Lightroom: LR 3.6 unknown error while writing metadata to this photo

Hi Dean,

Thank you for reporting this issue and posting the file! I've reproduced the problem and logged a bug--we'll proceed with more in-depth investigation into the problem.

The metadata in the file seems to indicate that you worked with this file using Adobe Premier Elements 8 and Elements Organizer 9.0. Did you use any other software to process or modify the file before you imported it into Lightroom? Can you give me a rundown of what your workflow was with this photo--from scanning through the Lightroom import?

Thanks for your help,
David

This appears to be resolved in the latest version of lightroom.

Is the image file on a removable drive or other non-local fixed disk?

this is a usb attached drive that is never removed - mirrored 1 tb drive used for storage of the photos. I update many files which sit in the same location without issue. my system specs are below:

Lightroom version: 3.6 [795620]
Operating system: Windows 7 Ultimate Edition
Version: 6.1 [7601]
Application architecture: x64
System architecture: x64
Physical processor count: 8
Processor speed: 2.9 GHz
Built-in memory: 8183.0 MB
Real memory available to Lightroom: 8183.0 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 266.7 MB (3.2%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 250.9 MB
Memory cache size: 153.1 MB
System DPI setting: 96 DPI
Desktop composition enabled: Yes
Displays: 1) 1920x1080, 2) 1280x1024
Serial Number: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.6
Library Path: C:\Users\Dean\Pictures\Lightroom\full_photo_library\full_photo_library.lrcat
Settings Folder: C:\Users\Dean\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom

Consider posting an offending photo so others can verify. My hunch is incompatibility between Lightroom and another program that has written the file (metadata).

Adobe: better "illumination" when this sort of error occurs would help.

the above jpg is a example. I created a new catalog, imported just this photo, added metadata and attempt to save it to the file - I get the error.

I get the same error with the file you posted.

The problem appears to be in the IPTC section of metatadata. If you delete the IPTC:keywords field with the freeware "exiftool":

exiftool -iptc:keywords= "dean1965 - copy.jpg"

and then import the file, the problem no longer occurs. The keywords also appear in the XMP metadata section, so you're not losing any information by deleting the IPTC:keywords field (LR gives preference to the XMP:keywords field over IPTC:keywords).

It appears that you used Photoshop Elements 9 previously to manage this file. Did you use any other software, or juse PSE 9? The PSE Organizer has many bugs when it comes to metadata -- this is the first I've heard of this problem, but if indeed this is caused by the Organizer, it doesn't surprise me.

I have the same problem, but it's when doing a roundtrip from my LR 3.6 to, say, Nik's Color Efex Pro 4. When the tiff image is returned to LR from the plug-in app, I get the same "unknown error while writing metadata to this photo" exclamation point. One way to avoid this until bug is fixed is to revert to LR 3.5. Another way is to export a copy of the tiff image (as a tiff) and then reimport it into your catalog. A third way to handle this is to ignore it, which is what I've been doing while waiting for Adobe to issue a bug fix.

the two listed programs were the only ones used after the photo was scanned into the computer. Once I switched to lightroom the only other programs now used is the latest version of photoshop Elements. - as noted before if I used the latest elements to write a keyword to the photo in question, then go back to lightroom and try writing a keyword from there it works. Apparently when the latest elements updates the photo it overwrites whatever anomoly keeps lightroom from succeeding its actions.