Cannot access file metadata from Windows v1809

This is a bit of a head scratcher.

I am migrating from one PC to the other, both using Windows 10, but different builds. My problem is that I cannot access some of the file metadata from Windows v1809 (the new computer).

A complicated process that I run weekly relies on being able to access the Title of each of some 3000 PDF files. This Title changes when a genuinely new file is created. The actual file name does not. All 3000 are recreated every week by the source regardless of whether there is any change, so I cannot rely on creation date. I can then identify new and old files by comparing with last week.

I access the Title by using the GetDetailsOf function, running within Excel VBA. The Title can also be viewed under the PDF information tab if you look at Properties within File Manager. It also pops into view if you hover over the file nameOn the new PC GetDetails returns a null string rather than the Title. Not much chance of detecting what is new when all files are called ".pdf"!

After pursuing a few red herrings, I realised that it was unlikely to be my coding, as the PDF Information tab was not visible any more, nor did the Title reveal itself when hovering.The Title is visible using a modest bit of free software called PDFill PDF Tools, so the Title still exists. However, with 3000 files this has to be done programatically and the chance of being able to do that from VBA is almost certainly zero!

The first PC is v1803 (build 17134.648) and uses Office 2010. The computer was upgraded from Windows 7, which went OK.

The second PC uses v1809 (build 17763.379) and uses Office 365.

So ... the Title info that I need is there but something has been done to Windows 10 that blocks access to it (unless somehow it is related to it being a new build rather than an upgrade, which seems unlikely). It cannot be Office 365 because File Manager no longer supports the two manual methods of seeing the Title either.

Any ideas welcome!

Thanks Dalchina.

I'll try that tomorrow, though it will be a very pleasant surprise if I can operate it from within VBA!

Is this a known issue with 1809? Unless there is a security issue with metadata being editable, I can't see why any sensible software company would deliberately remove this functionality.

On a quick inspection, File Association Manager would enable me to add a Title but not to view the Title that already exists. I could be wrong...

... but to my surprise I find I can use good ol' unreliable Sendkeys to grab the Title and stick it in a cell, which of course I can then use as a variable if necessary. I know Sendkeys is frowned upon but it has never actually let me down in the past.

I can post the code if required but basically it involves sending keystrokes to the free PDF handling program to tab to the right button, select the button, feed in the (variable) file name, copy the Title, then more tabbing to exit. Select a cell on my worksheet, paste the value and it's done.

Looping through 3000 files is the next step but the logic should be pretty simple (he wrote with misplaced confidence).

I really didn't expect this to work at all...

To update on this...

While Sendkeys "works" up to a point, it depends very much on the right window being open at the right time, which in practice seems to mean putting in Application.Wait commands to keep things in sync. Even then I doubt it would be reliable cycling through 3000 iterations in a macro. I got it up to about 300 before a crash but that took best part of an hour, so even if it did work a procedure which was taking 30 seconds accessing the attributes through Windows would take hours using Sendkeys. So I am going to have to look for another solution.

Can anyone confirm that v1809 (or at least my build) does not have the functionality to access extended file metadata and that there is no "magic switch" somewhere in Settings which would bring the capability back?

It would also be "interesting" to know whether it was done intentionally or by accident and if a future upgrade might bring it back.

Solution!

On another forum, I was (slowly!) persuaded that this wasn't about Windows as such but that some utility must have been giving me the capacity to access additional PDF metadata. I installed the File Metadata management program to which you had pointed me on the old PC as well and - glory be - it showed a handler for PDFs, describing it as "PDF-XChange PDF Property Handler."

This came from a program PDF-XChange Viewer which I had trialled for quite different reasons but never used in anger. Without my realising it, it had added functionality which I was then able to exploit using VBA. This Viewer is free and still available (though development work is now concentrated on PDF-XChange Editor. I installed it on the new PC - and there were the extra metadata, visible as before via File Explorer and also available to VBA!

I still think this should be bog standard Windows functionality for a common file type, particularly as the Title will often document archived files better than the file name. In this example, there was individuality in the Titles field which was missing from the file name, because successive editions were given the same file name in order to catch a standard link. I think that is quite common where you have almost a "time series" of documents.

One moral is NOT to dejunk your PC too vigorously, or I would have lost the facility without having a clue how to reinstate it. Another is not to assume the cause of a symptom! Eventually I started looking down the right end of the telescope. And in the end the File Metadata program, although it was not the answer itself (as it gave no access to existing Title data) it identified the utility which was. So thanks very much for your help.