P: Creating XMPs after import but before edits.

ok!

Thank you all for your support, very useful.  I realize it might be a bug in the last LRC version. Personally the setting "Automatically write changes into xmp" is very useful, I prefer to leave it on.  At the moment I simply erase the xmp files from disk after importing, as a workaround.

Re the two post above. I read all the pictures from their metadate, did this in year blocks. Didn't take too long to go through them, but took the computer a couple of hours to process it all and at the end emerged with thousands of keywords that I had throught was deleted. So again, selecting all for each year, simply deleted the keywords to the pictures, and then deleted the keywords. Did that by dragging loads into one keyword, and then deleting that. Again, quick to do but the computer took a while to catch up. This morning loaded lightroom and it is functioning normally.

Re my above post. I am now telling lightroom to read from the metadata to see if this resolves the issue. That's going to take some time.

Can you tell me something more about " a develop and/or a metadata preset on import" as you said?

You can apply a metadata preset and/or a develop preset on import. It's in the right panel of the import dialog. I am typing this on my iPad so I can't post a screenshot, but it should be easy to find.

@Alberto35257400ek5y , I believe what Johan is referring to is explained in the article available at the link below.

I tested some Windows LR versions with Automatically Write Changes Into XMP enabled.  LR 13.1 creates a .xmp sidecar when a raw is imported, while 12.5.1, 12.0, and 6.0 don't. (I don't have access to other versions.)

So this aligns with Adobe employee Rikk Flohr's comment about "inconsistencies between Mac and Windows regarding this issue".

"Are you running Windows or OS X. I didn't see these extra sidecars until I bought a Mac a month ago."

Mac OS 14.2.1.  Adobe employee Rikk Flohr indicated there may be a difference between Mac and Windows with this behavior, and I'll see if I can test some older versions on Windows later today.  But note that the original poster @Rukes is also on Mac OS 14.2.1. 

Are you running Windows or OS X. I didn't see these extra sidecars until I bought a Mac a month ago.

"if you have the latest Camera RAW instaled and still downgrade your Lightroom, it's still interacting with that new version."

No, LR has its own version of the Camera Raw code built-in and doesn't use the downloaded Camera Raw component of Photoshop. You can prove that to yourself by uninstalling Photoshop and Camera Raw -- LR will continue to work correctly.