Error message "unable to read metadata this file may be corrupt"

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Level 1

4 points

Error message "unable to read metadata this file may be corrupt"

I am on a 2017 iMac running 13.7.6. I'm using a Nikon DSLR camera for pictures. I have never had an issue like this before, and we take a lot of pictures. The pictures are on a chip. They are copied to a thumb drive. Now some are corrupt, but the odd thing is they are BOTH corrupt for the exact same picture. The chip we only took out of the camera and put into the computer to pull off the images. The thumb drive went to Walgreens for printing. While these files organ illy opened, now I need to pull some info from the pictures, they suddenly become corrupt. How do I fix this? How do I prevent it from happening again? Why would the files on both devices be corrupt? Of course pictures are due in 3 hours to a fair, so we will have to do the best we can.

iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 13.7

Posted on Jul 21, 2025 6:23 AM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,768 points

Jul 31, 2025 8:17 AM in response to mamasnowwolf

At what point do these files ever get onto the computer, from your description? The thumb drive gets plugged into a Mac and the files are renamed, but in your description the files are copied back and forth between drives.

Perhaps it's time to reformat the Card from the camera, which is something you do, with the camera.

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Answer 2

markwmsn

Level 6

16,715 points

Jul 21, 2025 12:12 PM in response to mamasnowwolf

The symptoms you describe could be interpreted as being corrupted images being copied from the camera card to the thumb drive.

At what point were they viewable/openable? In the camera? During the copy step?

What program(s) made the copy?

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Answer 3

mamasnowwolf Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 30, 2025 6:41 AM in response to Yer_Man

Sorry I couldn't reply sooner, it was fair week and I was never home to check the files. This is a long story involving my iMac (2017) my dad's laptop MacBook Pro (2023) and a Nikon D3100 DSLR, thumb drives and a camera chip.

I tok all the pictures off the chip and put them on the thumb drive so I could keep the chip intact just for an occasion like this. My son took the MacBook and put the thumb drive on the laptop, name, sorted and labeled photos so he could print just what he needed.

He then moved these to a different thumb drive. Go to the store for prints. There's about 20 photos that the machine can't read (there was 75 total) Go back to the chip on the laptop and pull the 20 photos off, get them printed.

When we came home, we realized there were photos needed for the project that didn't print at the store (son's fault for not double checking) so we needed to print them out. The issue with this is now that the chip was in the laptop, some of those photos were "empty" and couldn't be opened.

I have moved photos between the iMac, chip and thumb drive lots and lots of time and never had an issue. IT wasn't until we introduced the laptop that we started to have issues.

I plan to do a factory reset on the laptop. I'm open to suggestions if there is an issue on the laptop. Dad liked to play "follow the link" and often clicked on things he shouldn't. So it may have some funny things on it. If you have suggestions to make sure the disk is clean, let me know.

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Answer 4

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,768 points

Jul 21, 2025 7:56 AM in response to mamasnowwolf

I'm wondering where any Apple product is involved in your issue. This seems be a problem with your "chips", by which I mean the flash cards from the camera. Can you explain more?

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Answer 5

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,768 points

Jul 30, 2025 6:56 AM in response to mamasnowwolf

The problem you describe is all about one or more of the thumb drives or the card from the camera being faulty.

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Answer 6

mamasnowwolf Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 31, 2025 7:00 AM in response to Yer_Man

The thing that seems to cause the problem here is the laptop. IT is a MacBook Pro. Everything worked just fine until I started plugging it in to the MacBook.

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