P: Camera Metadata is required to post an image to Lightroom Community.

[M_Leikvold]

Hello, 

I am unable to upload photos scanned from film to the lightroom community. All photos are .Jpeg. If I try uploading it on the phone, it states that "This eductation account does not have the permissions" and on the computer, it states "Error 403 An unexpected error occured"

Is there a way around this? 

[M_Leikvold · Accepted solution]

After reading through more conversations, Lightroom requries all photo uploads to have camera metadata attached to them. How can I attach metadata to a scannned photo shot on film?

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

You've discovered the answer. I am converting this to a Primary Thread so other folks can find it. 
If others have workarounds, they will post them in this thread. 

[Jordan_Avis6074]

Hello! 

I have been using Lightroom for a couple months now - my subscription covers Lightroom classic, desktop, and the mobile app.

I am trying to share one of my recent edits to the Lightroom "community," and keep receiving the same error message, of which I will attach a photo to this post. I have posted many photos to the Lightroom community via the mobile app and have never had an issue, I'm struggling to determine why this photo is any different, and unable to be posted. As a test, I tried to post one of my other photos (chosen at random), and although it did let me post that one, it still will not let me post the one I am focused on. 
Please help me figure out what I need to do to post my photo, as it is one of my favourite edits I have done and I so wish to share it to the community.

I will include a copy of the photo I want to post in a reply. I will also include a copy of a photo that has successfully posted. Both are in JPEG format, and I am unable to find a difference between the two that would result in an inability to post one but not the other...

Any information is appreciated!

[Jordan_Avis6074]

Photo that will not post:

Photo that has successfully posted:

[Jordan_Avis6074]

Hello! 

I have been using Lightroom for a couple months now - my subscription covers Lightroom classic, desktop, and the mobile app.

I am trying to share one of my recent edits to the Lightroom "community," and keep receiving the same error message, of which I will attach a photo to this post. I have posted many photos to the Lightroom community via the mobile app and have never had an issue, I'm struggling to determine why this photo is any different, and unable to be posted. As a test, I tried to post one of my other photos (chosen at random), and although it did let me post that one, it still will not let me post the one I am focused on. 
Please help me figure out what I need to do to post my photo, as it is one of my favourite edits I have done and I so wish to share it to the community.

 

[kglad]

copy your photo (or take a screenshot of your photo, if it's not a graphic file) and paste it into a reply.

[Jordan_Avis6074]

Here is a screenshot of the photo I want to post. This screenshot is from develop mode, and includes the file information. I'm using Lightroom mobile, but also have access to Lightroom Classic and desktop. 

[kglad]

you can't use complex file types in the adobe forums.  you can upload your file to a file server and post a link.

[Jordan_Avis6074]

I may still be too new to this to understand. Is JPEG a complex file type? I thought it was standard (again, I may be too new to understand what you mean.)

I have attached to this reply a screenshot of the last photo that I successfully uploaded to the community. 

 

[kglad]

a jpeg is a graphic file.  copy and paste it just like you did with your screenshot.

[Jordan_Avis6074]

I have been able to post JPEGs to community before. (See attached screenshot for example of previous successfully posted JPEG.)

Is there a difference between this JPEG that posted successfully and the one above that will not post?

 

[kglad]

to answer your question i'd have download both to compare, but if you were able to copy/paste here, you can copy/paste in the lr forum.

[Jordan_Avis6074]

I'm not sure what you mean by copy and paste, as I imported these screenshots from the camera roll on my device (phone).
I will try to import the 2 photos here so you can compare.

 

[kglad]

i mean open the photo file in a photo displayer app > right click > click copy > and in a message reply > right click > click paste.

[Jordan_Avis6074]

Thank you! Here are the 2 photos copied and pasted. Let me know if you notice any difference between the files! I still haven't been able to find anything different despite one successfully posting and the other refusing to. 
Thank you very much for all of the help so far, these programs are still very confusing to me.

[kglad]

paste whatever you want into a reply in the lr forum.

i'm not a lr expert.

[Jordan_Avis6074]

Done! The screenshot includes some file information. I hope it worked! 

[Charlie.D]

Hello @Jordan_Avis6074 

I can see there is a personal LR Mobile subscription with 100 GB of storage for the account you used to post for help here.  You account also has a subscription to the Creative Cloud Photography plan with 1 TB.  (Side note: this makes your separate LR Mobile plan redundant, unnecessary)

Anyway, both plans for this particular Lightroom account are individual plans that should allow you to post images to Community.  

To me it sounds like you might have another email address and plan provided by a school or some other organization.  Is that possible?  Posting to Community is often blocked for users on Educational plans, and you would need to contact your plan administrator for further help.  You plan admin has access to Adobe Enterprise Support, to assist you further.

I would say that if you want to continue posting images to the LR Community, you should use this same account/email ID that you used to post for help here.

Thank you!

[Charlie.D]

Quick follow up: I tried a CC enterprise account of my own, which is not an educational account, and I saw the same error message as you shared, @Jordan_Avis6074 

I'll convert this thread to a bug, to help with internal tracking while we investigate this further.  

[Jordan_Avis6074]

Wow, thank you so much for the quick help and for all of the useful information! I appreciate it so much! 

About my multiple subscriptions - I did not realize I had two different ones! Thank you for pointing that out...if I cancel my Lightroom mobile subscription and keep the other, will I lose anything on Lightroom mobile (or elsewhere)?

Thank you again so much! 

[Charlie.D]

Hello again @Jordan_Avis6074 

I have some updated info that I think explains what both you and I have experienced..  A developer on LR iOS informed me that Community recently implemented a requirement that any image one tries to upload must have camera EXIF metadata.  Please confirm whether your image that failed to upload does or doesn't have camera metadata.  (See my screenshot -- this image did upload for me, whereas another image without camera info failed for me)

My previous note about EDU plans usually being restricted from posting to Community is true, but that doesn't seem to relate to the personal plans you have on your account.  Just to confirm, do you have some separate plan through a school or other organization that you ever sign into for Lightroom?  For now, I am moving this thread from a "Bug" back to a regular discussion post.

Lastly, regarding your personal plans, the LR Mobile plan on this account you used to post for help is indeed redundant.  You could cancel it without losing any photos.  Your  Photography plan includes both desktop and mobile.

[Jordan_Avis6074]

You are right! There is no camera metadata!
Is there a way that u can add this metadata myself, or am I simply unable to post this shot to the community? I did shoot this on my own camera, and am not sure why no metadata is there. 
Thank you so much!

[Jordan_Avis6074]

**I meant is there a way that I can add the metadata

[Conrad_C]

I did shoot this on my own camera, and am not sure why no metadata is there...**I meant is there a way that I can add the metadata

By @Jordan_Avis6074

The original image probably did have camera metadata, but it might have lost it along the way before posting. For example, if at some point it was exported, in most Adobe photo software there is an option to export without camera metadata (e.g, for privacy reasons). That might also be an option when exporting from the camera roll, depending on your phone's system. In any case, during export you need to make sure camera metadata is being preserved and not stripped.

For any image shot using a digital camera, the best way to preserve the camera metadata is to go back to the original because it’s all there, then when exporting make sure camera metadata is being included. 

Very important: There are two kinds of metadata that can come out of a digital camera: EXIF, and IPTC. EXIF is shot data such as shutter speed, aperture, camera model. IPTC is user-added metadata such as keywords and edits. If the requirement is “camera metadata” then that usually means EXIF.

Lightroom Classic can only edit the capture time; it cannot add or edit any other kind of EXIF metadata (it treats EXIF as read-only). If you want to put camera metadata back into the image, you’ll have to use a specialized tool such as EXIFtool that was already mentioned. But if you aren’t comfortable with the command line then you’ll have to find an easy-to-use EXIF editor. On the Mac that might be GraphicConverter, A Better Finder Attributes, LensTagger, etc. (Lightroom Classic gives you extensive control over IPTC metadata, but that’s not the problem here.)

But the problem with putting in the camera metadata yourself is that you have to know what the original shot metadata was and exactly which EXIF fields the Community is looking for. It's much easier and simpler to go back to the original image file and export it with camera metadata included.