Lightroom: Metadata collisions between catalogue and files

I think the FR is a good idea, and I think it would be easy to do - although I dont have metadata issues much any more...

In the mean time, some people are using a script that extracts the info from the database, and starts up Lightroom, then use LR-somethin-or-other plugin to make a collection of all photos with metadata issues. Detailed info is available on the other forum, however its search is broken.

I'd like to see the ability to filter on all three states of metadata mismatch:

- "Up arrow",
- "Down arrow", and
- "Exclamation flag".

The original feature request has been around for a long as Lightroom itself.

This strikes me as one of those things that should just be done already - assuming it wouldn't take much time...

In the mean time, many have solved this problem by a workaround (issue SQL query to round up the files, then make a collection of said files using plugin). I solved this problem for myself another way, but it would be a nice gift to the community if someone having solved this problem via the SQL query / collection method could post a turn-key start-up script + instructions for others to use... - I'm trying to concentrate on other things m'self...

PS - The above-mentioned solution was posted on the "other" forum, if you could find it...

For example, one could write a python script with guts like:

catalogPath = # get from command line args or config file or something.
lrCatCon = sqlite3.connect( catalogPath )
cur = lrCatCon.execute( sql to round up the files with metadata issues )
# create file with list of those files.

# startup Lightroom
if os.name == 'nt': # windows
os.startfile(catalogPath)
else: # Mac
subprocess.call(['open', catalogPath]) # mac/nix.

Lr/transporter (was it?) or custom plugin takes it from here in Lightroom - makes collection.

Then use this script to start Lightroom and you'd have a collection ready...

FWIW,
R

Thanks Rob. Ian, any clue as to why Adobe hasn't responded to requests to make this happen? It seems like it would be a very simple addition to the filter bar. In the meantime, we all have to learn SQL :)

VERY needed feature.
I all the time have this issue especially beacause:
-I cannot geotag within LR
-Not all metadata can be edited in lightroom
-Many problems with lightroom handling of time metadata -> which I set outside of lightroom

I suppose the problem is
- it takes time to scan all the photos to check if they are synchrone.

And then what we need is not just 2 arrows (or well only as a short cut)
what we need is to be able for each photos to display a table of the metadata values in the catalog and in the file so that we can compare both metadata state and decide which way we want to synchronise - and even best : decide for each piece of metadata of each photo the way we want to synchronise them )
So there would be 3 level
-decide for a selection of photo the way to synchronise metadata
-decide for a given photo the way to synchronise metadata while directly comparing these metadata
-decide for a given metadata of a given photo the way to synchronise it.

Regards
Eric

I would really like to see a Unsaved Metadata Smart Collection item.

Absent any official (or unofficial) response from Adobe, I have assumed that the reason this feature has not been implemented is because it is in general a very expensive feature to implement (in terms of disk access). In order to know the metadata status of a catalog, you need to know the modification time of all files in the catalog, which can only be done one-by-one. I think that mac file systems allow you to easily find changed files, but I don't know about Windows, so relying on that would make for a confusing interface.

However, after a folder is synchronized, the metadata status of all the files is known (or is known to the time of the synchronization). I wonder if Adobe could somehow lever off the synchronization process to create temporary found sets with various metadata states, but only allow access to them immediately after synchronization (when they are likely, but not assured, to be correct)?

I think we all feel the need for this, that any even halfway usable solution would be a great boon.

Alan wrote, "Absent any official (or unofficial) response from Adobe, I have assumed that the reason this feature has not been implemented is because it is in general a very expensive feature to implement (in terms of disk access)."

LR already implements automatic background checking for metadata conflicts and displays the conflicts with an icon on the Library thumbnails, and it records the conflicts in its catalog.

What people are asking for here is pretty simple: a way to filter just those images that LR has already identified and recorded in its catalog as having conflicts.

In another thread, some people would also like to have a mechanism to see the fields that are in conflict and be able to choose on a field-by-field basis how to resolve the conflict.

I've noticed that every time my Lr catalog is optimized several photos randomly change from "up to date" to "has been changed". I'm absolutely sure the photos haven't been changed in any way, internally or externally, so I guess it's a bug with the optimization routine in Lr, related to the persistent general metadata bug.

SQLiteroom will create a collection of photos that have metadata conflicts.

Great news - the Metadata Status is now available in the Metadata Filters for Lightroom 4 beta