Unknown errors writing Metadata to one or more of these photos

[DaBrownCO]

All my photos now have the exclamation point. I have a couple of questions:

1. What is the correct choice of options. Is it Retry Metadata Export of Import Settings from Disk?
2. I have my images on an external drive and my catalog and Lightroom settings up on Dropbox. (I previously had all my images on Dropbox as well, but just moved them to the external drive. Can my catalog and setting be on Dropbox, as long as I have them set to being available Offline? If I move Catalog and Settings to my local hard drive, will the problem go away?

Thanks

[TheDigitalDog]

There is no right answer because it's not always clear if the metadata should be read in one direction or the other. There's a “conflict”. LR detects something changed the metadata “behind it's back”.

Yes: get this all off Dropbox to your local drive.

[DaBrownCO]

Thank you. I appreciate the help.

[TheDigitalDog · Accepted solution]

This could be the metadata issue but also a warning not to do this:

https://asktimgrey.com/2022/03/25/moving-the-catalog-in-lightroom-classic/

I should hasten to remind readers that I don’t recommend storing your Lightroom Classic catalog in a synchronized folder (such as Dropbox) for the purpose of accessing the catalog on more than one computer, as there is a degree of risk that the catalog could become corrupted. If you are going to use this approach, I suggest that whenever switching computers you make sure that the synchronization has updated on both computers before using Lightroom Classic.

[DaBrownCO]

I moved my catalog to my local drive and things work much better. Thanks.