[Daniel Koretz Participant Posts: 87]

Adobe Lightroom & Adobe Camera Raw

on: November 29, 2020 at 12:35 pm

My first “backup” is actually a synced copy of the drive that has my photos and Lightroom catalog. Because it’s a sync that I do myself, I see what has been changed and is being updated on the external drive I use for the mirrored copy. I’ve noticed that Lightroom often changes something about files that haven’t been edited–usually sidecar files, but sometimes TIFF files as well. Usually it’s a modest number, but not always. For example, just now I was stacking photos from one directory, using an external editor (Zerene), then syncing the composites back into Lightroom and editing the TIFF files a bit. All of this was done in a small directory that never had as many as 100 files in it at any time, including xmp files. When I was done, I had 43 files in that directory. When I synced to my external drive–having done it only an hour previously–it updated well over 600 files, including some xmp and TIFF files in directories I hadn’t touched in months.

This isn’t something new. I’ve noticed it for years in many versions of LR. However, the 600 files today was far more than most.

I’m guessing that the catalog is updating the date information in the files, but I haven’t been able to find anything about this on the web. Anyone know?

[Mike Nelson Pedde Participant Posts: 641]

Re: Lightroom altering files that aren’t edited

Reply #1 on: November 29, 2020 at 6:02 pm

Not sure what your answer is, but a general response is that by default when you import an image to Lr it reads the metadata for each image and adds that to its database (catalogue). By default, most changes made in Lr are stored only in the database. However, you can tell Lr to write out changes either manually (Ctrl-S) or automatically. There are pros and cons to both options, especially if you’re editing multiple images at once, but you have that enabled, it’s possible to have files altered. However, unless you’ve done something to the image after import – keywording, colour labels, pick flags, processing, Lr shouldn’t have any changes to write. 🤔

Mike.

_____
Mike Nelson Pedde
Victoria, BC
https://www.wolfnowl.com/

[Daniel Koretz Participant Posts: 87]

Re: Lightroom altering files that aren’t edited

Reply #2 on: November 30, 2020 at 9:59 am

Lr shouldn’t have any changes to write

One would think, but it does. That’s why I posted.

The files in question are some to which I have done nothing whatsoever since the previous sync. The are always in directories other than the photos on which I have been working. To be clear:

–I have LR set to write changes to XMP ‘sidecar’ files.

–At the end of every session, I sync to the entire disk to an external mirror.

–I then start a new session and work on files in one directory

–After ending that session, I sync again and often find that the sync software finds modifications to a seemingly random assortment of XMP and occasionally TIFF files in <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>other</span> directories. It’s usually a relatively small number, but the last time it was over 600 files.

The only thing I can think of is that when I sync a parent directory, LR is changing the date flag or something else in extant XMP files.

I didn’t think to check whether these changes are all under the same parent directory, which would be a clue. I also hadn’t thought to stop the sync and manually check the date stamps on some of the files in question.

If you use a true backup, as I do for my second, offsite backup, you wouldn’t see this; it would all happen invisibly. However, if you use a sync program and have it set to show you changes before mirroring, it should show up.

[Daniel Koretz Participant Posts: 87]

Re: Lightroom altering files that aren’t edited

Reply #3 on: November 30, 2020 at 10:01 am

Sorry, that was unclear, and I don’t see a way to edit posts. I have a hierarchical file structure. For example, I have one parent directory for flower photos, and under that, I have a subdirectory for each shoot. So when I add images from a flower shoot, I sync the parent flower directory in LR, which of course adds the new subdirectory. What I should have said is that these odds changes are outside the <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>sub</span>directory in which I have been working. I haven’t checked whether they are all under the same parent directory.

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