Metadata and XMP sidecar files not transferring from PM5 to LR5

[Petychka]

I'm having a basic problem with Photo Mechanic and Lightroom. After I make my metadata changes of my RAW files in Photo Mechanic 5 (so I now have the RAW file and the XMP sidecar files), I export these into Lightroom 5. No matter how I transfer the files (lifting and dropping the files onto the LR icon or choosing the "Edit in..." option in PM), neither the sidecar files or the metadata changes are carried across into Lightroom. Looking at my previous Lightroom files, they are dng files without XMP sidecars so I think my metadata is embedded in the dng files. Photo mechanic has no use unless I can get the metadata across to Lightroom. What have I done wrong? How do I fix this?

I am running an iMac under El Capitan 10.11.2. PM is 5.0, build 16299 (579a307), LR is CC version 5, release 2015.3, camera Raw 9.3.

My PM5 settings for IPTC/XMP are: read embedded XMP before IPTC; first read XMP sidecar file, second read embedded XMP; Default XMP coding Mac Roman, IPTC unicode unchecked; IPTC line endings CR (recommended); use metadata from JPEG files; for JPEGS with multiple ITPC records read/update the last one; comma for repeating fields; when writing ITPC/XMP: for JPEG, TIFF PSD, DNG photos add embedded IPTC (XMP will always be written); for TIFF-based RAW photos (non DNG) allow RAW files to be modified; add embedded metadata XMP and IPTC unchecked; always create and/or update XMP sidecar file checked.

In LR5, embed fast load data is checked, embed original Raw file is checked.

Thank you.

[Hayo Baan]

First of all, I'm very surprised to read you have XMP files alongside DNGs; there shouldn't be any as the metadata is embedded (always). Perhaps these XMP files are from the RAW file before you converted them to DNG?

To get LR to make use of the updated metadata is always a manual process, but not too difficult. When in LR Simply select the file(s), and right click. In the context menu, choose Metadata|Read Metadata from Files. Also notice in that same menu the option “Update DNG Previews & Metadata”, this you should do after you've edited your file in LR as it will allow PM to show you the updates&edits you made.

Instead of doing this on individual files, I actually usually select a (base) folder from the Folders box in Library, right click that and select “Synchronise Folder” there; apart from any metadata changes, this also allows LR to pick up any file new/removed files.

Hope this helps, if not just ask

[Petychka]

Dear Hayo,

Thank you for your swift,  helpful and courteous reply. You're correct, I've looked again there are no XMP files amongst the DNGs. My apologies.

I have followed your advice as best I could. I selected the photos in Photo Mechanic and dragged them onto the Lightroom icon for importing. After importing into Lightroom, I selected the photos in Lightroom, right-clicked and chose Metadata/Read Metadata from files. Nothing changed.

I tried again: I deleted the imported files from Lightroom, repeated the exercise and tried instead Metadata/Write metadata to files. No luck. Again.

I tried again: I deleted the imported files from Lightroom and, this time, found them in their folder Navigator, right clicked and this time clicked Save Metadata. No change.

Have I done something incorrectly? Is there something else the matter?

Many thanks again,

Peter

[Hayo Baan]

If you have freshly imported them in Lightroom, they should already have all the metadata from PM. My tip is only for if you already had them in Lightroom before making changes in PM.

So, is there anything not showing in Lightroom that you did set in PM? That would be strange and worth further investigation...

[Petychka]

Dear Hayo,

Thank you for hanging in there for me 

The photos were first imported from the camera's memory card into PM. The metadata were then edited in PM and the files then exported from PM to LR. None of the changes to the metadata that had been made in PM (e.g. captions, copyright notice, colour ratings) appear in LR. The pictures in Lightroom contain only the metadata that were written by the camera (e.g. aperture, focal length) and none that were written by PM.

Best wishes,

Peter

[Hayo Baan]

That is odd!

Have you ingested your images in PM to your hard drive and and you perhaps importing them from your memory card into Lightroom? Or, worse, have you edited your images in PM while they were on the memory card? You should really never ever do that as it might corrupt your images without chance of recover. That is also why PM by default does not write any changes to your memory card (it will allow you to edit them though), so if this is what you have done, there indeed won't be any changes that where made in PM to show in Lightroom...

[Petychka]

Dear Hayo,

I have checked by right-clicking one of the pictures in PM and choosing "Reveal in Finder" - this shows the file (which is an Olympus .ORF file) and its partner .XMP sidecar file on my NAS drive, which is where I store all my photo files. When I open the .XMP file, I can see the metadata changes that I have made in PM. These changes don't seem to move across to LR, though.

Peter

[Hayo Baan]

Ah, we're getting somewhere, I think. I think the problem is that Lightroom doesn't see the XMP file. How are you importing the images into Lightroom? Also, check your Lightroom preferences so that it writes the metadata to XMP files and not keep them in its own database (which is the default...).

[Petychka]

Dear Hayo,

Thank you again for persevering.

I import the files from PM to LR by selecting the actual pictures in PM and dropping them onto the LR icon. I have also tried importing the files by selecting the .ORF and their partner .XMP files in Finder and dropping these onto the LR icon. Both methods give the same results.

"Automatically write changes to XMP" option in the Catalogue Settings/Metadata window of LR is checked on (all the options in that particular window are checked on).

[schlotz]

Some details are still unclear.  When you do the ingest using PM where are the files from your camera/card copied to?  Is this the directory/folder you want to keep your files in?  If yes (at least for this test) let's assume it is.  So, finish your work in PM and exit.  Bring up LR, go to import and on the left side select that same directory/folder.  Make sure you use the 'ADD' selection at the top. Then kick off the import.

This process may not suit you if you are only wanting to import a subset of all the files you previously ingested.  Since my workflow only uses a subset, inside PM I tag those I want and select them. Then use the >file>copy/move Photos command to place the selected photos for LR import into a lower subfolder which I usually label as 'picks' (make sure you check the move box - see below). After doing so, close PM, open LR and import the 'picks' folder.

There are most likely other ways to accomplish this, but it works for me, and the exit/iptc data does get into LR.

Matt

[Petychka]

Thank you.

I think there is only differences between what you suggest and what I had done previously: that you are adding the file rather than copying them as DNG.

So I tried your way but, unfortunately, no cigar 

[Hayo Baan]

Dear Hayo,

Thank you again for persevering.

I import the files from PM to LR by selecting the actual pictures in PM and dropping them onto the LR icon. I have also tried importing the files by selecting the .ORF and their partner .XMP files in Finder and dropping these onto the LR icon. Both methods give the same results.

"Automatically write changes to XMP" option in the Catalogue Settings/Metadata window of LR is checked on (all the options in that particular window are checked on).

Those settings seem fine. I just tested what happens if I just drop a file with an XMP onto Lightroom and it does see the metadata just fine.
It made me think, however: Lightroom (of course) presented me with the image import dialog as it was a file That wasn't part of the library. Does the happen to you too? Because if you do not get the import dialog, the files are already in your library. In that case you need to tell Lightroom to update the metadata explicitly (right click, metadata, read metadata from file).

If this doesn't work, check is to see if Lightroom actually sees the xmp file. Select the file in the library and check the metadata section: just below the filename it should say Sidecar files: xmp.