Lightroom Classic "Metadata has Conflicts" warning in error?

[laoshi Royal]

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?

[johnrellis]

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.

[sergevanneck]

Sadly that black tape solution doesn't seem to work. My "Unsaved Metadata" checkbox is very much unchecked but it's still showing the icons... multiple bugs indeed.

[Lumigraphics]

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]

@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-p... 

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.

[Lumigraphics]

Yes I have seen it too, when I know external changes had not happened.

[laoshi Royal]

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?

[johnrellis]

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography, @Rick Spaulding -, please merge with the duplicate post:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/lightroom-classic-quot-metadata-has-con...

[bfluegie]

I run on Windows, not Mac, but when I tried "import settings from disk" it removed my Lightroom edits. Since I wasn't sure (and am also somewhat paranoid) I tried this on a very old photo that I no longer cared about. When I tried overwrite disk settings with catalog (on another old photo I didn't really care about) my Lightroom changes were left in place. I can't say if anything else was changed, but you may want to proceed carefully with any photo you care about. 

I just noticed this with version 13.3.1. I just moved to a new computer and have all my photos on an external drive. I first noticed it on the new computer. I then wanted to see if it had something to do with the computer so I moved the catalog back to my old computer, upgraded that version of LR Classic, and saw the same errors. New photos I placed on the new computer internal drive don't show this problem, yet. I believe this is a new issue for me. I do go back and look at older photos a lot and before this version of LR Classic I never saw a metadata error.

I think for now I'm just going to make sure I have a solid backup of my external drive and catalog. I'm not going to do anything about the metadata unless I want to edit one of the affected photos. If I do, I will use the metadata from the catalog.

[JohanElzenga]

Never use "Import settings from disk" unless you have changed these in another app and want to update Lightroom with it! Lightroom stores the settings in the catalog, so if you want to match the settings with XMP on disk, then overwrite the settings on disk.

[laoshi Royal]

Johan, It's funny, since this has never beern an issue like this before, I've never had to grapple with the confusing language of fthis warnning before. So could you please help me sort this out. 

Since LrC stores of of the instructions (concerning the edits I've made) in the catalog, rather than actually altering the original file that I'm working on, I've assumed that meant that the "...settings from disk" that the warning referrences, is the original, untouched file that was imported into LrC in the first place. If that correct?  If so, and I chose to "overwrite the settings on disk" I am actually altering that original file, i.e., engaging in "destructive editting" rather than leaving the original file alone. is that correct?

So if I'm completely satisfied with the edits I've made (in theory)  overwriting that original file (altering it perminantly) would be just fine. Then again, I have discovered through the years, that as new tools are made available in newer versions of LrC, I can and have gone back and re-edited some favorite images (non-destructively) and been able to improve on the final results. 

So my quandry now is that I run the risk of destructively editing files that I'm pleased with ( but would like to have the ability to tinker with in the future, if all of my past LrC edits are lost by choosing, "Import settings from disk"

Please advise. And thank you. I appreciate your taking the time to respond. 

Never use "Import settings from disk" unless you have changed these in another app and want to update Lightroom with it! Lightroom stores the settings in the catalog, so if you want to match the settings with XMP on disk, then overwrite the settings on disk.

By @JohanElzenga

[JohanElzenga]

It is a bug. Lightroom looks at the embedded metadata in the file, and for no apparent reason it concludes that these have changed. Another possibility is that it somehow cannot read them, and so it sets the status to 'Unknown'. Both will show the same conflict icon. Because this is a non-issue (the embedded metadata will not have changed), the solution is either to overwrite these embedded metadata with the settings in the catalog, or simply ignore the warning. Writing metadata to files does not do anything destructive. It does not change the image data.

[Ricky336]

I've had this issue numerous times - I just choose 'Overwrite' and move on. You can then be sure that the metadata is using the settings that you are using currently. For me, it's a non-issue.