Edited Photos Not Recognized After Editing & Saving In Photoshop (Metadata Import Required)

[_JC.Helms]

I'm encountering a persistent issue with Lightroom and Photoshop integration, and I'm hoping the community can help diagnose the cause. I have to take these steps below for each photo I edit. Since I'm doing real estate photos, I'll have 20 - 30 photos to composite per home and with 3 homes, that's a lot of extra time added. It's just extremely tedious and shouldn't be happening as far as I know. Here's a breakdown of the problem and the troubleshooting steps I've already taken:

Problem:

• When I edit photos in Photoshop after sending them from Lightroom via "Open as Layers," the edited versions don't automatically show up back in Lightroom after saving. I have the issue, even for single photos, that I open individually in Photoshop.
• Lightroom requires manual intervention:
  • I need to locate the edited photos and import them back into Lightroom.
    • Example: For my real estate photo shoot I have a folder imported into lighroom named "Interior". Once I edit a photo, or photos as layers, in Photoshop, save (ctrl+s) in Photoshop, and go back to Lightroom, there is a new grayed out folder in the file tree with a question mark.
    • I have to right click, find folder, navigate to folder and click select folder.
    • Once I do that I get a prompt stating that the file is already in Lightroom, do I want to merge them? .
    • I click yes to merge, the newly saved file shows up at the beginning of my library, completly grey, and has an exclamation mark at the top right of the card. It's a metadata error.
    • I click it and it says I can retry loading metadata (doesn't work btw) or import metadata from disk.
    • Importing metadata from disk finally puts the newly edited photo back in line next to the original photo with any ratings or other changes made before editing in photoshop. 
• This is done on every photo I have to edit in my workflow. Never happened before. 

Troubleshooting Steps Taken:

• Tried multiple Lightroom catalogs: I created new Lightroom catalogs to rule out catalog corruption. The issue persists.
• Reinstalled Lightroom and Photoshop: I completely uninstalled and reinstalled both Lightroom and Photoshop with all default settings. The problem continues.
• Installing older versions of Lightroom and Photoshop: This didnt' change anything. 
• Consulted with Adobe Support: Even remote access from Adobe couldn't pinpoint the exact cause. I let them use my computer for about an hour but they couldn't figure out the issue. (I have a 2 hour phone call scheduled today from senior tech support)

Additional Information:

• Lightroom Version: 13.2
• Operating System: Windows 11 (Updated daily)
• Photoshop Version: 25.6
• Nvidia RTX 2060
• 64 gb Ram
• No error messages on original import

Possible Causes (Looking for Community Input):

• Are there known conflicts with specific Photoshop settings during saving that might affect metadata?
• Could any lingering appdata (outside the main program folders) be causing the issue?
• Is there a possibility of a hardware issue with the storage drive?
• Any other potential causes or solutions the community has encountered?

P.s: I'm posting from a computer that is not my own. I'll upload some screenshots for the metadata error as soon as I'm back home on my pc. 

[_JC.Helms]

I wanted to add that I've tried saving as TIFF files and PSD files, both 16 bit and 8 bit. 

I've only recently had this issue, and it is from one single photo shoot. However, I have the same problem with photos from my Sony A7IV and from my DJI Air 2s. So I don't think it's a camera file issue. I've moved the files directly to my desktop instead of deep in the onion of files, so that the directory link isn't super long, just in case that was causing an issue. That didn't help either. 

[JohanElzenga]

Sounds like you may have a well known (although the cause is unknown) problem called the 'Capitalization error'. Basically what happens is that -unknown to you, and impossible to see- you have two folders with the same name, that only differ in the capitalization of one or more letters in the file name. Because MacOS and Windows are case-intensive, they deal with this as if it was one and the same folder. That also means you can't see both folders if you look at your hard disk; you will only see the one that the OS chooses to show. But Lightroom Classic is case sensitive, so it does see two different folders and that may cause this problem. Here's how to fix it. https://www.lightroomqueen.com/capitalization-catalog-error/

[_JC.Helms]

Thank you for the response. I checked it out and it doesn't look like that is the issue. I even tried the steps on the link you gave me. 

I actuall made a new folder called "Lightroom Error" on my desktop. The file path in Windows explorer is "D:\Desktop\Lightroom Error". When I hover over the folder that shows up in the LR library after importing the 4 sample photos into the catalog, the tooltip shows the path correctly. However, after selecting the 4 photos, right clicking and selecting "edit as layers in photoshop", edting, merging layers, and ctrl+S to save, a new grayed out folder shows up with the same name as the original "Lightroom Error" folder, but it has the question mark on it with all the same issues I originally posted about. When I hover over that one the file path only shows "D:\Lightroom Error". It's missing the desktop portion. 

This would make sense why lightroom needs me to find the missing folder. When I do, of course it's going to want me to merge it since there are 2 folders in the library with the same names. 

Once I merge the folders the newly saved photo shows up. However there is an exclamation point in the right top corner with the tooltip "Error writing metadata". 

Maybe it's not even a Lightroom error and it's some photoshop error with what it's doing to the file when it saves it. 

[_JC.Helms]

I've made a short video clip of what is going on. Maybe it'll help. 

LR Error Video (YouTube) 

[_JC.Helms · Accepted solution]

Ok, I just wanted to update this. Soooo..... I cleared all my appdata and uninstalled everything Adobe. Then re-installed everything.. I basically nuked it. Still didn't fix anything. HOWEVER! I tried one more thing, Since I use sony and it saves the files as ARW, I tried using my Sony Imaging Edge to open the file with the photos, exporting all of them through the sony software as TIFF images. I imported my photos into lightroom like usual, opened as layers in Photoshop, edit, merge layers, and saved.... BOOM! My edited photo popped into lightroom like it always had in the past. No more issues. 

So I don't know why it worked, but using my OEM camera software to turn all the photos into TIFF files before importing into Lightroom fixed the issue. It's still something that seems like a bug of some sort. I guess Adobe has an issue with Sony Alpha Raw files.