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December 31, 2021
Open for Voting

P: Default for new metadata editing behavior should be "Selected Photos" not "Target Photo"

  • December 31, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 181 views

The new Target/Selection distinction for metadata introduced in LR 11 is documented in the "View Metadata for Target Photo" section here https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/metadata-basics-actions.html 

 

The documentation falls a little short, because this also affects editing. So, for example, if you select all the images in a shoot, and edit the IPTC Sublocation in the metadata panel, the field will only be changed for one of the images if  "Target Photo" is active.

 

The solution is to switch to "Selected Photos" before making the edit. This is not really a problem once you know about the change, but "Target Photo" is the default for the new feature. That's a bad choice, because it changes the metadata editing behavior that has existed in LR pretty much forever.

1 reply

johnrellis
Legend
January 2, 2022

Fully agree. A related problem is that LR 11 didn't retain the user's previous setting of this option (which has always been available via the menu item Metadata > Show Metadata For Target Photo Only).  This sloppy mistake has caused widespread, needless confusion among users.