Skip to main content
G
GonzaloGM14
Participant
July 11, 2018
Answered

"Updating Develop Presets to XMP" every time Lightroom starts

  • July 11, 2018
  • 4 replies
  • 15517 views

Hey guys, since Lightroom started using XMP for presets, every time it starts it converts my presets to XMP, taking a long time (sometimes half an hour because I added a lot of presets now) making it unusable in the meantime.

Any idea of why it would convert them every time it starts? Maybe some files permission issue or something? (like not deleting/moving the old ones so it then finds them again and converts them).

Thanks in advance.

Best regards, Gonzalo

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer JohanElzenga

Lightroom renames converted old presets by placing two tildes (~~) in front of the name. That tells it those presets are already converted. If the presets are locked, then that explains what you are seeing. Because they are locked they can’t be renamed, and so Lightroom thinks they are not converted the next time it starts.

4 replies

Kiko Steinhoff
Kiko Steinhoff
Participant
November 7, 2019

Was having the same problem. Solved it by realizing that some presets where stored in two different folders.

When you open Lightroom, go to Develop mode and right-click a preset. Choose to show it on finder. 

In my case, the folder showed all presets where already converted to .xmp (none show the ~~ though).

Then, I did search for the preset file name (not using its extension) and found out the preset was still stored in a different location with the extension .lrtemplate. All I did was delete all the presets in this folder. And everything was working normally after that.

    tenpintaker
    tenpintaker
    Participant
    September 9, 2020

    Kiko, I had the same problem.  Once I realised they were held in a different folder and followed your lead, all was ok.  Thanks.

    Ian

    M
    marc_nesbru
    Participating Frequently
    September 12, 2018

    It seems I have fixed it by just moving all my presets (files with .xmp extensions) in the subfolders of ~/Lightroom Settings/Develop Presets/.

    "Store Presets with this Catalog" was not checked but maybe I did check and uncheck it in the past..

    Anyway, by moving the preset files into the ~/Lightroom Settings/Develop Presets/ subfolders, Lightroom is no longer converted the presets at every startup.

    Thanks for your help.

    JohanElzenga
    Community Expert
    JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 12, 2018

    And do you still see the presets in Lightroom? As explained, the presets that need to be converted are .lrtemplate presets. The converted ones are .xmp. If you move your converted .xmp presets into that old 'Develop presets' folder (that is what you just said), then I would expect that Lightroom can't find them anymore.

    Could you do something else, please? Go to 'Help - System Info' and copy the first ten lines of that info. Post it here.

    -- Johan W. Elzenga
    M
    marc_nesbru
    Participating Frequently
    September 12, 2018

    Hi guys,

    I have the same issue than Gonzalo. Lightroom Classic CC (7.5) converts all my presets to XMP every time I open my lightroom catalog.

    As mentioned above, I have checked the preset folders and I can see that all the presets have the extension .xmp.

    The presets are not tags as locked and I can manually changed the name of the presets in Finder.

    However, there are no tildes (~~) in front of the preset names.

    Do you know how can fix this?

    Thanks a lot.

    Marc

    JohanElzenga
    Community Expert
    JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 12, 2018

    You are probably looking in the wrong folder. You should be looking in the old 'Develop presets' folder, where the .lrtemplate presets are stored, not the new 'Settings' folder where the .xmp presets are stored. The .lrtemplate presets are the ones that get renamed with two tildes.

    -- Johan W. Elzenga
    M
    marc_nesbru
    Participating Frequently
    September 12, 2018

    Hi,

    Yes, I am suspected something is off there...

    From your post above, I would have expected to find my presets here:

    ~/Lightroom Settings/Develop Presets/Lightroom Presets

    or

    ~/Lightroom Settings/Develop Presets/User Presets

    However, I have found all my presets located here:

    ~/Lightroom Settings/Settings

    ~/Lightroom Settings/Develop Presets/Lightroom Presets and ~/Lightroom Settings/Develop Presets/User Presets are both empty.

    Would it be the problem?

    Thanks a lot.

    Marc

    JohanElzenga
    Community Expert
    JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 11, 2018

    It probably can’t convert some presets, so each time it starts it has to try it again. So check which old presets don’t show up and then try to find out why.

    -- Johan W. Elzenga
      G
      GonzaloGM14Author
      Participant
      July 11, 2018

      The problem is that it seems to converts all of them successfully.

      I looked into the presets folder and found several marked as "Locked" in Finder, so I recursively removed that flag for the whole Develop Presets folder using a Terminal comand, and I restarted Lightroom. Now I'm waiting until it finishes converting them and see if that solves it. Thanks for the answer, though, as it might be a possible solution in other cases

      JohanElzenga
      Community Expert
      JohanElzengaCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
      Community Expert
      July 11, 2018

      Lightroom renames converted old presets by placing two tildes (~~) in front of the name. That tells it those presets are already converted. If the presets are locked, then that explains what you are seeing. Because they are locked they can’t be renamed, and so Lightroom thinks they are not converted the next time it starts.

      -- Johan W. Elzenga
      Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
      Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices