P: Metadata panel doesn't display captions containing double quotes

[John R Ellis]

Captions (or any field in the Metadata panel, including GPS) containing double quotes disappear from the Metadata panel. Setting the option Catalog Settings > Metadata > Automatically Write Changes Into XMP works around this bug.  The programmer probably forget to properly escape double quotes when constructing a SQL update query.

To reproduce:

1. Create a new catalog.

2. Disable the option Catalog Settings > Metadata > Automatically Write Changes Into XMP.

3. Import a single photo.

4. In the Metadata panel, enter this into the Caption field:

a"b

5. Do Edit > Select None.

6. Select the photo and observe that the Caption field is incorrectly blank.

8. Use the Show Catalog Metadata plugin's Show command to see all the photo's metadata as recorded in the catalog. Observe the line:

caption = "a\"b", 

indicating that the caption actually got recorded in the catalog.

9. Do Metadata > Save Metadata To File. Observe that the Caption now correctly shows:

a"b

Note on GPS Coordinates

This bug strikes all fields in the Metadata panel when they contain double quotes, including the GPS field.  LR's default display of coordinates uses double quotes for seconds, e.g.

37°47'45.3354" N 122°25'18.433" W

If you try to copy/paste such coordinates, they'll disappear from the Metadata panel, even though they in fact get copied. A workaround is to paste the coordinates into Google Maps and copy/paste the decimal form of the coordinates:

Tested on 11.3.1 / Mac OS 11.6.2.

[John R Ellis]

It's a bug introduced in LR 11.3 as the result of Adobe trying to speed up metadata display.  It only appears to happen when the caption contains double quotes (").  A workaround is to set the option Catalog Settings > Metadata > Automatically Write Changes Into XMP.

[John R Ellis]

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography, please merge with the existing bug report:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-metadata-panel-doesn-t-display-captions-cont...

[jonathanb3937308]

When I add a caption in the metadata panel, it disappears after I move on to the next photo and then come back to the photo in question. I've tried restarting both Lightroom and my computer. I've tried it on other photos that I've imported in the past and the issue still happens. It doesn't matter whether I copy and paste the captions in or type them out. The odd thing is that Lightroom does seem to remember the caption that I wrote because it will autofill once I start typing it again. But, once I leave that photo and come back, the caption field is empty.

The odd thing is that the first photo I added a caption to is perfectly fine and still displays the caption. But no other photos are able to remember their captions.

Running Lightroom Classic v. 11.3.1 on a MacBook Pro running MacOs Catalina 10.15.7.

[John R Ellis]

Do the captions that disappear contain double quotes (")?

[jonathanb3937308]

Why yes, and now that I changed them to single quotes, all is well. Thank you very much! I never knew this... I suppose after all these years, I've never written a caption with quotes.

[John R Ellis]

This is a recent bug, introduced in LR 11.3. You can work around it by setting the option Catalog Settings > Metadata > Automatically Write Changes Into XMP or by rolling back to LR 11.2.

[John R Ellis]

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography, please merge with the existing bug report:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-metadata-panel-doesn-t-display-captions-cont...

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Greetings,

Updates to the Adobe Photography Products were released on June 13. The update contains a fix for this issue.  Please download and the latest version of your application via the Adobe Creative Cloud Application or your respective device app store.

If you do not see the update (Mac and Win) you can refresh your Creative Cloud App with the keyboard shortcut [Ctrl/Cmd]+[Alt/Opt]+[ R ]. 

Note: App store availability can take several days for the update to appear and be available. 

Thank you for your patience.