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Pixolli
December 8, 2025
Question

Metadata disappearing after editing RAW images with ACR and saving from ACR to DNG

  • December 8, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 198 views

Hello all,

I am a photographer and need some advice I guess ...

 

Here is the situation: When I load a raw image from the camera into Photo Mechanic, the IPTC metadata stored in Photo Mechanic (PM) is loaded onto the image. I then select the images in PM by tagging them and mark them with a color class. After I have done this, there are two files in the corresponding original directory on the hard drive: the original .NEF file and an .XMP file with the same name.

I continue to edit the images with Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) by starting Photoshop straight from PM and perform color correction and tone value correction. I then save the edited images from ACR into .dng format to the same directory where the .NEF and .XMP files are already located. After saving from ACR, there are now three files (.NEF, .XMP, and .dng) in the directory. At this point, all metadata (captions, tagging, color class, etc.) from the RAW file is still correct and preserved in the .dng file.

I then close ACR by clicking the “Done” button within ACR. At this point, another .xmp file is written to the same directory. There are now four files (.NEF, .XMP, .dng, .xmp) with the same file name in this directory. However, all of a sudden at this point in time PM no longer displays any metadata for the .dng file. All previously filled fields on the .dng file prior to closing ACR are now empty after pressing the "Done" button within ACR. Also the tagging and color class have disappeared..

 

The file extensions in this not are deliberately shown in upper and lower case, exactly as they appear on the hard drive. I am on a Macbook Pro M1 with Tahoe 26.1.0 Release and using ACR 18.0. Any advise from the community on this issue?

 

Thanks for some help and best regards, Oliver

2 replies

D Fosse
Community Expert
D FosseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
December 8, 2025

You're making this too complicated. Just make a copy and convert to DNG (in Bridge, Lightroom or, for that matter, the standalone DNG converter).

 

When a proprietary raw format is converted to DNG, existing metadata in the sidecar is written to the DNG header.

P
PixolliAuthor
December 8, 2025

Hi D Fosse,

thanks for your response. I am a professional sports photographer and have established a workflow that allows me to get my images really fast to the enduser.  I am using this workflow for years and never had issues with it and hence I do not want to change it if at possible. The issues came with the latest updates on Photoshop and ACR. So, I am interrested to understand if the described situation is recognized by Adobe and whether that is a feature or a bug prior to changing my entire workflow ...

Best Regards, O. 

    P
    PixolliAuthor
    December 8, 2025

    Hi Ethann,

    thanks for your response, I will try to find a way to export without creating a new xmp. In ACR there is no switch that if set, no additional xmp is created. even if i do not change anything in ACR on an image when pressing the "Done" button on the unchanged image ACR generates a new .xmp. Also, there is no way i can tell PM to read metadata from the .dng file itself. As tagging, setting color classes, ratings etc. is written to the .XMP file as well, it is affected by the generated .xmp file from ACR as well ... 

    Best Regards, O.

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