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A
Alessandro de Leo
Participating Frequently
March 12, 2018
Question

Creating XMP with Lightroom

  • March 12, 2018
  • 4 replies
  • 7912 views

Hi everybody,

I worked for years with Bridge + Camera Raw + Photoshop to edit my photos, and I'm learning Lightroom Classic CC (7.2) for job reasons.

When I edit a raw file in CR a .xmp file is created, but it seems that LR isn't doing that. I edit a raw in LR, but if I open the directory in Windows I can't find any xmp, there is just the CR2 file.

“Automatically write changes into XMP” is turned on, so I can't figure out what the problem is!

I manage to create an xmp only if I click on "Metadata - Save metadata to file" (CTRL + S).

Do I have to do this everytime?

Hope you can help me!

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    4 replies

    R
    richardplondon
    Community Expert
    June 19, 2018

    Just on one point of clarification, turning on the “automatically write XMP” option will not immediately create XMP files for all your photos. Just, that will happen hereafter, as you work on individual photos.

    Another important point: XMP does not reflect all of LR’s picture organisation nor show its editing History on a given photo. And in particular, Virtual Copy versions are not seen at all, except within the Catalog.

    A
    Alessandro de LeoAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    March 13, 2018

    I created just one catalog to import all my photos, so it contains 8600 files (6200 Raw and PSD, 2400 Jpeg). Is this the problem? My catalog is too big?

    Anyway, all my attempts were made on Canon .CR2 files, so it should have worked.

    Jim Wilde
    Jim Wilde
    Community Expert
    March 13, 2018

    https://forums.adobe.com/people/Alessandro+de+Leo  wrote

    I created just one catalog to import all my photos, so it contains 8600 files (6200 Raw and PSD, 2400 Jpeg). Is this the problem? My catalog is too big?

    Not really, in fact in Lightroom terms that's very small. No matter, it was just an idle thought that maybe you had a huge catalog of newly updated pictures which LR was slowly working it's way through. But that now seems very unlikely.

    Which leaves us with the problem of trying to figure out why the automatic XMP writing isn't happening as it should. If you are certain that "Auto write to XMP" is correctly enabled in the Catalog Settings, and after making changes to a Raw file you do not see the XMP sidecar being created (it's pretty well instant on my systems), all I can suggest is a Preferences reset (which can clear up otherwise unexplained problems). See here: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-do-i-reset-lightrooms-preferences/

    A
    Alessandro de LeoAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    March 13, 2018

    I've tried again and now everything works fine, XMP are created in a second. I've done nothing, but the problem seems solved.

    I've no idea what's going on, but if it works it's ok for me!

    EDIT:
    Everything works fine if I edit a file located on my PC, but no XMP is created if the file is on an external hard disk (unless I press CTRL+S).

    Just Shoot Me
    Just Shoot Me
    Brainiac
    March 12, 2018

    To have LR create a XMP file you have to turn on the option in the Catalog Settings of LR to do that.

    The option is "Automatically write changes into XMP".

    By default LR only stores the edits you make in the Catalog file. With that option checked it saves the edits to both the catalog file and into a XMP sidecar file.

      K
      keithm17485684
      New Participant
      June 19, 2018

      Thanks for the graphics, made it very easy for me to turn the Lightroom .XMP function on and now they are beside the .CR2 files just like in Photoshop. Very happy with this answer.

      D
      dj_paige
      Brainiac
      March 12, 2018
      When I edit a raw file in CR a .xmp file is created

      If that's a typo and should say LR instead of CR, then this is an incorrect statement. The default operation of LR does not create XMP files. You can do Ctrl-S on multiple selected photos, or turn on the option to automatically write changes to XMP.

      If you're not seeing the xmp file, then my ​guess​ is that you imported the photo into LR using the COPY option and not the ADD option, and so you need to find the photo and its xmp file in the folder you copied it into.

      JP Hess
      JP Hess
      Inspiring
      March 12, 2018

      It's not an incorrect statement. The OP indicated that when editing in CR (Camera Raw) an XMP file is created. That's true, at least it is in my case.

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