Inspiring

Question

Editing metadata generates .xmp sidecar files rather embedding in .jpg file

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
July 16, 2024
4 replies
2976 views

When editing metadata (like captions for jpg files I modify in Adobe Bridge), I noticed that some files started generating .xmp sidecars rather than simply embedding the metadata in the jpg file. It doesn't matter whether or not I set DNG files to always generate xmp files. For affected jpg files, there appears to be no way to embed the data in the file once this behavior starts happening. I started noticing this on my new Windows 11 machine (which I started using at the beginning of last month), but I suspect it was already happening on my previous Windows 10 PC.

This behavior did not happen with previous versions of ACR. I've tested Adobe Camera RAW 16.0, 16.1, and 16.2 (which I'm now using) and all properly modify the jpg file without generating a sidecar (if I delete the xmp files generated by ACR 16.3/16.4, I can re-edit the caption to fix affected .jpg files).

This is unfortunate since I started using the generative AI remove feature that was introduced in ACR 16.3 (and in recent versions of Lightroom). I'm guessing those edits aren't preserved if I use ACR 16.2 to open files processed with the AI-enhanced remove (I tend to do initial edits in Lightroom, but polish my edits in Bridge / ACR before making any final edits in Photoshop). Lightroom Classic now warns me if I try to open a file for edit in Photoshop since it says I need to have 16.4 installed or some things might not render correctly.

Windows

philipking

Inspiring

This is an issue I reported in June in the Bridge forum which first occured with Camera Raw 16.3.1

My customary workflow is to use Bridge to add keywords to JPG files.

After updating to Camera Raw 16.3.1 I found that instead of embedding the keywords an XMP sidecar file was generated for some JPGs, but not all.

After furher testing it seems that the common factor with the affected JPGs is that they were originally exported from PSDs which include an amount of AI generated content.

My workaround was to downgrade to Camera Raw 16.0, which solved the issue and allowed embedding as normal.

Today I updated CR to 16.5 to test if the issue of generating XMP sidecars is still there, which it is.

Downgrading again to CR 16.0 has restored proper function.

eric_brbAuthor

Inspiring

I too upgraded to 16.5 hoping it addressed the issue I saw starting from 16.3 and initially thought the jpg xmp sidecar issue was fixed, but I think you found the piece of the puzzle I hadn't. Using Adobe's generative AI before saving the JPG seems to be what causes the JPG to produce xmp files. Even if you remove the generative AI layer from the layered file (without merging it down) and save a JPG, the resulting JPG will produce xmp files on further metadata edits. I'm rolling back as well, but to 16.2.

Erik Bloodaxe

Legend

You appear to be referring to two completely different things. First you mention editing metadata in Bridge when you say sidecars are generated but then you refer to editing jpeg files in Camera Raw. One question, how are you opening jpeg files in Camera Raw? Do you have ACR preferences set to enable jpeg support are are you opening your jpegs in Photoshop and using the Camera Raw filter?

eric_brbAuthor

Inspiring

As far as I know, by default, Bridge uses Adobe Camera Raw to modify JPG metadata. I haven't directly opened a jpg file from Bridge in Photoshop without it first going to the camera raw dialog in ages, so I just assume that's the usual workflow for most.

Either way, all of these JPGs were generated first by processing RAW photos (CR2 / CR3 files from my Canon cameras, DNG and an occasional JPG from my smartphone).

L

Lumigraphics

Legend

Do you think it's not something that will be corrected? IMO it's more like a bug, in the end a JPEG is a JPEG

Its not a bug if its working as-designed. Why they do it this way is up for debate though.

K

Ksasa

Known Participant

Same is starting to happen with my Bridge too, but I'm on a Mac.

Might this be an issue of the latest Bridge version?

eric_brbAuthor

Inspiring

As I mentioned, it's specific to 16.3 or 16.4 versions of Adobe Camera RAW (which Bridge uses to open / edit RAW files). It is not present in 16.0, 16.1, or 16.2.

I was previously discussing this issue in another thread, but I wanted to post it as a bug. In the other thread, someone posted how to download previous versions of Adobe Camera RAW for Mac (and I figured out where to find the Windows equivalents).

Rikk Flohr_Photography

Community Manager

A quick question:
Have you enabled Content Credentials for the files that are not behaving as expected?

The behavior is correct for Content Credential - activated images.

Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org

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