no such file), '/System/Volumes/Preboot/Cryptexes/OS/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/packJPG.dylib' (no such file), '/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/packJPG.dylib' (no such file)
dlopen: clip 
    ->  dlopen(/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/clip.dylib, 0x0001): tried: '/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/clip.dylib' (no such file), '/System/Volumes/Preboot/Cryptexes/OS/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/clip.dylib' (no such file), '/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/clip.dylib' (no such file)
dlopen: clip 
    ->  dlopen(/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/clip.dylib, 0x0001): tried: '/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/clip.dylib' (no such file), '/System/Volumes/Preboot/Cryptexes/OS/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/clip.dylib' (no such file), '/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/clip.dylib' (no such file)
dlopen: xisf 
    ->  dlopen(/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/xisf.dylib, 0x0001): tried: '/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/xisf.dylib' (no such file), '/System/Volumes/Preboot/Cryptexes/OS/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/xisf.dylib' (no such file), '/Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/xisf.dylib' (no such file)
----> 0 0 
XNVIEW restoreGeometry before : 640 480 
XNVIEW restoreGeometry after : 2067 1292 

A quick check of the Plugins folder:

Code: Select all

$ ls -la /Applications/XnViewMP.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins
total 23584
drwxr-xr-x@ 9 my_username  admin      288 Jan 15 09:02 .
drwxr-xr-x@ 6 my_username  admin      192 Jan 15 09:03 ..
-rw-r--r--@ 1 my_username  admin  1394960 Jan 15 09:02 libheif.dylib
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 my_username  admin  1428512 Jan 15 09:02 libJPEGXL.dylib
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 my_username  admin  6438944 Jan 15 09:02 libOpenEXR.dylib
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 my_username  admin  1170672 Jan 15 09:02 libwebp.dylib
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 my_username  admin   119056 Jan 15 09:02 libwebpdemux.dylib
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 my_username  admin   171872 Jan 15 09:02 libwebpmux.dylib
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 my_username  admin  1337424 Jan 15 09:02 openjp2.dylib

Could it be that MacOS does not have these libraries by default and that XnView does not provide them during install?

[xnview]

right on MacOS, we need to update Exiftool...