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laoshi Royal
Known Participant
June 20, 2024
Question

Lightroom Classic "Metadata has Conflicts" warning in error?

  • June 20, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 3253 views

Since downloading LrC 13.3.1 — to my Mac Studio M1 Ultra running Mac OS Sonoma 14.5 — when I go back to edit (or sometimes just click on an HEIC photo and view it) a photo that was added to my catalog when I was using an earlier version of LrC -- all of a sudden now, that image file gets the "Metadata has Conflict" tag and it tells me that "the metadata for this photo has be changed by both Lightroom and another application. And asks, "Should Lightroom import settings from the disk or overwrite disk settings with those from the catalog?" 

 

This has me flummoxed since I am quite sure that since the file was added to my LrC catalog, it has not been changed by any application other than LrC (albeit an earlier version of LrC). 

 

So, what is the correct response? Which option should I choose?

 

Overwrite Settings

 

Import Settings from Disk

 

or

*Cancel

*if this is a glitch or a bug that will be sorted with a future update, should I simply choose "Cancel" and wait for the "bug fix" in an update?

2 replies

johnrellis
johnrellis
Legend
June 20, 2024

LR has for many years showed spurious Metadata status, including  Has Been Changed, Changed On Disk, and Conflict Detected.  Adobe has shown no interest in correcting this (there may well be multiple bugs). Some options for dealing with spurious conflicts:

 

- If you're sure that the LR catalog holds "the truth", then select Overwrite. That will write the metadata in the catalog back to the file on disk, and often/usually/sometimes makes the spurious status go away, at least for a while.

 

- Uncheck the option View > Grid View > Cell Icons > Unsaved Metadata and you won't see the status at all. This like what the old Car Talk Guys used to recommend, taping a piece of black tape over the spurious engine light on your car's dash.

    L
    Lumigraphics
    Legend
    October 15, 2024

    Why isn't there an option to view both the catalog data and file data side by side? This is (another) really dumb design choice, basically choosing blind with the potential result being data loss.

    johnrellis
    johnrellis
    Legend
    October 15, 2024

    @Lumigraphics: "Why isn't there an option to view both the catalog data and file data side by side?"

     

    Some have requested that over the years:

    https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-ideas/p-metadata-conflicts-compare-metadata-for-a-photo-and-show-the-difference/idi-p/14186473 

     

    With respect to incorrect metadata status indicators, a couple of times over the past many years I've selected a few files with spurious indicators and carefully compared the complete metadata recorded in the catalog with the equivalent fields recorded in the files (using the Show Metadata plugin and Exiftool). They were always identical.  This leads me to believe that the issue is the internal implementation that compares the catalog and file representations of the metadata, which gives false indications of changes when in fact there are none.

    L
    laoshi RoyalAuthor
    Known Participant
    June 20, 2024

    Since downloading LrC 13.3.1 — to my Mac Studio M1 Ultra running Mac OS Sonoma 14.5 — when I go back to edit (or sometimes just click on an HEIC photo and view it) a photo that was added to my catalog when I was using an earlier version of LrC -- all of a sudden now, that image file gets the "Metadata has Conflict" tag and it tells me that "the metadata for this photo has be changed by both Lightroom and another application. And asks, "Should Lightroom import settings from the disk or overwrite disk settings with those from the catalog?" 

     

    This has me flummoxed since I am quite sure that since the file was added to my LrC catalog, it has not been changed by any application other than LrC (albeit an earlier version of LrC). 

     

    So, what is the correct response? Which option should I choose?

     

    Overwrite Settings

     

    Import Settings from Disk

     

    or

    *Cancel

    *if this is a glitch or a bug that will be sorted with a future update, should I simply choose "Cancel" and wait for the "bug fix" in an update?

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