Metadata status is being changed just by viewing an image

[DexterG-wZOt9z]

Every photo I view in LR CC Classic, after a few seconds, comes up with "Metadata status has been changed" even though I haven't changed anything.

The Metadata panel says "Metadata status up to date" at first, but then changes all by itself as I watch. I'm not editing anything, just viewing images in the Library module.

I have a Smart Collection for "Metadata has been changed" and every image I view gets added to that collection.

This just started with the latest update: Release 8.2, Build 1204643.

[johnrellis]

Did you recently update your LR from a much older version, e.g. 7 or 6?

[DexterG-wZOt9z]

No, I've had a CC subscription for years and it always updates Lightroom automatically.

I'm thinking that some new feature is modifying the metadata as I view the images.

When I saved the changed metadata to disk and compared it to a copy of the original file, there were several differences:

  XMP Toolkit version

  Tone Map Strength

  Override Look Vignette

  Look Name

The latter three didn't even exist in the original file.

[johnrellis]

When I saved the changed metadata to disk and compared it to a copy of the original file, there were several differences:

  ...

  Tone Map Strength

  Override Look Vignette

  Look Name

These develop settings were introduced in LR 7.2 as part of the new enhanced profiles,  in Process Version 4. LR automatically upgrades photos from PV 3 to PV 4 (except in certain narrow circumstances), and I think the upgrade to PV 5 also happens automatically. 

This suggests that as you view photos, they are getting automatically updated to the latest process version, and the addition of those develop settings are causing the metadata status to change.  I don't think most people experienced these changes in metadata status as their photos were automatically updated.  You could post a bug report in the official Adobe feedback forum, where Adobe wants all bugs reported: Lightroom Classic CC | Photoshop Family Customer Community .  If you could upload the before and after .xmp sidecars showing the issue, that would be even more helpful and increase the likelihood Adobe might take a look.  Be sure to include the first ten lines from the menu command Help > System Info.

[johnrellis]

If you could upload the before and after .xmp sidecars showing the issue

Upload them to Dropbox or similar and include the sharing link in your post. (The forum software doesn't allow you to directly upload them.)

[DexterG-wZOt9z]

I wonder if this "feature" can be turned off in preferences? Something like "Don't update Process Version automatically when viewing images" or something like that.

I also wonder why this automatic metadata update just started now, with version 8.2, if the underlying changes happened all the way back at version 7.2, in February of 2018? And why didn't every image that I've viewed since then show up in my "Metadata has been changed" Smart Collection? I know that all the intervening updates were installed, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 8.0, and 8.1, because the CC app and LR both always notify me when this occurs.

[johnrellis · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately, there isn't any preference that controls this.

As to its weird behavior, that's the nature of bugs -- they act in ways that weren't intended by the programmer.

[gracetm14]

Did you find a solution for this?  This just started happening to me yesterday - same issue when i click on the photo to view it switches to metadata changed.

[DexterG-wZOt9z]

I decided to just let it update the metadata and not worry about it.

[kflo7]

I recently upgraded to LR 9.2.1 and am seeing this issue for the first time. It's really becoming a pain, as I filter based on Metadata Status "Has been changed" quite a lot, and this has just ruined the usability of that filter.

Any ideas on how to avoid this? I guess I need to re-view all my photos, let LR change the metadata field in question, then "Save metadata to file" for my entire library. Ridiculous!