Conventionally, photo organization applications provide databases that store information associated with a collection of photos. The photo organization applications provide metadata that may be used by a user to organize the collections of photos. The photo organization application conventionally utilizes a database to associate the metadata with the multimedia files. Because the metadata is not written back to the file, the user is limited to using the photo organization application on the client that created the metadata.
Some photo organizations application may allow the user to expressly indicate that metadata should be stored with the photos and the database. When the metadata is stored with the photos, a user may transfer the photos to a different client and retain the organization structure created by the photo organization application. However, the photo organizations applications that allow the metadata to be written back to photos suffer from long latency periods during which the client is unable to access the photos. Furthermore, the photo organization applications do not provide a user with the status of the metadata write backs. Consequently, a client may exit the photo organization application prior to the completing the write back operations for the photos. The premature exit of the photo organization application may cause the photo to lose some metadata.