P: Save Metadata To File doesn't change metadata status, Read Metadata From File doesn't always work

this is what has worked for me  so far:

1. attempt Save Metadata to File.

2. if that doesn't work Read Metadata from File.  Sometimes that is sufficient.

3. if step 2 doesn't do it, Save Metadata to File again. 

So far this has worked for everything I've tried it on.

I just ran into these problems, and documented a variety of frustrations here: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic/metadata-status-still-broken/m-p/12146062.

These metadata problems seem to be very serious indeed, and I do hope that the Lr team will prioritize them over any new features: being able to read and write image settings to files reliably seems to me the most essential property of Lr. Note also that there seem to be some serious catalog import bugs too, which I mention in one of my posts there (eg, collection custom order being broken by an import of a catalog that includes some of the photos in the collection but no collection of that name).

A serious symptom of this bug: Converting a raw with a non-zero crop angle to DNG loses the crop.  To reproduce:

1. Crop a raw file with a non-zero crop angle.

2. Do Library > Convert Photo To DNG with these settings:

See here for the original report:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic/lightroom-classic-10-3-removes-cropping-settings-when-converting-to-lossy-dngs/td-p/12112702

@Rikk What's the other bug filed for the crop issue? I posted details about a reproduceable bug with crops not being honored (and 'reset') when doing a Read Metadata command in LR Classic. It looks like it was merged into this thread- see the details below. 
- - -
Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation originally titled Lightroom Classic: Crop settings are reset when metadata is changed

FYI, George, I looked back and do not find any posts from you on this subject, either as a comment, reply or origination of a post.  I do see you've made some 'private' posts along the way. Typically, those are not easily seen by staff and we are working to have the private checkbox disabled.  Make sure you don't check the private option if you want to be seen and responded to.  

Of course it is possible that I missed your post or that you posted under a different address than that which you posted here.  Rest assured - there is no royalty and no one is ignored or 'poo fooed' 

I asked a question about this issue a very long time ago. Much longer than 5 months ago. So long ago I don't remember exactly when and I don't know how to find it. I reported that even after correcting metadata update errors I kept seeing them on the same images and on old images I hadn't touched in years or months. But since I am not part of the royalty on this forum I was ignored and poo fooed. 

Does Adobe really expect that the average amateur home enthusiast  will have the time not to mention the skills to document and do extensive testing and research like building new catalogs and such to do their programmers jobs?

Adobe needs to take their average non-professional users seriously and find a better way to validate our complaints. After all we pay for the subscription too. Many of us have been using Lightroom for many, many years.

Sincerely, 

George E Givens, Jr.

I upgraded to 10.2. In my smart collection that contains images with unsaved metadata I have 5 images, 4 TIFF and 1 PSD. All have the arrow indicating changes in Lightroom Classic that have not been saved. 1 image is originally a raw file (PSD), the others are scans (TIFF). Running both Save Metadata to file and Read Metadata from file produced no change in their metadata status. None of them have a b&w treatment. Three of the TIFF files have a crop applied. Other images that appear in the smart collection (mix of raw, jpg, tiff, psd) do save appropriately. But some like these files can linger for weeks or months and then one day the save or read "works." Apparently something is still not right even though this problem is listed as a fixed bug in the announcement.

Correct: The fix has been made for the BW issue but not the crop. That is filed on a different bug. Though it appears related it is a separate issue. 

I observe the same as Robert Somrak: LR 10.2 fixes the problem with black & white but not crop angle. The bug recipe posted above still fails with crop angle:

https://feedback.photoshop.com/conversations/lightroom-classic/lightroom-classic-save-metadata-to-file-doesnt-change-metadata-status-read-metadata-from-file-doesnt-always-work/5fdbda743a4b973cd0edccf0?commentId=5fe43e6e1544d52a90aa05d2 

Just checked out as well that the Crop and Rotate issue on the latest Lightroom Classic V10.2 still persist.