I need help understanding xmp sidecar files

Report · Mar 04, 2019

I'll try to keep this short...

I had an EHD crash a couple of years ago and all of the Lightroom files were/are in a Lightroom 4 catalog. I restored everything from a backup onto a new EHD and have just gotten around to going through the files in that catalog and pointing them to the correct folders ('find missing folder' in LR) in the new EHD, because I created a new catalog after the crash to keep things separate.

I've noticed for some, but not all, .xmp files are being created in the folders on my EHD. This happens periodically when I look an NEF file from the EHD and it opens in photoshop. When I go back to the file in the EHD there might be an xmp file along side of the original. Again, sometimes, not always.

Also, just to note, I get one of three different types per image that it decides to give an xmp file to...

One looks like a white sheet of paper and is blank, one looks like a white sheet of paper that has text and one is a black box that has exec in green letters in the upper left corner.

So my question is this (multi-parts):

Am I doing something wrong? Is there a way to avoid all of these extra .xmp files from showing up? Can I delete the ones that are there?

Report · Mar 04, 2019

XMP files are created FOR RAW FILES ONLY when you tell Lightroom to save the metadata to XMP, either manually via Ctrl-S or automatically via an option in preferences. I believe they are also created if you send a RAW file to Photoshop from Lightroom via the Edit In ... command.

You can delete them if you don't want them. It is entirely up to you. Lightroom really doesn't care if the XMP files are present or not. (Why do you care if they are present or not?)

Some people create them automatically and feel they are a sort of insurance in case the computer crashes, you won't lose the editing you just did just before the crash; or if the catalog gets corrupted, you won't lose the editing you did between the last catalog backup and the time the catalog got corrupted.

Report · Mar 04, 2019

>> "I believe they are also created if you send a RAW file to Photoshop from Lightroom via the Edit In ... command."

This ^

They are created by PS's Camera Raw plugin, because unlike LR it doesn't store edits in a database.

Report · Mar 04, 2019

dj_paige wrote
I believe they are also created if you send a RAW file to Photoshop from Lightroom via the Edit In ... command.

No, that does not create an XMP file.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

Report · Mar 04, 2019

dj_paige...I don't really care if they are present, I just like it nice and neat and hate the way those look mixed in! I just wondered because I have deleted some in the past without giving it another thought. But this time, when I was getting them for some and not others, it prompted me to ask.

Report · Mar 04, 2019

jennid31 wrote
dj_paige...I don't really care if they are present, I just like it nice and neat and hate the way those look mixed in! I just wondered because I have deleted some in the past without giving it another thought. But this time, when I was getting them for some and not others, it prompted me to ask.

At one time, IIRC, if you had the Auto Write changes to XMP option enabled when importing images LR would create a XMP sidecar file for each RAW image.

Now, again IIRC, for the last 3 versions, 6/2015, 7 and 8, the only time a XMP file gets created is IF you actually edit the image in the Develop module or use the Quick Develop section in the Library module. If you don't use either section to edit an image No XMP file gets created.

That is why you see them for some images and not for others. The ones that are there are for the images you have actually edited.

Nice and neat? You only see those XMP files if you are looking at your image files storage folder with a File Manager like Finder, Mac, or File Explorer, Windows.

You can save yourself a lot of headaches by only using LR to Look at and manager your image files.

Report · Mar 04, 2019

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Just+Shoot+Me wrote

Nice and neat? You only see those XMP files if you are looking at your image files storage folder with a File Manager like Finder, Mac, or File Explorer, Windows.
You can save yourself a lot of headaches by only using LR to Look at and manager your image files.

Yeah, I agree here, this is my main point as well, but you explained it better.

jennid31 Stop looking in your folders using your operating system, and the problem goes away. Rid yourself of those old habits that are not needed if you use Lightroom, and the problem goes away.