ADOBE MAKE BRIDGE AND LIGHTROOM PLAY NICE! NOW!

[MarkGilvey]

I've grown very tired of this STILL being an issue. Why can't, no wait, you've done that already; instead, please make metadata update from LR to Bridge and Bridge to LR!! Enough already, just make it happen.

[Theresa J · Accepted solution]

I’m not sure that I understand your question. You can share metadata between Bridge and Lightroom, but it starts by saving metadata externally from Lightroom. Bridge is only a browser or viewer for the contents of your computer. So if there is some metadata in a folder, or embedded in a file, Bridge will see it. Lightroom is a database, so it saves the metadata inside of the database. You can save Lightroom metadata externally by turning on the preference to save changes automatically, or you can save it one file at a time with a CMD or CNTRL S.

Here’s a video I recorded about metadata conflict warnings that might help How to deal with Lightroom Metadata Conflict Warnings - YouTube

[MarkGilvey]

Hi Teresa,

Thank you for the link. That is a really great video explaining how to handle metadata changes and for the sake of anyone else reading this, I encourage you to watch it!

I did not know that I could save the changes to the metadata (is it just me or does everyone type the word metadata as "meatdata" on the first time LOL). Also, when I say metadata, I'm referring to the text edits you can make in IPTC and not any changes to the post processing that LR might write to the database.

A couple things to discuss:

1. I don't see any way to tell Lightroom (in the prefs) to save metadata changes made in LR to the file. This is not something I want to have to think about (by pressing CMD/CNTRL S). If I edit metadata, I'm editing metadata, not a permutation of it or Lightroom's version of it, I expect it to update the metadata in the physical file. Make it automatic or give me the choice. Point me in the right place in the prefs please.
2. I knew that LR was database driven but I always thought that metadata in general was a database, even though it's inside a file. That said if LR gives you access to the metadata, and lets you change it, to me, it should automatically put that info in the file or call it something else and not "metadata". If people need to have the several files with different metadata in each because output needs that specific info, then give it some other type of name other than "metadata" while it's in LR; LRmeta. But not the word "metadata." The word metadata implies that it's accessing the metadata of the file you have selected, if I change it in LR or BRIDGE they should automatically update each other.
3. There is a hole in this process; If I have a raw file imported into LR and I apply changes to it (in LR) and then I decide that I need to update one of the metadata fields in Bridge, when I got back into LR and see the "!" click and accept the changes made in Bridge, all the edits I did in LR get thrown out (just because of a text change in the metadata done in Bridge.) Keep in mind, this isn't about choosing LR to edit all the metadata and not Bridge, I should be able to do both whiteout having to think about it. That is my complaint to Adobe.
4. I disagree that Bridge is "just" a browser. If it were only that, they wouldn't give you the ability to edit metadata. From a DAM perspective, it makes more sense to edit it here than anywhere else because you can view the metadata on pretty much any file type. I always thought that letting LR update metadata was a mistake but they probably had to do it that way because it is database driven. That's fine, but, and I'll say it again, if I'm looking at something called "metadata" I'm expecting any change made in it within LR will automatically update the file as well and will be reflected in Bridge and vice versa. I shouldn't have to go to an extra step to tell Bridge (or any other program that accesses the file) that the metadata has been updated.

I've always felt that Bridge has been under developed, neglected. I use it all the time to make contact sheets as PDFs when I need to because LR doesn't do it the same plus, I don't want to have to open LR to create a new catalog just because I want to make a PDF of certain images. Anywho.

I think if I can find where to set LR to automatically write metadata changes (without having to press CMD/CNTRL S on every file, that will fix a bunch of problems—I hope this could be an application level change and not just a catalog level change. I've found a workaround for #3 by duplicating the RAW file and giving it a new name with the same LR edits and then never updating the metadata. Then I can sync it to my original RAW file whenever LR throws out the changes due to an external edit.

[Theresa J]

Hi Mark, I completely agree that Bridge is an under developed application. Perhaps it has been neglected for awhile, but I know there is a team working on it now. Hopefully we will start to see some nice improvements in the near future. For example, I think it would be great to make IPTC Core metadata changes in Bridge and then send it to Lightroom without having to open Lightroom. Maybe that's just a dream, but it would be nice.

The auto save option from Lightroom is found in the catalog settings. I attached a screen capture. Be aware that this may slow things down though. With this preference turned on, Lightroom is constantly writing information to your drive.

[Kat Gilbert]

Agree with Theresa- Hoping that Lr and Br will find a union that works in unison. I have tried Lr but being a Br user there are many hoops to jump through before it is a done deal. Keep asking and hopefully we will both get there in the near future!

[Theresa J]

I honestly don’t find it too big of a problem to work with both applications right now. Much of what I view with Bridge is work I don’t import into Lightroom.

Any edits that you have made with Bridge and ACR will get pulled into Lightroom when you do an import. This part works great. The challenge is when you go back and do later edits or metadata changes in a folder that has already been imported to Lightroom. Sending external edits into Lightroom from Bridge is more challenging than going the other way around. Getting edits, or any other metadata out of Lightroom is easy.