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1b0r90
Inspiring
November 1, 2023
Answered

Error writing metadata when working with smart previews

  • November 1, 2023
  • 4 replies
  • 4300 views

My workflow involves editing smart previews on another computer most of the time. Something seems to be broken in the latest update, because after making any edit to the image I get an exclamation mark with the message "Error writing metadata". I had no issue with this in the past up till today and did not change anything in my workflow or settings either.

 

Current version: Lightroom Classic 13.0.1

    Correct answer 1b0r90

    Solution:
    I seem to have found the root of the issue by extensively testing a few different options in the meantime. My findings are that a special character in the folder name containing the photos was causing LR to not recognize that the original photos were not present when opening the catalog from my Mac.

    After renaming the folder and relinking it in LR, the catalog works as expected, switching to Smart Previews editing on the Mac without producing the metadata write error.

    4 replies

    1
    1b0r90AuthorCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    November 2, 2023

    Solution:
    I seem to have found the root of the issue by extensively testing a few different options in the meantime. My findings are that a special character in the folder name containing the photos was causing LR to not recognize that the original photos were not present when opening the catalog from my Mac.

    After renaming the folder and relinking it in LR, the catalog works as expected, switching to Smart Previews editing on the Mac without producing the metadata write error.

    wellsj46764092
    wellsj46764092
    Participant
    June 15, 2024

    Had the same problem and after reading this post I noticed that the collections folder I was editing in had the & symbol in the name. I renamed and the problem resolved. Thanks for the detective work!

     

    D
    DhandaNot
    Known Participant
    September 22, 2025

    I have this problem even when there is so special character in the folder name. I have selected the photos and "Import from disk". The ! mark goes away

     

    But the problem is back when I open the Catlog again.

    DhandaNot
    1
    1b0r90Author
    Inspiring
    November 1, 2023

    Update:

    I have just noticed that even though the original files are not present on my Mac, Lightroom still displays "Original + Smart Preview" below the histogram. So somehow LR doesn't recognizes that the media is missing and that is why it is trying to do something with the metadata resulting in an error.

     

    I have also tested to create a new catalog file on the Mac from some random images stored on an external ssd drive and created Smart Previews for them. After ejecting the drive the text below the histogram changed to "Smart Preview" and after editing the photos there were no errors.

     

    So it seems that the error only occurs when to using the same catalog file over two devices.

    Hopefully there is a workaround or fix for this, because I don't intend to store my images on external drives and don't have that amount (3Tb+) space on my MacBook either to keep them there, but would prefer to edit on it.

    JohanElzenga
    Community Expert
    JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 1, 2023

    "So it seems that the error only occurs when to using the same catalog file over two devices."

    You may have found something. Like I said, I also have seen this on some images and I use Lightroom Classic on one computer only. Recently I did have to completely erase my hard disk and reinstall everything (obviously including my catalog) from a backup however, because my computer would not boot anymore. I think that is when I noticed some images showing this issue. My images are on a separate drive, so only the catalog folder (so also the smart previews) was reinstalled.

     

    -- Johan W. Elzenga
    GoldingD
    GoldingD
    Legend
    November 1, 2023

    Any missing photos?

    1
    1b0r90Author
    Inspiring
    November 1, 2023

    All photos are stored on my desktop PC. I generate smart previews and 1:1 previews on import, then I exit Lightroom Classic and open the same catalog file with the whole folder stucture including the previews.lrdata, smartpreviews.lrdata and etc. folders in the same version of LRC my MacBook Pro for editing. So at the time I do the edits the originals are not there, that is why smart previews functionality exists. LR shouldn't complain about not being able to save the metadata as it knows I am editing the smart preview. I use this workflow without an issue for about 8-10 months when I bought this Mac. The latest update seems to have messed this up.

    1
    1b0r90Author
    Inspiring
    November 1, 2023

    To add to this. Also when I open this catalog on my PC with the originals there, the error still doesn't resolve on it's own, but I need to click the exclamation marks next to all of the edited images one by one and chose to 'retry saving metadata' for the error to go away.

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