P: Lightroom Sync Folder's could use an additional aid with problem files

[jeffreym]

With a large library, I've accumulated over the years some files that either become damaged or have formats not supported by Lightroom Classic. The report window links individually to each one, which is very time consuming and could be easily managed at a later time if all those could be 'tagged' in some way that is searchable, either an attribute tag or a metatag, or giving the user an option to relocate them or identify them in some way later on.

[John R Ellis]

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Previous versions of LR would set the Metadata Status of photos that are "unsupported or damaged" to Unknown. So you could filter for Unknown. But it appears that recent versions (at least the last six months) no longer do that:

I've added a to-do item to my Any Filter plugin to see if it search for damaged files by extracting the information from the catalog. (It may not be stored in the catalog database.)

[John R Ellis]

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I poked into this some more, with an eye towards letting the Any Filter plugin find corrupted files. I learned that the "corrupted" state isn't stored in the catalog database -- LR seems to reconstruct it each session.

However, I did discover how to use Metadata Status to discover such files, at a significant cost:

1. Go to All Photographs.

2. Do Photo > Stacking > Expand All Stacks.

3. Select all photos.

4. If you haven't set the option Catalog Settings > Metadata > Automatically Write Changes Into XMP, do Metadata > Save Metadata To File. This could take a long time on large catalogs.  It will create or update .xmp sidecars for all the raws in your catalog, and it will update all the non-raws (JPEGs, TIFFs, etc.), generating a one-time spike in the load on your backup system.

5. Restart LR.

6. In the Library Filter bar's Metadata browser, add the Metadata Status column and select Unknown:

[pumphouse51]

Intriguing.   What if you've identified a file, what can your plug-in indicate on possible cause?   I have one that won't sync and nothing about it's metadata or smart preview existence leaps out.    (Not asking for help.   If something pops out, great.  Otherwise I'm grateful for what you do for us.)

[John R Ellis]

I don't think the Any Filter plugin would be of much help in determining possible causes. 

"I have one that won't sync and nothing about it's metadata or smart preview existence leaps out."

By "sync", do you mean syncing with the LR Cloud or do you mean synchronizing the folder contents with the catalog?

[pumphouse51]

I meant syncing with the cloud.   If the TIFF file is in a synced collection, syncing stops at 1.  I remove it from the collection (and "All Synced Photographs) in Classic and sync completes. The file is not especially large, originated in Photoshop Elements from an Epson scanner.)

Over time I'll play with it.   My next strategy is to convert it to JPG or DNG and see what happens.   Fun!

It really isn't a problem, just a puzzle right now.  Thanks for reaching out.

[pumphouse51]

FWIW, I did find a solution to my puzzle. So far, all the "bad syncers" are old TIFF files that originated from an Epson 4870 scans of old color slides.  They were originally cataloged by Photoshop Elements and that catalog was migrated to Lightroom Classic a while back.

I used the Lightroom Classic menu pick to convert the Tiffs to DNG.   It rworked as well as I could hope for and immediately the pictures synced.  Saved disk space too (I tried both lossy and lossless compression on the DNGs - both worked.)

I didn't try JPg - more steps than DNG.   The DNG conversion must have "left behind" or fixed whatever corruption was blocking Sync. 

[John R Ellis]

Thanks for the update -- that could help others. The sync between LR Classic and LR Cloud is old and creaky.