Working with XMP & Metadata in Lightroom Classic

[@sheilafoster-hancock5687]

I’m glad I found this, it’s been very useful. Thank you.

[@DavidJones-yu9ky]

Ben, absolutely needed this 20 years ago!!! Wow!! This is by far the best video explaining Metadata, its symbols, what they mean and how to understand not only what it all means but explained how to fix , how to use, what to save, what is important. I have asked this question to many other teachers, many adobe techs, never explaining very well or at all THANK YOU!!! I will have to watch again, so much good info!

[@DigitalMastery]

Glad you liked it

[@keithpinn152]

Hi Ben: Thank you so much for creating and sharing this video. I only wish I had found it a few days ago. I have been working with LrC and Photo Mechanics to cull through my very large image catalogue. I thought I had everything straightened away in LrC only to find more images through PM. To compound things, more, I was added keyword information to my images via Excire Search in LR and this caused compatibility issues in PM. What a mess? After watching this video, I understand exactly what is happening in both application much more clearly. I have also subscribed to your channel, so I am looking forward to more important content. Cheers, Keith

[@Sparky-peace]

Best explanation of this otherwise confusing topic. At last I understand. Many thanks

[@MrKapkin]

Thank you for the detailed explanations and information. It was an excellent lesson as always. You know, I bought your CS2 Studio techniques book, it is still very valuable to me like a treasure and I still benefit from it.

[@DigitalMastery]

Glad to hear you're finding the book still useful. I got a copy for free at an estate sale recently!

[@MrKapkin]

@@DigitalMastery I think, the basic information you have given about photoshop in your book is still valid and very valuable. I learned a lot from you with that information. At that time, there were no books and resources about photoshop in my country. I would like to receive information about DNG from you. I mean, I note that masters like you, do not convert CR2 or other raw formats to DNG format. I would be glad if you write an information about your technically thoughts on the background of this. Thank you.

[@DigitalMastery]

@@MrKapkin The main thing is that it takes time to convert to DNG and therefore there needs to be a benefit that outweighs the time investment. Also, converting to DNG is making the file less compatible with some software that doesn't support DNG, like the stuff made by the camera manufacturer. I wouldn't talk anyone out of convert to DNG, but what is the benefit that is pushing you to want to do so?

[@MrKapkin]

@@DigitalMastery Thank you for your answer.

[@antoniosbarakos4949]

friend please help, im trying to import same presents in lightroom and appears the message ' the xmp metadata for the file contained no settings' what can i do and some of the presets ive import now working? what is going wrong?

[@oneeyedphotographer]

I set LrC to store data in .xmp files for interchangeability with Bridge.

[@BC-ni6hp]

When I select save metadata it just does nothing, last day of the semester and I can’t get my work in :)

[@jenedwards389]

I'm a bit of a newbie to Lightroom and just had my catalogue corrupt message experience and it's been hell so far lol. I cant even get LR to open. Any tips on to go forward?

[@JohnAMozzer]

Can you please show or explain exactly what happens when you import a TIFF with the embedded XMP metadata into Photoshop. Does it automatically display the image with the adjustments that were done in Lightroom Classics? Or does it involve another step? And does it depend on the version of Photoshop whether it works? Thanks.

[@rickverbanec8599]

Excellent explanation of a rather opaque feature. Thank you! I've been struggling with this since LR3 and no one has been able to explain it clearly, with examples. After 50,000 photos edited over 10 years, quite a few images show md conflicts. It would be most helpful if we were told the dates of the md choices we are offered so we know which is most recent. Or is there some way to tell now?

[@DigitalMastery]

In general, I think of my Lightroom Catalog file as being the one truth that reflects the true status of my images... the metadata saved to the files of .xmp are an extra level of backup. They can often get in conflict if you use 3rd party software that makes tiny changes to the metadata, but those changes are inconsequential to the info I trust the metadata to contain. That means that 99.625% of the time any conflict means that I should save metadata to the file to replace the info stored with the file. The only time I would ever load the metadata would be immediately after I purposefully made a meaningful and useful change to the metadata in an external app and I want Lightroom to know about it. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a single situation of when I'd need to do that... other than right after teaching a bridge/ACR class that modified an image in a meaningful way that I'd want to have reflected in Lightroom.

[@haaa]

Ben is there a way when I open my catalogue in laptop to keep the virtual copies I made in desktop? Thank you.

[@DigitalMastery]

Put your catalog on an portable external drive and bring it with you when you transition between machines.

[@CJGlynnPhotography]

Automatically writing to XMP files used to slow LR down significantly. Is there still a performance impact when ticking the preference Catalog Settings > Automatically Write Changes Into XMP

[@DigitalMastery]

It does take time to write the XMP files, but it no longer does it on every move of an adjustment slider... I think it waits until you leave the develop module or switch which image you're viewing. That made it much faster than before.

[@CJGlynnPhotography]

@@DigitalMastery Thanks, Ben. You are a masterful PS educator.

[@luisgonzalochumacero6152]

This video was great Bent! but I can't solve my problem with one photo. The problem is that I can't see the changes of my photo when I open my in Lightroom Classic. When I check the folder, my xmp is still there. Do you have some advice please?

[@DigitalMastery]

Right-click on folder in LrC and choose synchronize to attempt to force it to load the xmp info and refresh the preview.

[@luisgonzalochumacero6152]

@@DigitalMastery Thanks

[@mandy.keathley]

Hi Ben, thank you for this video! I'm running into the issue with the (Exclamation without the box) or "error writing metadata" that you discuss. This started last week when I updated to the newest Lightroom Classic 13. I've never had this happen in years of using Lightroom. I also recently started using a new external SSD, but it is happening on the old one as well. When I click "Retry Metadata Export", it creates an XMP file (which I would prefer not to have). I do NOT have the "Automatically write changes into XMP" box checked. Regardless, even after creating an XMP file, it looks ok for a while, then it shows the exclamation point error again. I can see all my raw files, nothing looks like it is missing, and I can still export with my edits -- yet it keeps showing this error over and over, randomly. Not to all photos, just some of them. I cannot figure out what is happening. I tried talking to Adobe, they had NO clue, and seemed like they didn't understand it at all. If you have any suggestions, I super appreciate it!

[@reneuhlmann]

Hi Mandy, i've got the same problem. I think, it has something to do with editing the smart previews instead of the originals. Maybe a LR bug???

[@fivesquareclimbing]

@@reneuhlmann thanks for sharing! I'm still getting it, but I can edit just fine. I figure it's a bug.

[@dmcglade]

I thought you had just overcome I problem I had had for nearly a year. The photographer for my daughter's wedding did not set the time on her camera, so all the dates and times were twelve years astray, for hundreds of photographs. All of the EXIF editing tools I found did not allow that big a correction and refused to update things. I did not want to do dozens of updates of a few days for every photo. In any case, they updated 'DateTime' not 'DateTimeOriginal'. However, by exporting the XMP sidecars, I could write a simple bit of code to apply the correction, then upload them. Sorted! Then I discover they are JPEG so it doesn't work. Damn!

[@DigitalMastery]

Have you tried Metadata>Edit Capture Time in Lightroom Classic's Library module.

[@dmcglade]

@@DigitalMastery First my apologies! It should be more 14 months, not twelve years. Yes, that was one of the more successful approaches, but I should also add that when I did succeed with one photo I got terribly confused because the 'default' display seems to show the original date time, and you need to look at the entire EXIF data to see the changed date. So with the 'default' metadata it shows '17 July 2020' but with 'EXIF' metadata it shows Date Time Original: 17/07/2020 02:16:41 Date Time: 25/09/2021 18:28:03 The date filter (unless I have selected the wrong option) , seems to work from the original time.

[@atephoto]

Very good video

[@rafam8684]

¡muy bueno!