P: Mixed up Previews after renaming files

[18ShadesOfGrey]

I imported about 100 photos into Lightroom 4. I then ranked each photo and permanently deleted about 8 photos. I selected all the photos then renamed them to get the numbers correct. Then I started applying keywords. I'm not exactly sure what I did next, perhaps I double clicked on a photo, but then I realized that one photo was rotated, and one of the photos I was about to keyword was missing. Also three of the photos had duplicates. I couldn't have done those changes so fast if I had wanted to.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

You are going to have to supply more information. Platform, exact Lr version.

Do you have "write change into XMP" option set?

[18ShadesOfGrey]

Mac OS X 10.68
Lightroom version: 4.1 [829322]
Version: 10.6 [8]

Yes, I have the write changes to XMP option selected.

[18ShadesOfGrey]

Did that extra information not help?

[18ShadesOfGrey]

There is something screwy going on. I re-imported the pictures into another folder, removed the duplicates from the first, added a couple of missing photos, then deleted the second folder. I did some editing and renamed the photos to get them back in numerical order. For one of the photos when I select it in Library module, when I click on the Develop module it shows me a different photo from the set, and I can't see that on in the Library module, only the Develop module. The filters are off. Could it be that the catalog is corrupt? I should have a backup but I don't want to waste all the work I did on this set for nothing.

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

I think this may be the same issue that I bugged yesterday. When you renamed the photos, did you use the same naming structure again - i.e. did some of the existing filenames get reused on other photos? If so, it's a nasty bug, where the database is getting mixed up by the reuse of the filename. It used to add -2's all over the place to avoid it.

2 solutions - restoring from backup is certainly the best option, or reading back from XMP brings the correct settings back and corrects the preview, although I think the settings that aren't stored in xmp (i.e. Develop history, flags, etc.) ends up associated with the wrong photo still.

Way to avoid it - don't reuse the same file naming - or rename to something different and then rename again with your preferred naming structure.

[18ShadesOfGrey]

Thanks for responding. Yes, that's exactly what I did. Renaming with the same naming structure was never a problem in the past. I guess I'll give it another name temporarily, at least until they fix the bug.

How does one read back from XMP? There is nothing about XMP in the Help file.

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

You select the photos in Grid view and go to Metadata menu > Read Metadata from Files.

[18ShadesOfGrey]

That seemed to do the trick, thanks.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

All of a sudden my lightroom thumbnails (in any module) aren't representing the correct image. It seems to happen when I am almost done working on a set of client proofs. I'm doing the final renaming of images (which I have done several times prior without problems) and then they look like they are all out of order (and some have rotated). However when I pull up the photo as an individual (loupe view) and not in the Grid view, once it loads, it changes to the image that it is supposed to be. Anyone know what is causing the program to do this and how I can fix it?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I will try renaming different and then naming back too to see if it fixes it. When importing proofs I currently have them named with the clients name then a number. After I cull them down I rename them so they are in sequence again with the missing numbers gone. I'll try it in a 3 step process next time and name it something totally different first.
For what it's worth, I'm on Windows 7, and work with DNG's not xmp's

It only started doing this weird thing, this month. Hope they fix the bug.

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

I posted back on the other thread, but I think it disappeared when the threads merged. Just try restarting after renaming - if this is the same bug, then the restart should fix the previews without needing to do a three step process.

[Trevor.Morris]

Batch rename in Lightroom renamed all files, but failed to update the referenced file (NEF) inside the XMP. This created a complete mess whereby all my settings were associated with the wrong files, and previews were overwritten with the wrong image data. What a mess!

Fortunately, I was able to write a script to write the correct names back into the XMP files, then I dumped the folder cache and reimported the photos. Thankfully this worked and I didn't lose all of the settings for all my photos!

This happened with Lightroom 4.1 on Windows 7/64.

--
Cheers,
Trevor

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I've recently been getting an odd problem in LR 4.1 on Win 7.

my pattern is to import a batch of photos (canon CR2 raw), rename them and then generate 1:1 previews. but now the previews task completes almost immediately (ie too quickly!), and when I view the photos they are totally blurry as though the preview is only partly rendered. the module also displays 'loading...' as though no preview exists.

re-rendering makes no difference, nor does discarding and re-rendering.
the only fix I've found is to remove the photos from the catalog and re-import.

in the latest instance the previews task flashed through about 30 photos then spent the normal time rendering another 7; the 7 have perfect previews and the first 30 are faulty...

I don't think I've changed this part of my workflow for ages...

thanks for any wise suggestions, Philip

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I've noticed two problems that occur when renaming files after import into a Lightroom 4.1 catalog (running on Mac OS X 10.7.4):

1. In the Library module the histogram for a selected image that was just renamed will be empty. Exiting the program and restarting it will cause the histogram to appear again.

2. In the Library module clicking on an image so that it goes 1:1 will result in a blurry image. It appears that what is happening is that the 1:1 preview will not render on an image that was just renamed. Again, exiting the program and restarting it will address this issue.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I rename my photos when importing them into Lightroom. The naming template uses date fiels, some custom text and ends with a sequential number. After done editing I sometimes delete pictures from my hard drive and then use the rename photos function on the previously renamed photos again with the same file naming template (and start the sequence again at 1). This is when things go crazy: Lightroom renames the files allright but the previews don't match the pictures anymore just following the photo that has been deleted. No updating the preview and metadata function, etc. seems to help at first. When going back and forth between the Develop and Library module the preview picture always reverts to the picture preview of the deleted file or even some other one (sometimes also rotated)! It might show the correct preview while I edit the picture but that changes when I move to the next or another picture, or go to another module. It is frustrating and extremely annoying as I question the integrity of the program and the only thing that appears to help is updating the metadata at least three times with an exit of Lightroom inbetween. Why can't renaming (using the same naming template twice, i.e. just changing some sequential numbering) work as one would expect?

[john dennaford]

I have also suffered this very puzzling (and then very annoying) bug. I think Adobe has failed its duty of care to its customers by failing to highlight this problem. I accept that they can't fix everything immediately but they could email their registered customers and give advice on how to avoid the bug.