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Using Windows 7. It seems like the metadata of some files is being ignored, although the metadata of most files is found just fine. (These problematic files can be found quite easily by file name.)

I have various MP4 files with some metadata (title, tags) filled in. If I put a tag in the Search box for a specific folder, a few files in that folder with that tag do not show up. For example, a file might have the tag fav (and other tags)— if I put fav or tag:fav (or any other tag for that file) in the Search box, that file will not show up. (Other files will display as expected.)

If I put the title of the file (copied exactly from the Title metadata) in the Search box, either just by itself or with tag:title (title is whatever the title is), that file will not show up.

If I put in tag:=[] to find files without tags, that file will show up even though it has several tags and, similarly, if I put in title:=[] to find files without titles, that file will show up even though it has a title.

I've rebuilt the index countless times and, in any event, I’m searching within the specific folder where I know the file is and, as I’ve said, I can search for almost all the files as expected. This weird behavior is happening with just a few files and they don’t seem unusual in any way.

How do I get the metadata of these files to be found as expected?

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    I suspect those file have the metadata in a different format which is not supported by your Windows 7. It may however be supported by a different program you may be using to view it...
    – Ángel
    Commented Aug 29, 2020 at 1:44
  • Thanks but I'm not using any other program to view the metadata. It's all in Windows 7. There is no difference in the metadata in the problem files as compared with the other files—in fact, I'm using the tags that drop down with a check mark as you enter it in the tag field.
    – Jeff W
    Commented Aug 29, 2020 at 4:47
  • @Angel probably has the correct answer. Windows doesn't support all types of metadata in all files. As an example, you can fill a PNG image with all types of EXIF and XMP metadata, but you won't be able to find any of it in a search because Windows doesn't support reading any metadata in PNG files except for the creation date.
    – StarGeek
    Commented Aug 29, 2020 at 19:19
  • Thanks, I appreciate the answer but I’m using only Windows Explorer to tag the file (usually using the drop-down check box that shows already-existing tags) and those exact tags are read for other MP4 files. I did just find a workaround of sorts: if I “convert” the file to a new MP4 file (using VLC) the same exact tags will be read by Windows. But it would be nice to know why those tags were not being read in the first place.
    – Jeff W
    Commented Aug 29, 2020 at 20:24

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