The TIFF file format is very flexible. In particular, you can create TIFF files that have colour “channels”, for example, 8-bit arrays for red, blue, green, and alpha, or you can create TIFF files that have data arrays as integers of various sizes or as floating point numbers. In addition, TIFF allows “tags” that provide metadata. GeoTIFF files use tags to provide the details the map projection, SNAP may use additional tags to specify band names and missing value codes, but not all 3rd party applications support these tags (and some refuse to load files that have “unrecognized” tags.
The GDAL software provides a gdalinfo program that can be run in a terminal to see the metadata a TIFF file. Many GUI applications, including SNAP, also provide ways to display metadata in TIFF files.
TIFF file exported from the window in SNAP6:
$ gdalinfo A2006167181000_L2_OC_chlor_a.tif
Driver: GTiff/GeoTIFF
Files: A2006167181000_L2_OC_chlor_a.tif
Size is 1354, 2020
Coordinate System is `'
Image Structure Metadata:
INTERLEAVE=PIXEL
Corner Coordinates:
Upper Left ( 0.0, 0.0)
Lower Left ( 0.0, 2020.0)
Upper Right ( 1354.0, 0.0)
Lower Right ( 1354.0, 2020.0)
Center ( 677.0, 1010.0)
Band 1 Block=1354x8 Type=Byte, ColorInterp=Red
Mask Flags: PER_DATASET ALPHA
Band 2 Block=1354x8 Type=Byte, ColorInterp=Green
Mask Flags: PER_DATASET ALPHA
Band 3 Block=1354x8 Type=Byte, ColorInterp=Blue
Mask Flags: PER_DATASET ALPHA
Band 4 Block=1354x8 Type=Byte, ColorInterp=Alpha
Exporting as geoTIFF:
$ gdalinfo A2006167181000_L2_OC_chlor_a_geo.tif
Driver: GTiff/GeoTIFF
Files: A2006167181000_L2_OC_chlor_a_geo.tif
Size is 1354, 2020
Coordinate System is:
GEOGCS["WGS 84",
DATUM["WGS_1984",
SPHEROID["WGS 84",6378137,298.257223563,
AUTHORITY["EPSG","7030"]],
AUTHORITY["EPSG","6326"]],
PRIMEM["Greenwich",0],
UNIT["degree",0.0174532925199433],
AUTHORITY["EPSG","4326"]]
Origin = (-94.631786346435547,45.830932617187500)
Pixel Size = (0.067039489746094,-0.000389099121094)
Metadata:
AREA_OR_POINT=Area
TIFFTAG_RESOLUTIONUNIT=1 (unitless)
TIFFTAG_XRESOLUTION=1
TIFFTAG_YRESOLUTION=1
Image Structure Metadata:
INTERLEAVE=PIXEL
Corner Coordinates:
Upper Left ( -94.6317863, 45.8309326) ( 94d37'54.43"W, 45d49'51.36"N)
Lower Left ( -94.6317863, 45.0449524) ( 94d37'54.43"W, 45d 2'41.83"N)
Upper Right ( -3.8603172, 45.8309326) ( 3d51'37.14"W, 45d49'51.36"N)
Lower Right ( -3.8603172, 45.0449524) ( 3d51'37.14"W, 45d 2'41.83"N)
Center ( -49.2460518, 45.4379425) ( 49d14'45.79"W, 45d26'16.59"N)
Band 1 Block=1354x1 Type=Byte, ColorInterp=Red
Mask Flags: PER_DATASET ALPHA
Band 2 Block=1354x1 Type=Byte, ColorInterp=Green
Mask Flags: PER_DATASET ALPHA
Band 3 Block=1354x1 Type=Byte, ColorInterp=Blue
Mask Flags: PER_DATASET ALPHA
Band 4 Block=1354x1 Type=Byte, ColorInterp=Alpha
You can see that this added geolocation, but you still have an RGBA image.
If you load one of these files in SNAP6 the metadata display will present much the same information in a different format. If your files are like this, you will need to adjust your workflow. If you provide more details of what you have done, someone may be able to suggest changes. There are also many tutorials
on the ESA STEP site that may give you some ideas of how to proceed.