Delay "Writing Metadata Changes into XMP" when closing despite not making any edits

Hi ​@jbinco,

Thank you for the detailed write-up. I understand the frustration, especially when the behavior occurs even without making any edits during a session. I want to help narrow down what's happening in your specific case.
 

Some context on what you may be seeing. In Lightroom Classic, the metadata status can internally mark images as "Has been changed" under certain conditions, even when the user hasn't made explicit edits. This can stem from internal metadata reconciliation (e.g., minor schema updates between LrC versions, GPS precision changes, or face detection data syncing), which then queues XMP writes on exit.

Troubleshooting steps to try:

• Before closing LrC, create a Smart Collection with the rule Metadata Status > is > Has been changed. This will show you exactly how many images LrC believes need XMP updates. Look at what they have in common: file format (DNG, RAW, TIFF?), whether they have face data, GPS info, or were recently imported/migrated from another catalog.
   

  

   

• Since the XMP writing itself is taking several minutes, that points to either a very large queue of files or slow I/O. If your catalog references files on a network drive (NAS), an external USB drive, or a cloud-synced folder, that significantly increases write time. Try temporarily moving a subset of flagged files to a local SSD and see if the exit delay drops.

• I know this sounds counterintuitive, but if you enable "Automatically write changes into XMP" under Catalog Settings > Metadata, LrC will write XMP incrementally during your session rather than batching at exit. This won't fix the issue of why images are being flagged, but it would eliminate the exit delay and let you observe in real time when/how quickly images are marked as changed (via the Smart Collection above).

• If you recently upgraded LrC, some internal metadata fields may have been updated schema-wise (e.g., new process version compatibility flags), which marks everything "dirty." A one-time CMD/CTRL+A > Metadata > Save Metadata to Files during idle time (with the app on a local catalog/local files) would flush that queue on your terms rather than at exit.

• Under Identity Plate (top-left), you can see if background tasks are active. Face indexing and reverse geocoding both silently modify metadata. Pause these if you suspect they're contributing.

  

   

To help me investigate further, a few questions:

• How large is your catalog (approximately how many images)?

• What file formats do the majority of your images use (DNG, proprietary RAW, TIFF, JPEG)?

• Where are your image files stored: local internal drive, external drive, NAS, or a cloud-synced folder?

• Did this behavior start after a specific LrC version upgrade, or has it always been present with this catalog?

• Do you use face detection or map/GPS features in Lightroom Classic?

• If you create the Smart Collection described above, approximately how many images show as "Has been changed" after simply opening the catalog without making edits?

The answers will help determine whether this is a one-time migration queue, an I/O bottleneck, or the metadata status affecting certain file types.

I appreciate your patience. I want to make sure we get to the root cause.

Best,

Anshul Saini