Question about "Overwrite Settings"

[tsinsf]

Lightroom Version

12.0.1

Operating System

1. macOS 12 Monterey

OK, now that I know the difference between Save and Save As, I have a question about this pop up. Because I want my edited photos on a different hard drive and in a different folder than in my LR catalog, I always open them via Lightroom into Photoshop, and then when I’m finished editing I use Save As. I’ve noticed that the edited changes that I’ve made in Photoshop appear into Lightroom shortly after. But I notice an exclamation point over the original Raw photo in the film strip in Lightroom and then this message appears.
Could someone please explain to me what this step accomplishes if Lightroom has already received the changes I made in Photoshop?

 

[Paul McFarlane]

Lightroom is seeing the changes in the actual file (and shows them)

This is saying the metadata has changed. In your scenario this likely just means the file date (modified) has changed. Overwrite will write the Lightroom metadata to the file, Import takes it from the disk.

 

[tsinsf]

Thank you for answering the question. So in my case, since LR already has the changes I have made to the photo, and the only thing it is missing is having the correct modified date, if I don't care about that bit of metadata (I don't) then I can just ignore the little question mark over the photo in the film strip?

 

[Paul McFarlane]

Yes, or Overwrite if you are happy with the Lightroom settings. The one time to not (as in Import) is if you've done something in another program that you want Lr to know (Star Rating in ACR for example, although that's not the place you'd do it!)