Extract text from Metadata files (DESCRIPTION)
To convert DESCRIPTION Metadata to another format, you need Git or other Developer software.
To convert other file formats to the "Metadata Text File" file type, you need software like Git or a similar tool.
A .description file is a plain text metadata container used primarily in two distinct technical contexts: version control and media archiving. Most commonly, it serves as the Repository Description File within Git environments (specifically for GitWeb interfaces), where it stores a brief summary of the project's purpose. Alternatively, these files are generated by media download utilities like youtube-dl or yt-dlp to save the video description text alongside downloaded media content.
The main issue for users is that .description is not a registered file extension on Windows or macOS. Double-clicking the file results in an "Open with..." dialog or an error message, despite the content being standard ASCII or UTF-8 text. While advanced users know to force-open these with a code editor, casual users may fear the file is corrupt or unreadable. Furthermore, raw text files lack the formatting and portability required for formal documentation or archiving.
To resolve access issues, users should convert these files to TXT to establish a permanent association with text editors like Notepad or TextEdit. For archiving video metadata or project summaries in a non-editable format, converting to PDF is the standard best practice. If the file contains structured data (common in some metadata implementations), converting to JSON allows for easier parsing by other applications.
Convert.Guru analyzes your DESCRIPTION file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted IMAGE, HTML and VIDEO files.
If you want to convert DESCRIPTION file to IMAGE, HTML, VIDEO, TXT, RTF, DOC, DOCX, ODT, PAGES, TEX, LATEX or MD, you can use Git or similar software from the "Repository or Video Metadata" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert PDF, DOC, ASC, TODO, NFO, MEMO, README, DOCX, JPG, TXT, NOTE or RTF files to DESCRIPTION, try Git or another comparable tool in the "Repository or Video Metadata" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our DESCRIPTION converter.