diff --git a/app/assets/services/bulk_ingest.py b/app/assets/services/bulk_ingest.py
index 67aad838f..658a08067 100644
--- a/app/assets/services/bulk_ingest.py
+++ b/app/assets/services/bulk_ingest.py
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ class SeedAssetSpec(TypedDict):
     info_name: str
     tags: list[str]
     fname: str
-    metadata: ExtractedMetadata | None
+    metadata: ExtractedMetadata | dict[str, Any] | None
     hash: str | None
     mime_type: str | None
     job_id: str | None
@@ -152,8 +152,10 @@ def batch_insert_seed_assets(
 
         # Build user_metadata from extracted metadata or fallback to filename
         extracted_metadata = spec.get("metadata")
-        if extracted_metadata:
-            user_metadata: dict[str, Any] | None = extracted_metadata.to_user_metadata()
+        if isinstance(extracted_metadata, dict):
+            user_metadata: dict[str, Any] | None = extracted_metadata
+        elif extracted_metadata:
+            user_metadata = extracted_metadata.to_user_metadata()
         elif spec["fname"]:
             user_metadata = {"filename": spec["fname"]}
         else:
diff --git a/app/assets/services/ingest.py b/app/assets/services/ingest.py
index 286adbf0b..81a81ae03 100644
--- a/app/assets/services/ingest.py
+++ b/app/assets/services/ingest.py
@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ def ingest_existing_file(
         "info_name": name,
         "tags": tags,
         "fname": os.path.basename(abs_path),
-        "metadata": None,
+        "metadata": user_metadata,
         "hash": None,
         "mime_type": mime_type,
         "job_id": job_id,