NLP Conversion Lost on Lr Sync

Troubleshooting and Bugs Lightroom Classic CC
1

I just discovered the following:

When I remove a converted image (the raw file, not a TIFF copy) from Lightroom, restart Lightroom and sync the folder that contains the file that has been converted and removed, the file has lost the conversion.

Even though the .xmp sidecar was saved before removing the file from Lr, the conversion was lost.

This basically means that all info about the conversion (including metadata) resides solely in Lr’s catalog and is not exported to the sidecar file.

Is this
a) correct,
b) intended and
c) can we do anything in order to preserve conversions under these circumstances?

2

Hi,
This is inherent to the principles of Lr: everything you do is written to the Lrcat file. However you can modify this in the Lr Catalog Settings and tck the 3 upper boxes.
Hoping it helps
Sans titre

3

Thanks @HERISSON and welcome to the forum.

I usually don’t write sidecar files, but did it before syncing.
The bad news here is that NLP does not appear to write into the sidecar files.

I solved the problem by using a backup of the catalog.

Lessons learned

  • backup the Lr catalog before you do anything important, risky or foolish :wink:

Did a short test which seems to contradict this post:

  1. Open image in Lr
  2. Prepare the image for NLP (WB and crop)
  3. Save sidecar and rename it
  4. Convert with NLP
  5. Save sidecar
  6. Remove image from Lr and optimize the catalog
  7. Restart Lr
  8. Sync folder → image came up as a positive, but in ugly colours
    (like when we try to convert without using un-convert before that)
  9. Read metadata from file (the second sidecar that was not renamed)
    → image changed and displayed correctly (as converted in step 4)

Difference to the situation that produced the issue: Single image instead of several hundred images. @nate can you comment on this?

4

A. Yes, this is correct. When you remove a photo from the catalog, it loses any catalog-specific metadata associated with the photo.
B. I don’t have a choice, unfortunately. That’s just the way it works in the LR SDK. Any plugin specific metadata is associated with the photo via the catalog.
C. If you need to move or share files and keep all this metadata for further editing, the best way to do that is through exporting/importing as a Lightroom Catalog. Just select the images, and go to “File > Export as a Catalog”. Then wherever you need to move it to, use “FIle > Import From Another Catalog.”

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