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A
aru_______
Participating Frequently
May 6, 2026
Question

Lightroom Classic xmp files not generated or lost

  • May 6, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 72 views

Hi, I have been using Lightroom for years. I discovered that the last edits I did on images for a job were not saved -150 images :(. My images are Raw (NEF), all the settings are good: “saving metadata” not on pause, “automatically write changes into sidecar files (xmp)” set, I am not editing my raw files from images where they were imported (they are in the right explorer file) All of my other RAW images in explorer have their xmp next to them, but not these 150 ones. The thing I have been experiencing lately is, when I close Lightroom, it tells me that it is still writing the xmp. And I wait and wait (for hours sometimes) and the status never changes. So I have to close Lightroom nevertheless. 

I don’t know if the xmp files have not been created or if they have been saved somewhere else. And I don’t know how to solve this problem, at least for the next edits I’ll do. One of the weird things is that the rating of the files (one, two stars) was saved - the ratings should also appear in an xmp file, still I don’t see them in Explorer, but it gives me some hope that something was created and is somewhere. 

Has anybody faced the same problem? And can anyone help? thanks

    2 replies

    A
    aru_______Author
    Participating Frequently
    May 6, 2026

    Thank you for your response, I can tell you I didn’t import the files twice - there were 900, I would remember. And I just checked out and there are only one photo of each. 

    dj_paige
    dj_paige
    Legend
    May 6, 2026

    And I just checked out and there are only one photo of each. 


    Does this mean you followed my four-step procedure, performing all four steps in order and then looking at the results?

    A
    aru_______Author
    Participating Frequently
    May 6, 2026

    yes I did. One picture each time.

    dj_paige
    dj_paige
    Legend
    May 6, 2026

    My first thought is that there you have accidentally imported the files into LrC more than once. You edited one copy but not the other, so the other copy has no .xmp.

     

    To see if this is correct, please follow all four steps below in the LrC Library Module, in order, and then report back if it finds two (or more) copies of a given photo.

    1. Click on All Photographs (its on the left of the Library Module, under Catalog)
    2. Expand all stacks (Photos->Stacking->Expand All Stacks)
    3. Turn off all filters (Ctrl-L once or twice)
    4. Search using the LrC Filter bar for one of these photos by file name.
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