LR Classic Not Saving Edits (not reading XMP data?)

[Lucas5CA6]

To preface, I have been using Lightroom classic in this exact setup for 3 years without this issue.

Desktop Computer

Windows 10 version 21H1

Lightroom Classic 11.5

Camera RAW 14.5

I recently installed a new SSD as my main drive and wiped my old drive to use as a secondary. Lightroom Classic is installed on the new internal drive and my catalog (the same one I've been using) is on a PCIe RAID drive. My picture files are on a home server.

When I open the catalog Lightroom functions properly however when I close and reopen, nothing I did in the last session was saved. Every time I repoen the catalog it is as it was from the last time I edited just before the drive swap. I have tried different edits on different photos, reinstalling lightroom, making a new catalog (which did the same thing), and signing out of my Adobe account and signing back in.

I have Lightroom set up to automatically write canges to XMP and if the files are opened in Photoshop, the edits are there however opening the file in Lightroom shows it as a default RAW file (no edits). 

I have Lightroom set to open the same catalog upon startup so it's not pulling on old catalog and it's writing the changes to the XMP files however it doesnt seem to read those changes back. There is no "up arrow" on the files indicating an XMP mis-match either.

Also as a side issue, I am no longer able to backup my catalog. Every attempt at backing up results in the following error:

"Lightroom was unable to back up the catalog.

Please check your folder permissions, and make sure that you have available space on your backup drive and main catalog's drive."

This error pops up regardless of what drive or folder I select on my machine (I've tried on my C drive, on the same drive my catalog is on, and my server). All of the drives have plenty of free space (ranging from 100's of GBs to 10's of TBs free). I was previously backing up to my server without issues. 

Not sure if they're related but thought I'd add that just in case.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

[TheDigitalDog]

So the error you report is about backing up a catalogm("Lightroom was unable to back up the catalog.). I'm not sure why you report LR can't write XMP to the catalog. 

If you disabe the option to backup the catalog (which isn't very useful anyway), does everything else work for you?

[Lucas5CA6]

Yes, disabling backup gets rid of that error but made no changes to the main issue of Lightroom not reading any XMP changes. It will save them but will not read them.

[dj_paige]

I have Lightroom set to open the same catalog upon startup so it's not pulling on old catalog and it's writing the changes to the XMP files however it doesnt seem to read those changes back.

I would double and triple check this. How do you open LrC, anyway?

Also, LrC uses the changes in its database, regardless of what is in XMP. It will not read changes from XMP files unless you specifically issue the command.

[Lucas5CA6]

double checked the startup settings and they are pointing to the correct catalog. Typically since it's set up open that catalog (the only one I have) I just click on the LrC shortcut on my desktop however I have tried manually opening from the catalog file itself with the same issue. Interestingly after reading your comment I tried to manually read the XMP for a picure and all the random testing edits popped up however on restarting LrC they were gone again. I would really hate to have to manually set each picture to read XMP before every edit session. As I just discovered the file date on my catalog is not updating so that seems related

[dj_paige]

Since you said file date is not updating, maybe you need to have your operating system do a search of all hard disks for all files whose name ends with .LRCAT and see if you find more than one.

[GoldingD]

In File Manager, does the file date change for the catalog?

[Lucas5CA6]

Good thought! the date of the catalog file in file manager is stuck on 8/14/22, my last editing session before the drive install.

[GoldingD]

Rights on the drive?

[GoldingD]

And have you attempted resetting the preference file?

see:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/setting-preferences-lightroom.html

The preference file can get corrupted leading to buggy behavior. A corrupt preference file will survive uninstalls, updates, and upgrades. By renaming or moving or deleting the preference file you create a situation where LrC will recreate a fresh new one upon startup of LrC. Be aware various settings will revert to defaults.

[DdeGannes]

See the link for help.

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

The is also a new option in LrC a couple of months ago where you can pause the "automatically write  metadata to xmp" make sure it is not set to pause.

See the link to changes made in LrC 11.0 in October 2021.

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/whats-new-in-lightroom-classic-11-0/

[dj_paige]

But metadata (such as edits) is always written to the catalog, it can't be turned off. That's the problem the OP is having.

[DdeGannes]

Ok.

Maybe this can have something to do with what the author is experiencing. The Catalog is on a special RAID controller.

https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/definition/RAID-controller#:~:text=In%20hardware-based%20RA...

The author stated.

"Lightroom Classic is installed on the new internal drive and my catalog (the same one I've been using) is on a PCIe RAID drive."

So starting a new experience, entirely different to his previous three years.

[dj_paige]

Yes, I would agree that catalog on a RAID disk may be an issue here.

[Lucas5CA6]

I appreciate all of the replies here and apologize for the radio silence.

Over the past couple days I tried a few things out:

reset catalog preferences with no luck

I then:

-made a new catalog on a different internal drive

-merged my existing catalog into the new one

-cleaned up my synced files and its working perfectly

I then moved that new catalog onto the RAID drive and it immediatly exhibited the same behavior as the old catalog. This is strange as I have been working off of this RAID drive for years with no issues. I checked the permissions for the RAID drive in windows and it has full permissions for all users. For reference it's a 2TB OWC Accelsior 4M2  running off of SoftRAID. I'm tempted to just wipe/delete the RAID vilume and reconfigure it to see if that does the trick but at this point this drive appears to be the problem.

[TheDigitalDog]

Agree (if easy and possible), reformat that RAID. 

[dj_paige]

This is strange as I have been working off of this RAID drive for years with no issues.

Not strange at all. All hardware fails at some point in time.

[Lucas5CA6 · Accepted solution]

At long last, a conclusion!

Wiping the RAID, breaking it, and reconfiguring it did not do the trick but in messing with it I noticed that I was running a newer version of SoftRAID than before. I downgraded versions and my LrC catalog went back to working just fine. I suppose I will be submitting this to SoftRAID to look into but for the time being this is fixed. For reference I was running 3.0.12.2 when it was not working and downgraded back to 1.0.9.2 and no longer have any issues. 

I appreciate all of the suggestions in here that ultimately lead me to that drive that ended up being the culprit. 

Thanks!