LR Classic 14.1 doesn't automatically save XMP metadata

[ZimFromIRK]

I'm using LIghtroom Classic 14.1.1 on Windows 11. A few months ago, I had to reinstall Windows. My Lightroom photos and catalogs are on a 4TB NVME stick [EDIT: internal 4TB NVME Crucial P3 SSD] as my F drive.  Ever since I reinstalled Windows, Lightroom no longer no longer automatically writes metadata into XMP despite having "Automatically write changes into XMP" set under "Catalog Settings -> Metadata". 

When I add a keyword or color tag to a photo, the Metadata conflict symbol appears, and I can press Ctrl+S to save the metadata.  It used to do this automatically.  I've toggled the setting and restarted Lightroom several times before/after toggling the setting to no avail. 

The photo metadata is being saved in the catalog but not the separate XMP files for my Nikon NEF RAW files, nor Apple iPhone HEIC files, or even JPG files so the metadata conflict tag is accurate.

As I said, I did reinstall Windows around the time that it stopped working, and I reset all the file permissions to my new login account. I don't think it's a file permissions problem since I can press Ctrl+S and force a metadata save -- I verified the save took place by comparing before and after XMP files, and the metadata conflict symbol also disappears but reappears if I make any other changes.

Any suggestions as to how I can get automatic saving of metadata turned back on?  I'm wondering if Lightroom is somehow confused and sometimes thinks the files are not writable -- although newly imported NEF/XMP files have the same behavior, and Ctrl+S works.

[GoldingD]

4TB NVME stick

By that I take it you mean a NVME SSD in a M.2 PCIe port on your motherboard, correct? Not a Flash stick.

[ZimFromIRK]

Yes, a 4TB Crucial P3 that I installed on my motherboard next to the 1GB Kioxia NVME SSD boot drive.  The machine is an Alienware Aurora R15.

[johnrellis]

To narrow down the problem, try creating as test catalog: In your main catalog, select 100 photos, and do File > Export As Catalog with just the options Export Selected Photos Only and Export Negative files. Put the test catalog on your desktop.

Does the problem occur with the test catalog?

[ZimFromIRK · Accepted solution]

Hi John: thanks for the suggestion and very clear description of the procedure.  I did what you suggested: exported several days of a recent trip to my desktop on my C: drive: a new catalog containing copies of 176 images using the "Export as Catalog function" . This included both HEIC files and Nikon RAW NEF files, with their sidecar XMP files.

After making the copy, in the catalog/images copy, after I enabled "automatically write changes to XMP" and quit and restarted Lightroom, it's now is now immediately updating XMP when I change an image like the color label or add a keyword. I verified this by examining the XMP with a text editor.

I then repeated the above steps and made a new catalog on my F: drive, where the catalog and images live.  Again, after enabling "automatically write changes to XMP", saving metadata worked perfectly.

I then reloaded my original catalog and verified that "automatically write changes to XMP" is checked, and the problem still exists.  If I edit the XMP externally, like change the Label from Blue to Green, Lightroom detects the image is changed and offers to re-load it.  If I change the color label in Lightroom, the three lines + downarrow immediately appear, the metadata status is "has been changed", and pressing Ctrl+S on the image updates the XMP and clears the status. 

I ran "optimize catalog" to no avail. I think it does this on every backup anyway. 

It sure looks like the "automatically write changes to XMP" catalog setting is simply being ignored in my main catalog. Is there a procedure to validate or repair the catalog? My catalog for 144,421 photos is 2.21GB in size, if that matters.

[C.Cella]

@ZimFromIRK 

Maybe a stupid thing to say on my part but check if you have paused "Auto Save into XMP" in the main catalog.

[ZimFromIRK]

How do you pause "Autosave into XMP"?  The only setting I know of is this one and it's been set.  I unset it restarted, reset it, restarted, all to no avail.  If there's another place this is set (maybe in some configuration file), I'm not aware of it.

[C.Cella]

It's in the Status and Activity Bar, click your Identify Plate

In the top left corner where the ID plate is do right click and show the "Auto save into XMP"

[ZimFromIRK]

Wow -- I did not know that was there.  I don't recall the "Saving XMP" being on the pulldown (just address lookup and face detection), but after I started the right-click menu and checked all three items under "Show status and activity" (which were all unchecked), I see "Auto Save XMP" now and it says "Paused".

I clicked it and it rapidly said "Saving XMP for 183 items" and it's working again! 

As I said, I swear the XMP option was not on this pulldown menu until I right-clicked.  As a test, I went into the catalog settings and unchecked "automatically write changes to XMP" and the entry is now gone again despite still being checked on the context menu:

In any case, my problem is solved. This makes life so much easier.  Thanks!

[C.Cella]

@ZimFromIRK if you disable the "Auto Save into XMP" then it will not appear in the Status and Acrivitity bar, that's normal...but perhaps it should appear but as "Dsisabled"

Anyway good to see you problem is solved.

I recommend doing a manual save of all your catalog as LrC does not detect photos with metadata-status "Has Been Changed" unless you view them in library.

You might have photos not up to date.

LrC will save ONLY the photos that actually need saving and skip the others .

.

[ZimFromIRK]

Thanks! I wasn't sure whether LR occasionally checked for out-of-date metadata in the background or as part of catalog validation. I've already forced saves in the folders I was working in so they're good in my backups. Besides cloud backups, the main reason I want metadata in my images/XMP is so my wife can browse the photos read-only from a network share using Lightroom Classic on her laptop, which has a separate catalog she has to occasionally synchronize, since catalogs can't be shared.

[ZimFromIRK]

As a test, I unzipped and opened a catalog backup from last August, also on my F drive. Lightroom said the catalog needed to be upgraded and that succeeded.  Lo and behold, automatically saving XMP works perfectly in that upgraded catalog.  I think this pretty much confirms there is something wrong with my current catalog.

I repeated the above exercise with an October, 2024 catalog that did not need an upgrade after unzipping and it had the same problem.  Maybe something went wrong during the initial catalog update. 

[DdeGannes]

@ZimFromIRK , The Automatic save metadata to XMP is a Catalog specific setting so it needs to be set in each Catalog.

[ZimFromIRK]

Thanks! I'm not sure how this interacts with the "Autosave Metadata" option under the identity plate, as that didn't appear until I enabled it on the right-click menu and then it was "Paused".  I don't recall ever pausing this in the past and, as I said, the option wasn't even present until I enabled it with the right-click menu.  My spidey-sense says there's a bug in there somewhere.

[DdeGannes]

@ZimFromIRK , the Pause button in the identity plate will only appear if you have "Automatically write metadata to XMP" selected in the Catalog settings.

Note XMP is only Written to XMP it is not automatically read.

LrC will read XMP if available on import of images or you can use the menu option in the Library module Metadata > read metadata from files.

See the link below for help with writing metadata to XMP in Lightroom Classic.

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/metadata-basics-actions.html