Photomechanic IPTC metadata and Lightroom Classsic problems

[E_Vener]

The metadata I add in Photomechanic (2026.2) - primarily Keywords, Caption, Headline, location, -  is not  read  by the current version of Lightroom Classic (15.2 release).  I am working in the MacOS Tahoe v 26.3 OS on both an M1 Mac Studio and an M1 16" MacBook Pro.

When I open the raw file directly in Photoshop and use the File Info command, all of the IPTC info is there.

In the hope that there are settings in PhotoMechanic I am attaching screen shots of the Files and IPTC/XMP Prefences windows

[alexmacnaughton]

Hi, this seems more like a Lightroom issue than a PM problem. Have you tried clicking on 'Read Metadata from File' in LR?

[E_Vener]

I've tried that. It doesn't work.

And yes, while it may be on the Adobe side of the handshake, I am working through each link in the chain.

[alexmacnaughton]

If Photoshop can read the metadata, then PM is correctly writing the metadata to the XMP file. Are you importing the files into LR after adding metadata in PM? If so, check what metadata LR is adding upon import.

[E_Vener]

I have it set to None

[alexmacnaughton]

Yes, none is the correct option.

Stupid question: have you checked that the images you're importing into LR have their XMP files?

[E_Vener]

Thank you for asking. The .xmp files are associated with the raw (.NEF) files.

[alexmacnaughton]

Hi, I noticed that your XMP files are appearing as 'image file' instead of 'sidecar file'. This could be the problem.

Here is a screenshot of how the files look on my Mac.

[E_Vener]

Okay, I did a Google AI search on that, and it recommended that, in macOS, in Lightroom Classic, I go to Lightroom Classic > Catalog Settings (macOS) and, in the Metadata tab, check Automatically write changes into XMP.

The problem: that is exactly how I have always had Lightroom Classic set up since I started using the pre-launch beta version of Lightroom.

[ahoward]

Okay, I did a Google AI search on that, and it recommended that, in macOS, in Lightroom Classic, I go to Lightroom Classic > Catalog Settings (macOS) and, in the Metadata tab, check Automatically write changes into XMP.

I'd recommend consulting Lightroom's actual documentation rather than an LLM summary with the most correct-sounding sentence is for your query: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/create-catalogs.html

That setting configures where metadata is written when you use Lightroom to make changes to it. You are, it would seem, having an issue with Lightroom reading the metadata. That setting is not relevant.

As Alex said: Photoshop is reading the metadata, so Photo Mechanic is writing it correctly. If you want to verify this independently of Photo Mechanic or Adobe Sofware, you could open one of the XMP files in a text editor and see if you can find your keywords or captions in there (I suspect you'll be able to).