LR 1.3.1: not creating XMP files at random

[rsg]

I've finally got round to trying to import my old rawshooter settings for several thousand .CR2 files. The migration tool requires first that data be saved to XMP files (I had earlier turned of the autosave feature, but have now reenabled it). I then selected all the photos (35'' or so) in the database sorry catalog and LR successfully managed this except for 285 images for which it reports 'Writing XMP metadata' did not complete successfully. On further investigation I find in a typical folder of say 3' images there might be one with this problem, which is identical in every material respect to its neighbours. So what's the problem?

No matter what I do to a sample problem file like this: change keywords; 'develop' the image etc etc I can't get LR to make an XMP file either automatically or by forcing a 'save metadata'.

I did google this and someone suggested a timestamp ending in '' but this is not the case here.

I cannot image I am the only one with this but could not find another mention in the forum.

Should I just switch to DNG? What about my rawshooter migration?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Mick Seymour]

This is an odd one.

I would try removing one of the problem photos from the Lightroom database (NOT from the disk). If there is an XMP file for it that Lightroom may have messed up writing, remove it from the disk. If there are other files of the same name but with different extensions in the folder, for example a JPEG or TIFF, move them to a different folder temporarily.

Next, turn off autowrite XMP and synchronise that folder to re-import the single photo. Once imported, select it and try to write XMP manually for it.

Let us know how that goes.

 

[rsg]

Mick

Thanks for your response. I tried all that, but to no avail. I guess it's certainly a bug, however. I found that I could solve the problem by renaming the file, in this case from 2''6'422_''46.CR2 to 2''6'422_''46a.CR2, after which it behaves as normal. Now I appear to be faced with renaming another 284 files scattered through dozens of folders. But I'm reluctant to do so without knowing why?

Another odd thing - even after deleting the file from LR and then synchronising the folders, on refinding the photo LR decided it already had metadata (develop settings) so it must be remembering them from somewhere? Perhaps a corrupt .xmp file but it does not show up in explorer. (nb os is Vista). However it did not remember keywords recently added.

Once again note that there was nothing exceptional about the file I did this experiment with and it has not been treated any differently to its neighbours as far as can recall.

 

[Replytoken]

As a test, have yout tried importing a small number of files, both correct and with XMP problems, into a new catalog? Its not clear if the problem is program-based, catalog-based or file-based? Since your renaiming of the file seems to have things acting normal, it would be good to run an additional test, like creating a new catalog, to rule out corrupted catalog files. It would also help to rule out a program-based problem.

--Ken

 

[Mick Seymour]

I found that I could solve the problem by renaming the file, in this case from 2''6'422_''46.CR2 to 2''6'422_''46a.CR2, after which it behaves as normal. Now I appear to be faced with renaming another 284 files scattered through dozens of folders.

Did you rename it inside Lightroom or from Explorer. If inside Lightroom, that would imply a catalog problem.

If renaming works, you'll have to also rename the .rws files from RSP; not a task I'd look forward to .

Another odd thing - even after deleting the file from LR and then synchronising the folders, on refinding the photo LR decided it already had metadata (develop settings) so it must be remembering them from somewhere? Perhaps a corrupt .xmp file but it does not show up in explorer. (nb os is Vista).

Again, if you renamed from inside Lightroom, it would have renamed the .xmp at the same time if it existed so would re-import including the XMP data. The alternative is that Lightroom did not delete the develop settings when the photo was removed, again implying a catalog problem.

I think I'd go with Ken's suggestion and try importing a problem folder into a new catalog, just to see what happens. If that works, back up your existing catalog and run an integrity check on it.

 

[japhotoguy]

I've run across similar situations, specifically exporting a catalog or exporting jpegs; a number of them will not process. They reside in exactly the same place as all the rest of the images but would not process. It infuriated me, I looked at images that had processed and those that had not and saw no differences. So why? I finally looked at the folder attributes and saw that the entire folder was marked as read only. I unchecked it and tried exporting the questionable images and was successful. Now, why it would allow the majority of images to export in the same folder export but not a handful of others is best explained by some higher power.

 

[Bruce J]

JA,

Just a guess, but I would suspect that the photos that wouldn't export have been changed in some way since the last time LR had been able to write to the folder. Because it couldn't update the metadata in the jpegs, it wasn't able to export either. Other photos that did export correctly had possibly not been changed since the directory was made read-only.

 

[rsg]

JA,

Just a guess, but I would suspect that the photos that wouldn't export have been changed in some way since the last time LR had been able to write to the folder. Because it couldn't update the metadata in the jpegs, it wasn't able to export either. Other photos that did export correctly had possibly not been changed since the directory was made read-only.

Just for the record here as the OP I thought of this and at least one and probably all of my affected folders were read only. However when I changed this it made no difference.

rsg