Which properties are lost when windows says x.jpg has properties that can't be copied to the new location
The problem, I think, is caused by a transfer between file systems. Your photos must currently be on NTFS, and being transferred to UFS?
The metadata that is being discarded is created by windows in the first place, so is not important.
To check, try copying the file and viewing all of the properties in an EXIF viewer. As long as you have the date, camera, exposure, etc. all matching then I think that'd be enough information.
I'd guess that the information being discarded relates to the user who created and modified the file, and some cache info.
I have found that files stored in the Dropbox storage synchronized folder in Windows have an alternate stream com.dropbox.attributes in the stored file, which contains information used by Dropbox storage system.
I used a small command line utility from SysInternals - Streams - to look at a simple jpg picture in my Dropbox storage. The utility displays alternate streams (think of alternate streams as stealth information stored alongside the original content when under NTFS). This is what I get:
c:\Temp>streams "C:\Store\Dropbox\Camera Uploads\2015-02-10 20.12.14.jpg"
Streams v1.56 - Enumerate alternate NTFS data streams
Copyright (C) 1999-2007 Mark Russinovich Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com
C:\Store\Dropbox\Camera Uploads\2015-02-10 20.12.14.jpg:
:com.dropbox.attributes:$DATA 507
Hence it seems to me that ONLY Dropbox storage relevant information is lost when transferring the file to a nonNTFS store. In conclusion I would not have a problem transfering the files as such. Hope it helps. Cris
Well, you have received a lot of partially correct or just flat out bad information from people guessing about the answer. In fact, the NTFS file system used first in Windows NT and eventually adopted by all new Microsoft operating systems supports a system called ADS (Alternate Data Streams). Any file that uses one or more properties of ADS and is copied to a file system that doesn't support ADS, that data will be lost. That data could be inconsequential to you or very important. Fort example, if you are using any Microsoft tools that uses ADS for something like captioning photos, leaving notes about a spreadsheet or any other feature, then it will no longer be there. However, don't confuse ADS with other applications proprietary formats, for example, you could leave a note on a spreadsheet file about it's purpose using ADS, and that would be lost, but, if you were actually in a program like Excel and used the information feature to leave yourself that exact same note, it would not be lost because the application doesn't use the ADS feature. You can more about it on a Microsoft Forum here: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-files/are-you-sure-you-want-to-copy-this-file-without/fa810b7e-f228-4661-9789-2090175dd7de?auth=1 You can also learn how to use it here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/105763