Changed Metadata

[benoitch]

Mod Note: Moved from Tips/Tricks

Hi. I would like to know if there is a way to have lightroom show the modified metadata. When changes are made that affect the metadata, Lightroom indicate in various places that the metadata have been modified.

However, I would like to know which ones have been modified before commiting the changes. Is there any way to do that ?

I am still using 1.4.1 but I'm about to buy 2.' so the answer can address both I guess.

Thanks and best regards,

MrSchultz

 

[Brad Snyder]

MrSchultz, Welcome to LR Forums.

I'm not sure I exactly understand the question. Can you give an example?

 

[benoitch]

Sorry. Let me explain in more depth the behavior and what I'd like to do.

For example, let say I have a picture for which the metadata in the catalog AND the disk file is synchronized. Now, suppose I apply a label to that picture, Lightroom's metadata browser will indicate that the metadata have been modified. Additionally, it may show in the grid view through a little icon on the picture. Clicking on either, Lightroom can synchronize the metadata for that picture.

Here is my question: at that point, before clicking on the icon or the metadata browser, I may not remember what changes have been done to the file (was it only the label or a development preset or IPTC, etc...), hence I'd like to be able to "see" what had changed before commiting it to the file.

I am asking this for the following reason. It is quite easy to inadvertently change something on a picture. When you want to apply the metadata to the file (because Lightroom tells you that the metadata has changed), hence saving it outside of the catalog, you can't determine which change(s) was/were done. It is quite possible that you don't want to apply some unwanted changes. In that case, you could easily revert them or do an opposite change to cancel it, before commiting to the file. BTW, that include changes that do not show in the development history (ie. label, notes, etc..)

Also, I must admit it is my purist side that likes to know what's been and will be done ;-). It's no biggy. I was just wondering if there was such a mecanism.

I hope I was able to explain this in a more understandable way

Thanks for your patience ... and thanks for the welcome. I've been reading this forum for a while now, but it's the first time I actually post in it.

 

[Brad Snyder]

Here is my question: at that point, before clicking on the icon or the metadata browser, I may not remember what changes have been done to the file (was it only the label or a development preset or IPTC, etc...), hence I'd like to be able to "see" what had changed before commiting it to the file.

And that's where I got confused in your first short question.

'Commiting it to the file' happens automatically. While you can force the metadata update, as you've discovered, the actual file write happens kind of on its own schedule. Whether you clicked the metadata mismatch button or not, that metadata change was committed. I've seen the updating method called 'lazy writes', which implies that it's a low-priority task for LR, and in fact, it sometimes happens that the only way to completely enforce the update is to quit LR and restart.

I understand what you're asking for, perhaps make an official Feature Request. You can access that page at Adobe, thru the 'Bug Report' button at the top of the forum. (It's a dual purpose form at Adobe.)

There's another thread here, within the last month, discussing the topic in more detail, but I can't seem to locate it right now.

 

[benoitch]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah I did search around before posting but could not find anything precisely on this.

If it is lazy then it is REALLY lazy as I have some pictures marked as "changed" for some days already. Could it be related to the preference on autmatically writing the metadata in the XMP ? I have that option off in my case. Which I thought would mean that it is written only when I explicitly request it.

 

[Brad Snyder]

Ooops. Yes, I think I've mislead you. I keep that auto-write on all the time on my system, so I was off on a completely wrong tangent. Can you say, 'Duh' ?

You're correct, with XMP autowrite set to off, then it is written to file only when you explicitly request it. I really have to go find that other thread now, I know that Mark Sirota had some intelligent and informative things to say. (Unlike myself )

And to your original question, no, I don't know of anyway to highlight the pending changes.
There are substantial changes between LR1.x and LR2 in the User Interface of metadata. (I believe the underlying plumbing is more or less the same, though)

Anyway, make the Feature Request. If I find the thread I'm thinking of, I'll post it back here.


Edit:, Here's the thread, I was thinking of:

http://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/showthread.php?t=25'2&highlight=lazy

 

[Mark Sirota]

You're correct, with XMP autowrite set to off, then it is written to file only when you explicitly request it. I really have to go find that other thread now, I know that Mark Sirota had some intelligent and informative things to say. (Unlike myself )http://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/showthread.php?t=25'2&highlight=lazy

Me? Really?

In that thread I was talking about the information visible in the 1.x metadata browser at the bottom of the left panel. That's the thing that used some sort of lazy update mechanism.

That's a completely different thing from the XMP update. As far as I know, that's immediate upon hitting the Save button (Control/Command-S), and live if you've got auto-write enabled. (Of course it isn't truly immediate; writing things to disk take some time, and writing a lot of things to disk can take a lot of time. But it isn't lazy, by the usual definition of that word.)

To answer the original question, I agree, there's no way to view the unwritten data, and it sounds like a reasonable feature request to me. Though I'm not sure LR keeps track of this in an easy way; it probably rewrites all the XMP data when writing it out, rather than just writing the deltas... But it could do a comparison with the information on disk when asked for it. I wouldn't expect this feature request to get high priority though, as I don't think many LR users are all that compulsive about this.

Remember also that everything is written right away to the catalog. It's just the XMP data embedded in the DNG or sidecar file that's unwritten, as I understand it.

 

[Brad Snyder]

Thanks, Mark, I got the two subjects crossed up in my memory, and the more I thought about it, the deeper the hole got .....

 

[benoitch]

Thanks, Mark, I got the two subjects crossed up in my memory, and the more I thought about it, the deeper the hole got .....

:mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Thanks guys. I expected that answer, but wanted to make sure anyways. Thanks for your time on this.