Metadata Sync and External Edit Stacking Does Not Work on Network Volumes

[Brett J Deriso]

I've seen numerous posts about files edited in external apps not showing up in the library afterwards, and there have been several suggested reasons, including something about duplicate folder creation and not having the "Stack with original" option checked. Neither is the problem here.

I have confirmed that when working on images imported from my local drive, I can make metadata edits on imorted files and they sync instantaneously (per my selection in the preferences). When I choose to "Edit a Copy with LR Adjustments in PS 2022", I get my copy back with the appended suffix in the library, stacked with the original --just like I should.  But when the original file is catalogued on a networked volume, neither of these features works. Metadata has to be manually synced every time, and edits opened in external apps (even though they appear right next to their originals in the Finder and File Explorer) do not get added to the liibrary or stacked with their originals automatically.

I've been using LR since version 1 with all of my original assets on networked or external volumes, and this used to work. I don't remember when it "broke", but I feel like I've been manually re-scanning and importing my network folders after every edit and forcing metadata to sync for a couple of years now.

Is this by design?  Is there a valid reason why LRC can read and write metadata from networked volumes, as well as create copies in networked folders on command, but can't sync those changes to the library at the same time??

For the record, I'm storing my originals on a Synology NAS with the file share mounted in OS X via AFP, and Windows 11 via SMB. The logged-in user (and any application they use) has full administrator permisions on the share).

[Brett J Deriso]

Clarification: my Library and all associated caches are on the local machine. Only the original images (and edits) are stored on the network volume.