Sony camera serial number not recognized during import rename

Hi Jbinco, this thread is really old but, I thought i'd share some input on a weird workaround that's not exactly what you may be looking for, but it works.

so I'm an owner of several a7iii's and one a7Riii. LIghtroom could never see the serial numbers due to the way that sony saves EXIF data to the camera.  The newer camera generations are able to save the EXIF data to the files, but that's something like let's say an a7iv or a6700. 

The way I've been distinguishing my camera serial is by adjusting the file naming system on the a7iii or a7r3 camera options menu in the camera body.  You're able to change up to three characters of the filename that are saved to every photo you take. Since one of my cameras serials starts with 342, I changed the filenames that are saved with that camera to start with 342. Then my other cameras like 531 and 472. 

Then after you import the photos in lightroom, you can search the filenames with the "starts with" option when using the "text" search function. 

hope this little work around helps.

Odd, keep googling on metadata serial number sony, and results keep indicating sony does not include serial number in exif data

Problem may be about just exactly where do different v=cameras store the serial number in the metadata, vs where Lightroom Classic expects it to be, serial number, internal serial number, etc. I doubt Sony does not include it somewhere, after all that is useful to find stolen gear via metadata (if thief is stupid enough to not strip, or buyer of stolen property is unaware) see in part: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/threads/is-there-any-way-to-see-my-camera-serial-number-in-lightroom-6-8.30546/

Curious, does this also fail post import. What happens if you rename the photo(s) ftom the Library module?