XMP files

First two things.

You say you Copy from the memory card to your external HDD. Then you say you open Bridge and Cull through the images and then Copy From Bridge (There are NO Files IN Bridge. Bridge is a File managemnet program that you can use to Copy files from one place, one drive/folder, to another place, drive/folder) to your external hard drive.

So you have NOT originally copied from the memeory card to a folder on the external drive or are you Moving these files from the original folder you copied them into to some other folder?

Then you go on to say you Upload them in Lightroom? Which version of Lightroom? Lr Classic, the tradition version of Lr, or the newer Cloud based version called just Lightroom?

XMP files are sidecar files that are created once you do any kind of edits to a image file in LrC, Lr or Camera RAW. These XMP file store the edits you have done as neither Lr/LrC or ACR changes the original files. So there has to be some other file to store the edits you have done.

You need to review some online tutorials on how whichever version of LR you are using works and how to poroperly work with that version of Lr. And do the same for Bridge and ACR.

Hi Chantel,

nothing to worry about. 

it appears you are working with raw images. When you open a raw image up in Adobe Camera Raw and make any kind of adjustment, that adjustment is saved in a sidecar file and this your XMP file. Raw images cannot be altered so what happens is the instructions are placed in that file. 

As long as the XMP file and the raw image are in the same folder than all is fine but if they are separated (or tossed) than all you did is also lost. 

One way around this is to convert the raw image into a DNG file. This kind of file is a container file and that XMP data is saved within the DNG. 

Personaly I think Your approach is a bit of a time waster. I'd bring the images directly into LRC and so all my culling, keeping, tossing, and adjustments all at the same time, but that's just me. I also convert all of my images into DNG when I import them into LRC as well. 

if you have any more questions, just ask!