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Library module LRC There is an unknown error while writing metadata to this photo. Retry?

LorraineHaugen Martin

New Member
Premium Classic Member
Premium Cloud Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2020
Messages
7
Lightroom Version Number
13.3
Operating System
  1. Windows 11
LRC 13.3

HP PC Windows 11 Pro

My catalog is on my hard drive

My photos are on an external Lacie Drive.

I recently ran Vice Versa Pro to back up my photos onto another Lacie Drive. The entire process took about 8 hours.

I opened Lightroom and all of my Photos have the (!) mark

The message reads:

LRC. There is an unknown error while writing metadata to this photo. Retry?

Options:

Import settings from Disk

Retry Metadata Export

Cancel
 
There are two items to check to start trouble shooting.

Have you plugged the wrong LaCie into the PC. Copying to another drive means LrC does not know the files on the other drive exist… so in theory the two drives might be the same they will (may) have different drive letters.

or… depending on the sequence you plugged the drives… windows may have re allocated the drive letters.

My advice to people is to allocate drive letters for external drives to the second half of the alphabet (and then stick a label on the drive with its drive letter and contents). If it is a live drive make that clear.. if a backup drive make that clear.

So… check the drive letters and compare that to the drive letters LrC is expecting to find the images.
 
Thank you for your response. Yes I have the correct drive (F) attached which is my original and main photo working external drive.
My back up drive is drive H.
I am able to access all the images. It is the (!) error message about the meta data.
 
the (!) icon denotes missing image file.

In the folders panel, are your folder marked with question marks? If os, what drive are the listed under in the LrC Folders Panel. Is that the same drive letter you see in Explorer for the primary drive?

Drive letter issues is a common problem with Windows coumputers. Folks who get tired of dealing with the drive letter changing problem, lock in a drive letter using a windows tool (type "change drive letter" in the windows search box. Pick a drive letter well into the alphabet. The most common letter people around here use is "P" for Photo. Then, as a one time exercise, relink Lrc to point to the newly lettered drive.
 
LRC 13.3

HP PC Windows 11 Pro

My catalog is on my hard drive

My photos are on an external Lacie Drive.

I recently ran Vice Versa Pro to back up my photos onto another Lacie Drive. The entire process took about 8 hours.

I opened Lightroom and all of my Photos have the (!) mark

The message reads:

LRC. There is an unknown error while writing metadata to this photo. Retry?

Options:

Import settings from Disk

Retry Metadata Export

Cancel
I wonder if Vice Versa wrote to your original files in its sync process and that may have caused some issues. Do you have any other copies of the images beyond what is on the F: and H: drives? If so, you could find a small folder of images on the F: drive that are in LRC, copy them elsewhere for safety, and then copy the other backup images in their place on the F: drive (in the same folder) and see if the "!" alert goes then goes away for them.

--Ken
 
I wonder if Vice Versa wrote to your original files in its sync process and that may have caused some issues. Do you have any other copies of the images beyond what is on the F: and H: drives? If so, you could find a small folder of images on the F: drive that are in LRC, copy them elsewhere for safety, and then copy the other backup images in their place on the F: drive (in the same folder) and see if the "!" alert goes then goes away for them.

--Ken
I was thinking something similar. Is Vice Versa Pro still active? If so, shut it down and see what happens. Just had a quick look at Vice Versa Pro. As well as backup it does other things. One of them is synchronisation. That would be an automatic sync between your data drive and the backup drive, similar to OneDrive, I guess. If you have inadvertently initiated synchronisation, it may interfere with LrC. Anyway, you might want to check with Vice Versa Pro support for compatibility with LrC.
 
the (!) icon denotes missing image file.

In the folders panel, are your folder marked with question marks? If os, what drive are the listed under in the LrC Folders Panel. Is that the same drive letter you see in Explorer for the primary drive?

Drive letter issues is a common problem with Windows coumputers. Folks who get tired of dealing with the drive letter changing problem, lock in a drive letter using a windows tool (type "change drive letter" in the windows search box. Pick a drive letter well into the alphabet. The most common letter people around here use is "P" for Photo. Then, as a one time exercise, relink Lrc to point to the newly lettered drive.
Thank you for your response. . The (!) scroll over says " Error writing metadata" my image files are not missing.
 
I was thinking something similar. Is Vice Versa Pro still active? If so, shut it down and see what happens. Just had a quick look at Vice Versa Pro. As well as backup it does other things. One of them is synchronisation. That would be an automatic sync between your data drive and the backup drive, similar to OneDrive, I guess. If you have inadvertently initiated synchronisation, it may interfere with LrC. Anyway, you might want to check with Vice Versa Pro support for compatibility with LrC.
Thank you for your response. Vice Versa is not still active. I used this program to create my back from my initial image storage to another external drive. It was when I launched LRC after the backup that I received this error message. I don't use One drive it was causing all kinds of compatible issues when I was working in LRC. I did a lot of research before, Vice Versa was a recommended program for synchronization and back up.
 
The (!) scroll over says " Error writing metadata"
Ahh, Different icon that contains an "!" rather than being just an "!".

What type of image? RAW which puts metadata in XMP side car file, or other file type the embeds metadata inside the image file?

Check permissionms on whichever type it is

Is problem on all files where you attempt to save metadata to disk or just a some?
 
I wonder if Vice Versa wrote to your original files in its sync process and that may have caused some issues. Do you have any other copies of the images beyond what is on the F: and H: drives? If so, you could find a small folder of images on the F: drive that are in LRC, copy them elsewhere for safety, and then copy the other backup images in their place on the F: drive (in the same folder) and see if the "!" alert goes then goes away for them.

--Ken
Ahh, Different icon that contains an "!" rather than being just an "!".

What type of image? RAW which puts metadata in XMP side car file, or other file type the embeds metadata inside the image file?

Check permissionms on whichever type it is

Is problem on all files where you attempt to save metadata to disk or just a some?

Ahh, Different icon that contains an "!" rather than being just an "!".

What type of image? RAW which puts metadata in XMP side car file, or other file type the embeds metadata inside the image file?

Check permissionms on whichever type it is

Is problem on all files where you attempt to save metadata to disk or just a some?
Raw images on the LRC side panel under Metadata 8 th down Metadata Status reads Unknown side box scroll over " resolve conflict" ?
 
I wonder if Vice Versa wrote to your original files in its sync process and that may have caused some issues. Do you have any other copies of the images beyond what is on the F: and H: drives? If so, you could find a small folder of images on the F: drive that are in LRC, copy them elsewhere for safety, and then copy the other backup images in their place on the F: drive (in the same folder) and see if the "!" alert goes then goes away for them.

--Ken
I think the sync process caused the unknown status. I really don't want to start moving images around. I have over 38k on the external drive that I backed up.
 
I think the sync process caused the unknown status. I really don't want to start moving images around. I have over 38k on the external drive that I backed up.
Understandable. Two thoughts come to mind. First, you could select one image and tell it to import settings from disk and see what happens.

Second, if you continue to use Vice Versa, you may experience this after every sync. Not sure if SyncBack ( a competitor program) would behave the same, but it may be worth considering.

Good luck,

--Ken
 
Understandable. Two thoughts come to mind. First, you could select one image and tell it to import settings from disk and see what happens.

Second, if you continue to use Vice Versa, you may experience this after every sync. Not sure if SyncBack ( a competitor program) would behave the same, but it may be worth considering.

Good luck,

--Ken
I use SynBackPro with LrC and it works well. However, I do incremental mirror backups. It's a straight copy once a night, no syncing at all.
 
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