LR 2, am I going mad?

Pittspilot

I use LR on both Mac and PC platforms and often copy xmp files to make changes (one system at home, one in the studio) on each machine. I just moved to Mac in the studio, copied over a directory - including all xmp files - and when I import the folder into LR, none of my edits, star ratings etc are carried across into the Mac LR import. Not even after synchronizing the folder to make absolutely sure that the catalog is updated.

Any suggestions?

Cheers

ivar

Pittspilot wrote:

I use LR on both Mac and PC platforms and often copy xmp files to make changes (one system at home, one in the studio) on each machine. I just moved to Mac in the studio, copied over a directory - including all xmp files - and when I import the folder into LR, none of my edits, star ratings etc are carried across into the Mac LR import. Not even after synchronizing the folder to make absolutely sure that the catalog is updated.

Any suggestions?

Cheers

By default, LR doesn't add changes to the XMP. It is kept in the LR catalog. There are two things you can do. Easiest one is to export the catalog. (On the mac, it's under 'file >>> export as catalog')
The other thing you can do, is write the changes to the XMP first (not sure if *everything* is saved to XMP that way). For that, right click, and hit 'metadata >>> save metadata to file').

I hope this helps.

Pittspilot

ivar wrote:

By default, LR doesn't add changes to the XMP. It is kept in the LR catalog. There are two things you can do. Easiest one is to export the catalog. (On the mac, it's under 'file >>> export as catalog')
The other thing you can do, is write the changes to the XMP first (not sure if *everything* is saved to XMP that way). For that, right click, and hit 'metadata >>> save metadata to file').

I hope this helps.

I do the latter routinely, as my portability method between systems at home and in the studio.

Oddly, it seems that the updated xmp files had been read by the Mac, but for some reason the updated info was not being displayed in grid view. Out of frustration, I clicked the 3 star filter and viola, all the changes were there and edits updated on the screen as I watched.

Very odd, but it seems like my system still works!

Cheers

cmason

What about just exporting as DNG? I think DNG includes all the edits in LR as well, so you dont have to mess with a xmp file. Still don't think LR saves edits in DNG automatically, think it saves to the LR catalog.

Pittspilot

cmason wrote:

What about just exporting as DNG? I think DNG includes all the edits in LR as well, so you dont have to mess with a xmp file. Still don't think LR saves edits in DNG automatically, think it saves to the LR catalog.

That is very true. However each dng is large, copying them is similar to copying raw files - something I'm trying to avoid.

The xmp files are trivially small. I mirror my folder / directory layout on each machine so that simply copying the updated xmp files (and synchronizing the folder) SHOULD update the edits, ratings etc.

Yesterday I did a 'Day of the Dead' shoot, edited almost 1000 shots on the studio Mac, uploaded the results to Flickr, forced a write of metadata and then copied to a portable drive. I get home copy all the files over, including the correct xmp files, import and...

Nothing. It's as though the xmp files (and edits) don't exist. Forcing a synch does nothing.

If anyone has ideas WHY (it must be me or a setting somewhere, this has routinely worked before, albeit on identical windows platforms), I'd love to hear them.

Cheers

cmason

I don't think LR automagically saves edits to XMP, unless you EXPORT.

This article is a good read to understand how to use the LR catalog to do what you are looking for, at least part of it:

http://www.layersmagazine.com/working-with-database-catalogs-in-lightroom.html

Pittspilot

cmason wrote:

I don't think LR automagically saves edits to XMP, unless you EXPORT.

This article is a good read to understand how to use the LR catalog to do what you are looking for, at least part of it:

http://www.layersmagazine.com/working-with-database-catalogs-in-lightroom.html

Interesting article, thanks. They do omit the 'automagic' option, which is in 'Catalog Settings, Metadata, Automatically write files to xmp'.

In addition, I'm forcing a write of edits etc by choosing Save Metadata as well. So I SHOULD be saving all the info...



Cheers

pyry

Pittspilot wrote:

Interesting article, thanks. They do omit the 'automagic' option, which is in 'Catalog Settings, Metadata, Automatically write files to xmp'.

In addition, I'm forcing a write of edits etc by choosing Save Metadata as well. So I SHOULD be saving all the info...

Cheers

You might need to tell it to update the previews as well.

Pittspilot

pyry wrote:

You might need to tell it to update the previews as well.

I'll try that too, thanks