File Info in Smart Preview

We have standard XMP files with metadata for our collections - box number, folder number, copyright, creator, etc. Is there a way to add this to Smart Preview so that it will apply it to all photos at the same time?
It would save so much time to be able to use Smart Preview and apply all the metadata and just tweak it for descriptions, than to upload the XMP files for each image.

Annieca wrote:
Thanks Rob and Jim -
I was misunderstanding what Smart Preview did. Thanks for the clarifications!
You're welcome. And Lr *could* support xmp when images are offline, e.g. by storing xmp as smart preview sidecar, which is probably what you were imagining it did. However, that would further complicate an already complicated situation - we'd have not only potential conflict between catalog and disk (xmp), but catalog, xmp-online, and xmp-offline. The benefits might not outway the cost...
Catalog export/import in Lr is a well-implemented feature, in my opinion, and mostly obviates the need for offline xmp anyway - worth consideration if you haven't already.
Rob

Similar Messages

How can I edit lightroom 5 smart previews on mac book pro (mbp) when the lightroom 5 master image files are on my external hard drive is disconnected from the mbp

How can I edit lightroom 5 smart previews on mac book pro (mbp) when the lightroom 5 master image files are on my external hard drive is disconnected from the mbp? So far when I try to disconnect the external HD from the mbp, I get the following pop up window: The disk "external hard drive A" couldn't be ejected because "Lightroom" is using it. Quit that application and try to eject this disk again. When I do that and restart Lightroom 5, the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Select Catalog screen pops up but doesn't list my external hard drive A as a choice.
I've reviewed Adobe's Lightroom Help | Smart Previews Lightroom 5 web page and still haven't been able to figure what I'm doing wrong. Any help would be appreciated.

Your internal HDD. by default, is named 'Macintosh HD'. From what information you supplied, it looks like there is already a Lightroom catalog installed on you local (internal) HDD using the standard naming convention Adobe uses as well as a Lightroom catalog on your external drive which you created. To be sure of which catalog Lightroom is loading when it starts up, To do this, start Lightroom as you normally would. After it starts, select the Lightroom menu item, then select the Catalog Preferences item and finally, navigate to the General tab. The Location information will tell you exactly what catalog Lightroom is opening by default. This will likely be the Photography Mac Book Pro Versions catalog on your external HDD. Once that is confirmed, you are ready to proceed. As an additional test/verification, you can shut down Lightroom and, this time, start Lightroom while holding down the ALT/OPTION key. This will cause Lightroom to pause and display a screen which will allow you to chose a different catalog to open. Navigate to the /Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom folder and select the Lightroom 5 Catalog.lrcat file. When Lightroom comes up, there should be no previews or folders as this catalog should be empty. Now you can be certain which catalog is being used and which catalog has all your data and you are ready to migrate your current catalog. Shut down Lightroom.
To migrate your current catalog, use Finder to locate your Photography Mac Book Pro Versions folder on your external drive. Select the folder and select COPY from the context menu. Next, use Finder to navigate to the /Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom folder on you internal HDD. You can start at the Macintosh HD level and work your way down by opening each level (Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures). Select the /Pictures folder and then select PASTE... from the context menu. When the COPY/PASTE is complete, you should see the following files on the Macintosh HD:
Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom/ and
Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions
The Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom folder will contain the empty default catalog the Adobe created when Lightroom was installed and Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions will contain a copy of the catalog you created on your external HDD.
You are almost done now. Make sure your external drive is still attached for this step. Restart Lightroom using the ALT/OPTION key again. When the Select Catalog screen appears, select the Choose a Different Catalog button (lower left side). When you do, a Finder window will open to allow you to navigate to a catalog of your choosing. Navigate to Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions and select the file Photography Mac Book Pro Version.lrcat. This is the copy you just created. Select the Open button and Lightroom should start. You should see all of your previews and settings just as before. Also, in the left hand panel, all of your folder should show up and none of them should be dimmed and none of your previews should display a small exclamation point badge. Either a dimmed folder name or an exclamation point badge indicates that Lightroom can't find the associated image file. If everything looks good, go to the Lightroom menu, select Preferences and then select the General tab. Under Default Catalog, select an option to either load the LAST catalog opened or select the Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions catalog from the drop down. Shut down Lightroom and then restart it normally. This time, when Lightroom starts, you should be viewing the new copy of your catalog. You can confirm this by looking at the General tab on the Catalog Preferences screen (Lightroom/Catalog Preferences menu items). Shut down Lightroom once again and this time, eject your external drive before restarting. This time, your folders in the left hand panel will be dimmed but you should be able to work with your smart previews. If Lightroom should display a Select Catalog screen with the external drive detached, double check your settings as it indicates Lightroom is still looking at the copy of the catalog on the external drive rather than the new copy you made.
Finally, if you are seeing dimmed folders and/or exclamation point badges with the external drive attached, this indicates a problem. You can select any folder and select Update Folder Location from the context menu. This will allow you to navigate to the copy on the external drive and select it. Lightroom will then update the catalog (select to synchronize the content). This will not only clear the dimmed folder problem but also remove the exclamation point badges for all photos in that missing folder. However, it may indicate that not all went well with the copy of the catalog so make sure to verify all went well. You can use the Get Info option on the two folders. You should see the same number of files/folders for both the copy on the internal drive as well as on the external drive but you can't rely on the byte count because of the possibility of differences between the geometry of the two drives. Hope this all helps!

Using smart previews on iMac to control two sets of identical original files on two external drives --- render previews setting when using smart previews

I’m just getting started with Lightroom and if someone can help me I’ll be very appreciative.
I’m using an iMac with a 1TB drive and two external 2.5 TB drives for backup. My active files are on all three drives and I’m running out of room on the iMac drive.
With the smart previews capability of Lightroom 5, I’m hoping to remove all the active files from the iMac drive. I hope to import existing images into the LR catalog from two identical drives with identical folders and have both sets of images reflect the changes I make using smart previews on my iMac.
I just created two identical test folders of junk images on the external drives and was following a beginners tutorial on importing. However, I see nothing about using smart previews on my iMac that, when connected, will update more than one external drive at the same time.
I’m also wondering if, when using smart previews, it matters how I set the render previews during the import process.
Many thanks for any help,
Karl Hentz

I don't see any way to use smart previews to update both external drives at the same time. The smart previews are linked to a specific set of images. But it seems to me that if both drives are in fact identical, once the catalog is updated when one of those drives is connected those changes should also apply to the files on the other drive. It's actually the catalog that gets updated, not the images. Smart previews and regular import previews are completely unrelated. How you have your import previews configured will have no effect on your smart previews.
Incidentally, in order for my suggestion to work it would be necessary to only have one of those external drives connected. And when the other EHD is connected it would have to have the same drive letter or name. In other words it would have to appear to the iMac that it is precisely the same drive.

When I try to open some pictures in finder with preview I get a message that I do not have permission to open it. It tells me to go to file - info. Don't know what to do from there.

When I try to open some pictures in finder with preview I get a message that I do not have permission to open it. It tells me to go to file - info. Don't know what to do from there.

When you do Get Info for a picture, what does it say in Sharing & Permissions for your username. The Privilege should be "Read & Write"

RAW FILES NOT LARGE AFTER OUTSOURCING LR SMART PREVIEWS : images staying at Smart Preview sizes. What is wrong?

My friend's RAW files won't go back to the large size they were after outsourcing LR SMART PREVIEWS to outsource editor.
what went wrong? When she sent the files to the outsourcer they were NOT zipped together.
They were ZIPPED back to her however.

Describe exactly what steps were taken. It doesn't make sense that the editor sent her smart previews. Normally she would do Export to Catalog, checking the box to include smart previews, and send this exported catalogue and its smart previews to the editor. The editor would then send the catalogue back to her (the smart previews are no longer needed), and she would do File > Import from Another Catalog.

LR5 Smart Preview Portability Question : Can files be edited remotely?

I understand how Smart Previews work. What I'm unsure of is...will we be able to edit these files remotely, separate from the host computer? For example, I'm an image editor and I live 500 miles away from the photographer that I work for. Can they (the photographer) download the images after shooting, create Smart Previews then send me the 'Smart Preview' folder of images, I edited them on my own computer then return the Smart Previews back to them fully edited?

You don't actually edit smart preview files. Meaning: you edit the photos in the catalog, it's just if they have a smart preview they don't need to be online. In other words, the smart previews are tied to the catalog, and exist in it's bowels - edits are never stored in them, and you can't detach them from the catalog and do things with them, like send them to somebody. If you edit an offline photo by way of it's smart preview, the edits are stored in the catalog and/or the xmp of the photo, just like if you'd edited the actual photo.
So what your photographer would have to do is send you a catalog which includes smart previews, and you would return an edited catalog to them (without the smart previews), to import .
eh?
R

Smart Previews issue. LR5 catalog saying "The file could not be found" for entire collection. How do I "sync" or "find" the smart previews?

I created an LR5 catalog with 1:1 previews and smart previews. I then placed the catalog along with the previews and smart previews files into dropbox.
Came home to work remotely, opened the catalog from dropbox and I can see the photos in library mode. But once I go to develop, LR is saying "The file could not be found"
Smart Preview cache file is there right below the lrcat file.
Anyone know how I can make the catalog find that smart previews cache?

Thanks for the quick response.
There are ? next to the folders but that's to be expected because that drive is not connected to my comp.
And there are exclamation points next to each image.. but again.. drive is not connected. But I've used smart previews before and that was the fix to working without the original raw images available.
However the smart previews don't seem to be working this time as I cannot edit the images.

Feature request: selective per-file Smart Previews in LR5

I would like to be able to selectively enable Smart Previews on a per-file basis, rather on entire directories.
It would be great if I could do this after importing files, too.
I am using:
Lightroom 5.0 64-bit
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

You can BUILD smart previews on a per-file basis by clicking the original photo button in the lower left corner of the histogram. In grid view of the Library module, it will build smart previews for all the photos you have selected. In Develop module, it will build a smart preview for the most-selected photo. Not sure if this is what you want.

Can I use my lrdata smart previews file on another Mac and then take the edits back to the original?

LR5 CC user. I have tried to use Smart Previews for the first time. I followed what seemed the best advice but now not sure since most of the guides feature working with a single computer and offline files. I am away travelling for over a month. I have a Mac Pro with many thousands of images. I exported my 5000 "best" as smart previews in a lrdata file to use with my macbook pro laptop while travelling. i took the lrdata file with me on a hard drive. Not the catalog file. Now it seems I can import these files (by double clicking on the lrdata file) but I am concerned that if I edit them the editing will be lost when I go back to the original. They have different file names. Have I basically lost the chance to do any editing? Or is there a way to edit and then send them back to the original catalog?

10greenmen wrote:
import these files (by double clicking on the lrdata file) but I am concerned that if I edit them the editing will be lost when I go back to the original.
One should not import & edit smart preview files (the lossy dngs with names like 7/7FB5/7FB580F4-00BB-4C39-8DE5-C09490BA6CB8.dng), instead of the photos they "represent".
But if you do, here's how to transfer settings and/or metadata from imported/edited smart preview files back to the original photos which you should've edited in the first place:
o Note: you have to import the directly-edited smart previews into your main catalog when you get home (import from travel catalog, or save xmp first and just import files - either way works).
* Download and install RelativeAntics plugin (free by me).
* Choose 'Imported Smart Previews' preset (in plugin manager).
* Select the imported smart preview files.
* Run 'Relative Antics' (File menu -> Plugin Extras).
* Deselect all items in 'Define "Related" section, *except* 'Custom Relative'.
* choose whether to transfer develop setting and/or metadata..
* and do it - this will copy settings and metadata from the selected imported/edited-smart-preview to the photo which should have been edited in the first place (the "related" photo).
Example:
==========
Rob

Is having the smart previews file, lrdata, mandatory?

I mean, I don't foresee, in near future, to use detachable hard drives, or photo servers or anything. So my photos will remain in my main laptop. So, do I really need to have and retain an .lrdata file which will hog my disk space?
Also, after a preview is discarded, will it be generated again, if I open the file in Lightroom later?
Thanks,

I would not delete any .lrdata files, as dj said LR will recreate them and I would expect LR to do so.
As for "Smart Previews.lrdata" hogging space, it will only hog space if the OP uses smart previews, I don't use smart previews (at least yet) and don't have a "Smart Previews.lrdata" file, I only have "Catalog Previews.lrdata" file which I would never delete.
I am assuming that if the OP has a "Smart Previews.lrdata" file, the OP must be using Smart Previews, perhaps because of LR Mobile.
Just for reference, widely quoted in this forum - Preference and other file locations in Lightroom 5

Can not remove ? from external hard drive folder in LR5 & can't link smart preview & original pic

I have LR5 and a MacBook Pro OSX 10.8.5 I have an external hard drive that when I imported photos from my cameras memory card I selected the hard drive as the source to move the pictures to. I forgot if I clicked ADD, MOVE, or COPY.
In the library mode in LR5 the external hard drive shows up under folders, but has a question mark on every folder on the external hard drive. I control clicked on the question mark for the first folder (the parent folder?) and choose “Find missing folder”. I then navigated to the external hard drive and clicked on that same folder, then clicked choose. Nothing happened. I tried this same method with individual folders and the same, I control click on the folder with a question mark, navigate to the same folder on the hard drive, click on it (I tried both just clicking on the folder so it was highlighted and actually opening the folder), and select choose, the question marks remain.
1. How do I link the two to remove the question mark?
Second question, possibly related. I have a collection in the library mode that has only previews, the originals were added to the same external hard drive as above. When I navigate to the hard drive via my finder (not in LR5), the originals are there. When I am in the library mode in LR5, in this collection, and click on the preview square in the top right corner of an individual picture in that collection, it says “image can be edited using its smart preview but the original file can not be found. Would you like to locate it".
The original location of it shows below this statement and is correct; it shows the path to the external hard drive and the folder where the original is contained that I mentioned previously. I navigate to that picture on the external hard drive and select it. I get another notice box pop up that says “the file is associated with another photo in the catalog. Each file can only be associated with one photo.” I select show in library and it brings me right back to the image that is a smart preview only. I am stuck in this loop and cant figure out how to associate the original on the external hard drive with the smart preview in LR5.
1. I have the originals still on my camera memory card, do I import again? I am afraid I will loose all my edits.
I hope I gave you the right info. Every link I find to answer this question is related but not quite the same, any link you know of is apreciated. Thanks!
Ashley

Have you ever re-named files using duplicate file names e.g. names that have been used previously?
See if this link helps to locate missing files and near posibilities:
http://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/help/locate-missing-photos.html

How to create a custom panel in the right way (without having an empty panel in the file info) ?

Hi Everyone
My name is Daté.
I'm working in the fashion industry as a designer and Design consultant to help fashion brands improving the design workflow by using Adobe softwares and especially Illustrator.
I'm not a developper, but i'm very interested about the possibility to introduce xmp technology to provide more DAM workflows in the fashion industry.
Fashion designers produce a lot of graphical objects in illustrator or Photoshop. Unfortunately they are faced to a big challenge which is about how to manage, search, classify and get this files faster. Of course PDM system or PLM system are used in the Fashion industry to manage data, but for many companies, implemanting this kind of database is very complex.
When i look at what you can do with xmp, it seems to be an interesting way of managing design files, then i started to follow Adobe instruction to try to build a custom panel.
The main idea is to (Theory) :
create custom panels used by fashion designers to classify their design files.
Use Adobe Bridge to search files, create smart collection to make basic reports in pdf and slideshows
Find someone to make a script able to export metadata in xml files
Use indesign and the xml file to generate automatically catalogues or technical sheets based on xmp values
I have created a custom panel by using the generic panel provided by Adobe and i have modified the fields to feet with the terms used in the fashion industry and it works well.
But unfortunately, when i try to create my own custom panel from scratch with Flashbuilder (4.6) and the Adobe CSExtensionBuilder_2 (Trial version), it doesn't work!
Here is the process :
I have installed flashbuilder 4.6
I have download the XMP Fileinfo SDK 5.1 and placed the com.adobe.xmp.sdk.fileinfo_fb4_1.1.0.jar in C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Flash Builder 4.6\eclipse\plugins
In Flashbuilder, i have created a new project and select xmp Custom panel
The new project is created in flashbuilder with a field with A BASIC Description Field
To generate the panel, right click the project folder and select xmp / Publish Custom Panel
The panel is automatically generated in the following folder : C:\Users\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\XMP\custom file info panels\3.0\panels
Go to illustrator, Open the file Info
The panel appears empty
The others panel are also empty
The panel is created and automatically placed in the right folder, but when you open it in Illustrator by selecting the File Info option in the File Menu, this custom panel appears empty!!! (only the title of the tab is displayed). This panel also prevent the other panels to be displayed.
When you delete this custom panels from the folder C:\Users\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\XMP\custom file info panels\3.0\panels and go back to the File Info, the other panels display their content properly.
I also try to use the plugin XMP Namespace designer to create my own namespace. this plugin is also able to generate a custom panel, but this one also appears empty in AI or Photoshop.
I try to follow the process described in Adobe xmp documentation many times, but it didn't works.
It seems that many peaople have this issue, but i dodn't find a solution in the forum.
I try to create a trust file (cfg), but it didn't work.
It would be so kind if you can help me to understand why i can't create a custom panel normally and how to do it in the right way.
Thanks a lot for your help,
Best regards,
Daté

Hi Sunil,
After many trial, i realize the problem was not coming from the trust file, but from the way i have created the custom panel.
There is 2 different ways, the first described below is not working whereas the second is fine :
METHOD 1 :
I have downloaded the XMP-Fileinfo-SDK-CS6
In the XMP-Fileinfo-SDK-CS6 folder, i copied the com.adobe.xmp.sdk.fileinfo_fb4x_1.2.0.jar plugin from the Tools folder and i pasted it in the plugind folder of Flashbuilder 4.6
The plugin install an XMP project
In Flashbuilder 4.6 i have created a new project (File / New /Project /XMP/XMP Custom Panel)
A new xmp project is created in flashbuilder.
You can publish this project by right clicking the root folder and selecting XMP / Publish Custom Panel
The custom file info panel is automatically published in the right location which is on Mac : /Users/UserName/Library/Application Support/Adobe/XMP/Custom File Info Panels/3.0 or /Users/UserName/Library/Application Support/Adobe/XMP/Custom File Info Panels/4.0
Despite the publication of the custom file info panel and the creation of a trust file in the following location : "/Library/Application Support/Macromedia/FlashPlayerTrust", the panel is blank in Illustrator.
I try this way several times, with no good results.
METHOD 2 :
I have installed Adobe CSExtensionBuilder 2.1 in Flash Builder
In FlashBuilder i have created a new project (File / New /Project /Adobe Creative Suite Extension Builder/XMP Fileinfo Panel Project)
As the system display a warning about the version of the sdk to use to create correctly a custom file info, I changed the sdk to sdk3.5A
The warning message is : "XMP FileInfo Panel Projects must be built with Flex 3.3, 3.4 or 3.5 SDK. Building with Flex 4.6.0 SDK may result in runtime errors"
When i publish this File info panel project (right click the root folder and select Run as / Adobe illustrator), the panel is published correctly.
The last step is to create the trust file to display the fields in the panel and everything is working fine in Illustrator.
The second method seems to be the right way.
For sure something is missing in the first method, and i don't understand the difference between the XMP Custom Panel Project and the XMP Fileinfo Panel Project. Maybe you can explain it to me.
So what is the best solution ? the right sdk to use acording to the creative suite (the system asks to use 3.3 or 3.5 sdk for custom panels, so why ?)
I'm agree with Pedro, a step by step tutorial about this will help a lot of peaople, because it's not so easy to understand!!!
Sunil, as you belong to the staff team, can you tell me if there is :
A plugin or a software capable to extract the XMP from llustrator files to generate XML workflows in Indesign to create catalogues
A plugin to allow indesign to get custom XMP in live caption
A plugin to allow Bridge to get custom XMP in the Outputmode to make pdf or web galeries from a smart collection
How can you print the XMP data with the thumbnail of the file ?
Thanks a lot for your reply.
Best Regards
Daté

Clicking on File and the Print Preview no longer gives a print preview.

I used to be able to click on File and then Print Preview. Now all of a sudden it no longer works. There is no Print Preview.

How did you get the '''HP Smart Web Printing4.51 true [email protected]''' extension enabled?
AFAIK that extension hasn't worked in Firefox since Firefox version 3.5.
Try disabling that extension and see if Print Preview works.

Okay, i have 2 bugs with maverick. First, when I delete a file within a window, the files deletes but the preview doesn't delete until I close the window and reopen it. Second, I work on a network of computers and the search feature is now buggy...

Okay, i have 2 bugs with maverick. First, when I delete a file within a window, the files deletes but the preview doesn't delete until I close the window and reopen it. Second, I work on a network of computers and the search feature is now buggy... When I search for a file, A) it asks me if it's a name, or it wont produce anything, and B), its slower than in prior OS versions and in some instances I have to toggle to a different directory and go back to my original directory in the search: menu bar or the search wont produce anything... Very buggy.

It appears to me that network file access is buggy in Maverick.
In my case I have a USB Drive attached to airport extreme (new model) and when I open folders on that drive they all appear empty. If I right click and I select get info after a few minutes! I get a list of the content.
It makes impossible navigate a directory tree.
File access has been trashed in Maverick.
They have improved (read broken) Finder. I need to manage a way to downgrade to Lion again.

Lightroom 5 - Smart Previews | What's New in Lightroom 5 | Adobe TV

Learn how to create lightweight, efficient Smart Previews to work with offline images in Lightroom.
http://adobe.ly/11rZI6q

Hello Julieanne,
I'm using Lightroom 5 and I'm interested in the smart preview feature; one question: is it possible a workflow like this one: work with a desktop with all the photos in one hard disk and no smart preview; then export one catalog with smart preview and open it in my laptop so that I can work with the files and modify. Then export it back to the desktop version once I'm back home.
Thanks and regards,
Marco

File Info in Smart Preview

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for