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Lightroom writes metadata only in some jpgs, others get xmp sidecars. Why?

Forum|Forum|2 days ago
July 20, 2026
8 replies
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How do I get Lightroom to write the metadata directly into the original jpgs?

In my Lightroom catalogue are two folders with images from my smartphone (Pixel 9 Pro). One contains the original jpgs plus dng raw files of some of those images. The second folder holds images edited on my phone with Snapseed. I use Lightroom to edit the keywords and filenames.

If I add keywords to a Snapseed edited photo those keywords are immediately written into the jpg image but if I do the same for an original photo the keywords are stored in a xmp file. Even if I manually ask Lightroom via right click Metadata > Write Metadata to file all I get is a xmp sidecar.

Correct answer johnrellis

[View this post in your web browser. It contains formatting and images that don't appear in email.]

Examining the photos with “exiftool -a -G” shows what the issue is. The straight-from-the-camera JPEG created by the phone has content credentials added by Pixel camera:

[JUMBF]         JUMD Type                       : (cbor)-0011-0010-800000aa00389b71
[JUMBF]         JUMD Label                      : c2pa.actions.v2
[JUMBF]         Actions Action                  : c2pa.created
[JUMBF]         Actions Description             : Created by Pixel Camera.
[JUMBF]         Actions Digital Source Type     : http://cv.iptc.org/newscodes/digitalsourcetype/computationalCapture

Adobe says that to avoid invalidating the digital signature of the credentials (which is based on the entire contents of the file), it writes a separate .xmp sidecar containing the updated metadata:

See here for an overview of content credentials:

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/apps/adobe-content-authenticity/content-credentials/overview.html

johnrellisCorrect answer

Legend

[View this post in your web browser. It contains formatting and images that don't appear in email.]

Examining the photos with “exiftool -a -G” shows what the issue is. The straight-from-the-camera JPEG created by the phone has content credentials added by Pixel camera:

[JUMBF]         JUMD Type                       : (cbor)-0011-0010-800000aa00389b71
[JUMBF]         JUMD Label                      : c2pa.actions.v2
[JUMBF]         Actions Action                  : c2pa.created
[JUMBF]         Actions Description             : Created by Pixel Camera.
[JUMBF]         Actions Digital Source Type     : http://cv.iptc.org/newscodes/digitalsourcetype/computationalCapture

Adobe says that to avoid invalidating the digital signature of the credentials (which is based on the entire contents of the file), it writes a separate .xmp sidecar containing the updated metadata:

See here for an overview of content credentials:

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/apps/adobe-content-authenticity/content-credentials/overview.html

O

olidieAuthor

Known Participant

Wow, that’s a great find, John. Thank you very much.
It seems that content credentials can’t be disabled but I can use exiftool to delete them.

O

olidieAuthor

Known Participant

Thank you @richardplondon for you answers.

Further testing seems to prove my idea that Lr refuses to write metadata to “original” jpgs. I took a picture where Lr would only write a xmp sidecar, delete ALL metadata with Exiftool and voilà Lr writes the keywords into the jpg file. Now I would like to find out which is the relevent EXIF field to delete….

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olidieAuthor

Known Participant

PXL… is the original file (from a Pixel 9 Pro) that LR won’t write metadata to but create a xmp sidecate. Edited… is the same image edited in snapseed (Android) that LR writes metadata to as wanted.

Here you go: https://www.picdrop.com/olidie/yWSosqBL4i

johnrellis

Legend

[View this post in your web browser. It contains formatting and images that don't appear in email.]

Upload two of the problem original JPEGs to Wetransfer, Dropbox, Google Drive or similar free service and post the sharing link here. Don’t try to attach the JPEGs here -- the forum platform will “helpfully” convert them to Webp format.

We can see if the problem happens in other installations and, if so, what might be causing it. More efficient than playing 20 questions.

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

Are you using Content Credentials?

-- Johan W. Elzenga

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olidieAuthor

Known Participant

No.

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

Check that the file is not locked. If it is, then Lightroom will resort to writing an xmp sidecar file.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

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olidieAuthor

Known Participant

@dj_paige Yes, 100% sure. When trying to safe metadata to the original JPG all I get is a xmp sidecar and the IPTC of the JPG stays empty. And yes, I am using Lightroom Classic.

@richardplondon DNG and JPG are imported as independent files. DNG files can be written with IPTC metadata unlike most other RAW formats. When I edit the jpg and export it the metadata is written in the resulting jpg.

I am assuming that LR handles original files differently than exported/edited JPGs.

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richardplondon

Community Expert

The status of “original” vs “derived export” is important to understand IMO, but if exported JPG versions are set to re-import into the Catalog, this eliminates that distinction.

If not re-imported a derived file CAN be later overwritten under the same name; can be separately managed on disk without impact for the Catalog; and this removes all need to tell originals and derived versions apart within the Catalog.

IMO the rationale for showing an image thumbnail in the Catalog, be that a master copy or a virtual copy, is because you want to dynamically organise it in a library sense, so that it can usefully underlie some edited version (or versions), and act as a source for output.

Derived exported JPGs tend to be statically organised by filename and folder; will not often themselves underlie further editing change (because you would be better off going back to the working image from which they were derived in the first place) so the rationale for re-importing those is IMO rather thin.

All that said, yes a JPG can perfectly well act as an original. The nondestructive editing and metadata writing are subtly different than with a Raw, and the external editing options available are more fundamentally different too, since destructive change can be executed directly ON a bitmap’s file content (by “Edit Original”, or else onto a new file copy of that original). Conversely a Raw based original can only be externally edited FROM (by “Edit a Copy with Lr Adjustments”) without possibility of changing image content; metadata / preview at most.

Yet, we work with either JPG/TIFF/whatever or with proprietary Raw/DNG more or less interchangeably. There are various reasons metadata may not write out to a file that is normally capable of receiving that. Those include permissions; file locking; incompatibility. Metadata also does not write out for a virtual copy (but in that case an XMP would not be created either).

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richardplondon

Community Expert

One consideration: sometimes a Raw+JPG pair is imported into Lightroom Classic, and that is not set to import as independent images. In this case since the JPG of the pair is not the one being edited, that is not where metadata changes are directed (when LrC is told to write those out).

Usually the Raw cannot receive LrC metadata within itself (exception being, when that is in a DNG wrapper), thus the only means available to the Catalog is to make a discrete XMP sidecar file.

Taking the situation where one IS editing from a JPG directly, I suppose there could in principle be incompatibility (of the particular JPG file) that may prevent metadata being written into the file header by the Catalog. In that case I would anticipate an error message rather than a separate XMP sidecar: generally speaking, the expectation will be that JPG can receive metadata OK.

One very easy check for working from Raw data: the color temp control in the White Balance section of Basic panel shows an absolute Kelvin-degrees assignment scale, rather than a relative warmer / cooler adjustment scale (with a central zero point).

dj_paige

Legend

Assuming you mean Lightroom Classic and not Lightroom:

According to this document, Lightroom Classic does indeed write metadata directly to JPGs. Are you 100% sure these are JPGs that wind up with .xmp files? That’s the first thing I would check.

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