Inspiring

Question

Randomly Loses my Edits After Converting from RAF to DNG

Forum|Forum|5 months ago
October 21, 2025
3 replies
365 views

I'm wondering if anyone has seen this before and has an explanation for what is going on. I shoot Fuji RAF format and have a preset on Import that applies my preferred profiles & default Develop settings. Sometimes I make a few other edits before eventually converting all my images to DNG (typically I wait until I'm connected to a power source to do the DNG Conversion because it drains my laptop battery).

Here's the random bug I've experienced over the last few versions of LR: I'll batch convert hundreds of images from RAF to DNG in LR. Then I'll notice that some random images have lost all my edits - including the default edits applied on Import. The History Panel will show "From Metadata" and if I go back one state everything is back the way I had it before the conversion. (see screen recording of one such file)

It's quite annoying to have to go back through ALL my images and check each one to see if it has lost the edits as there is no way to filter and see only the ones affected (the tell tale sign is that my Fuji profile is lost and replaced with the default "Adobe Standard")

* Mac OSX 15.7.1, Lightroom Classic 14.5.1, Camera Raw 17.5 (however this issue has occurred over several older versions as well)

Screen_Recording_2025-10-16_at_1-05-31 PM.zip

macOS

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rwhaunAuthor

Inspiring

UPDATE: I just did another conversion of 106 RAF images to DNG. This time I made sure I did not hit CMD-S on the RAF files before the conversion. As I went back through all 106 DNGs, I found there were 4 random images that had reverted back to default Develop Settings (Profile: Adobe Standard, all sliders set to 0). No metadata like Caption, keywords, location was lost - only all the Develop settings. Their latest History state read "From Metadata" and when I simply click back to the prior state "Export - Hard Drive" I get all my Develop adjustments back.

dj_paige

Legend

In my understanding of the problem, Ctrl-S cannot cause this. However using the equivalent menu command might cause this if you accidentally select the item below "Save Metadata to File", which is "Read Metadata from File". We all have clicked on the wrong thing from time to time. But your statements are clear, you don't use the menus. So none of what you describe leads me to a potential solution, and now certainly your latest description of the problem increases my belief that I was nowhere close to figuring out the cause or solution.

It is still my belief that Lightroom Classic does not change the edits on your photos by itself. But I have no idea what the cause is.

dj_paige

Legend

Are you by any chance using the Lightroom Classic menu command Read Metadata from Files on any of these photos?

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rwhaunAuthor

Inspiring

No, unless it is has some shortcut key that I'm accidentally hitting at random. I'll convert a whole batch and then usually I'll happen to pull one up in Develop and notice how desaturated and low contrast it looks then see that it reverted back to default RAW settings. Then I have the painstaking task of going through all of them and checking each one. Then I'll find a handful of others that had the issue. They are never together in a group - always spaced out and random.

dj_paige

Legend

Did you at any time use the menu command Photo->Save Metadata from File on any of these photos?

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Aleke

Community Manager

Hi @rwhaun, thanks so much for reaching out!
If you don’t mind, could you share a sample RAW file that shows the issue? This will help us look into it more closely. You can use a file-sharing service like Google Drive or Dropbox, just make sure the link is set to public so we can access it.
Really appreciate your help!
Alek

*(If you mention me with an @, like @Aleke, I’ll get a notification and can respond faster.)*

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rwhaunAuthor

Inspiring

@Aleke Here is the file from the screencap video in my post.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ux50c7xkjjormm6lc7h2n/20250923MP0041.DNG?rlkey=4a5pw5wwobxo44e87rdb7s06o&dl=0

If you look in the History states you'll see the first thing done was Import (when my profile settings were applied), then all I did was two crop adjustments before I converted it to DNG (the conversion is not recorded in the history). Then somehow after the conversion the "From Metadata" action happened on its own when the new DNG was added to the library in place of the old RAF.

dj_paige

Legend

I'm sorry, but you will not like this answer. It is my experience that LrC does not add or remove edits on its own. Something happened to cause "From Metadata" to appear in the history, and whatever that something is was caused by user action. Having been a Lightroom user for 20 years, and reading these forums for most of those years, I am not aware of a single case of LrC performing or removing edits on its own. Now perhaps this is a brand new bug in 14.5.1 that has never appeared before and it causes "From Metadata" to appear in history, but in my opinion the chances of this being the case are very remote and unlikely, and no one else has reported such a problem. (Sometimes people report there are no edits at all, nothing in History except the Import step, which is a different issue)

Having said that, even if I'm 100% wrong, I don't see how the suggestion of providing the RAW or DNG would help solve this. Edit steps are not stored in the RAW or DNG (only the final edited position is stored in the DNG), so I think going down that step will not lead to a solution.

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