P: Suggested location fields get erased when you edit any location field

[johnrellis]

After LR suggests addresses for a photo, editing one of the location fields erases the other suggested location fields. This bug was fixed in LR 7.5 in 2108, and the fix worked through 10.4. But then 11.0 broke it again, most likely another bug in the metadata caching in <catalog>Helper.lrdata introduced in LR 11.0.

I never noticed this, and probably many others didn't notice this, because they were using the Commit Locations command of the Any Tag plugin, which is required to work around other, unrelated bugs with suggested addresses.

To reproduce in LR 13.0.1:

1. Drag a photo with no location metadata to the map and wait for LR to fill in the location fields with a suggested address:

2. Change one of the suggested fields or a blank field (e.g. Sublocation):

3. Select another photo in the filmstrip and then select the original photo. Observe that the suggested fields have been cleared:

[MrApricots]

As currently configured, Address Lookup in Lightroom Classic not only stops address lookup, but removes any suggested lookup data in all of the IPTC location fields when any one field is edited and data manually entered. Instead, it would be more convenient to have a catalog metadata settings option to allow separate IPTC location metadata lookups. For example, allow the City, State, and Country to be looked up and allow me to enter the Sublocation. That should also allow me to pick a setting deciding if entering any IPTC location metadata removes all the other ones (the current capability) or just change the specific field I edited.

An example of when this capability would be useful is with photos I took in Japan where the Address Lookup filled in odd or nearby city and state values that I want to correct for a whole set of photos but now as soon as I edited one of those fields the other field data disappeared. Another use case is for photos I took of the passing scenary from a train. I want Address lookup to tell me the city and state, but I want the sublocation to be "On Train". Again, when I add that sublocation (even if the sublocation field is blank because address lookup didn't find a sublocation nearby) the city, state, and country fields became blank. 

As a work around, I first commit all the address lookup data by using John Rellis' plugin 'AnyTag', then I edit the fields I want to change.

[johnrellis]

"Address Lookup in Lightroom Classic not only stops address lookup, but removes any suggested lookup data in all of the IPTC location fields when any one field is edited and data manually entered."

This bug was fixed in LR 7.5 and the fixed worked through 10.4 But then 11.0 introduced a new metadata caching mechanism (<catalog> Helper.lrdata) and there have been many bugs with it.  Most likely this is yet another bug that's remained undiscovered because most people who care are using the Any Tag plugin to commit locations (required to work around other bugs with suggested addresses).

I filed a new bug report:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/suggested-location-fields-get-erased-when-you-... 

If this bug were fixed, I think that would handle the use cases you describe?

[johnrellis]

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

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/suggested-location-fields-get-erased-when-you-...

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Thanks for the report, John. I've logged it.