Comment 4 for bug 946544

This non-destructive philosophy is a noble approach and how it should be. But as long as it is not reality I would suggest to go with a more “real world approach” for some settings. I don't know what its meant with 'other metadata's in the preference option, but for me tags are something that should be written to the file immediately – maybe separate the metadata option into two entries 'write tags' and 'write titles and other metadata to photo files'. Check the 'write tags' by default (tags do no harm anyone – as far as I know) and leave the other entry unchecked as it is right now.

As devs you have kind of a responsibility for the more unknowing users out there, they don't know about all the details, they just want it to work. For the tag example, I'm sure that I'm not the only one that has lost many photo-tagging-hours expecting a different behavior of Shotwell. I don't blame you for your non-destructive approach, I realy like what you guys (and girls?) do, but I think that the tag setting needs to be changed (for Ubuntu).

PS: I've tested the Mac photo app for ~30 min and liked Shotwell much more :)