Alright so I have both Lightroom 3 and 4 Beta and absolutely love 4 Beta. I have edited an entire client's images in 4 but am aware of the upcoming expiration date. I need to move the edited files back to Lightroom 3 until I can get my hands on the full version of 4.

I have tried importing from the catalog but because it's newer it doesn't like it. I also tried writing files to XMP but it didn't seem to make a difference.

Any thought? I know I could just Export and Import but I was hoping for something that takes up less hard drive real estate and is quicker I guess.

Any help will be appreciated.

Convert them to DNG and save em? That might do the trick.

Or export them with xml sidecar files, that was how I did it to export from 3 to an older version.

I think you will have to export finished tiffs or better still, finished jpgs from LR4 beta. Adobe says it ( LR 4 beta ) is for learning and bug hunting, NOT for professional editing workflows.

LR3 has no idea how to render meta data from LR4 beta. Indeed, the camera profiles have also been updated in LR 4 beta, and LR3 does not had access to that information either.

You can import your original backed up'd RAW files into LR3, but LR3 will not use the meta data changes from LR4 beta, and probably never will. I cannot take a file rendered in LR3, and re-run back into LR2, and expect it to match there either. Progress only goes one way, I think.

This might work? After editing, go to library mode, on the film strip below, click the first image and then while holding control,left click all the others you want to save, they will highlight as well. then try exporting in whatever format. I haven't tried this, but it may work?

I also suggest visting LR Forums and posing this question there. But I think Pathfinder has hit the nail on the head.