No longer have indication of need for synchronizing a folder

Question

My workflow in LR is to do all of my editing, etc. and then open Bridge and change all of the file names to reflect more discriptive titles. I then switch back to LR (4.3). In the past this would result in all of my edit pictures involved in this process showing the infamous question mark, BUT also the new discriptive names. I would then sync and all would be well. Now the file name does not change and the question mark does not show. The folder needs to be sync'ed and since I know that I do so and all of the titles then change in the LR view.
One other piece of data - I installed win7 64 bit (was on 32 bit) and of course reinstalled LR and CS5. I suspect there is some preference setting I need to change to have LR reflect the new file name and thereby need a sync and so indicate it, but I don't know what it is. I could use some advice on this one. Thanks.

Answer 1

colblip,
It was not my intention to insult you. But your workflow goes totally "against the grain" of Lr.
I know that some people insist on their workflow even if it is not optimal. But - and that is my experience from participating in the forum - they usually come to grief.
It's absolutely fine if you find that Bridge is better for your workflow. But then, why don't you stay in Bridge?
Mixing Bridge and Lr just doesn't work for the simple reason that Bridge saves to file while Lr saves to its catalog.
And most experienced users of Lr agree on that Lr and Bridge don't mix well.
And I used strong words to drive the point home that - indeed - you would do well familiarizing yourself more with Lr, because your current workflow is far from optimal.
Please, don't take offence. But sometimes strong words are needed to drive a point home.
You wrote: "this would result in all of my edit pictures involved in this process showing the infamous question mark, BUT also the new discriptive names."
While it is correct that Lr would show the question mark, it would not display the new file names. Lr displays a question mark when the link between its catalog and the image file is broken. If Lr would display the new file name - created outside of Lr - there would be no need for a question mark.
Lr would have displayed the changed file names only after <sychronizing folder> but not before.
The correct way to handle the situation after changing the file name in Bridge would have been to relink the file. You do this by clicking directly onto the question mark (in Grid View) and by selecting <find missing file>, then navigating to and selecting the new file name. This procedure will preserve the Lr edits. But <Synchronize folder> does not.
<Synchronizing folder> imports "new" images, i.e. the images are read and imported from an file, i.e. from the hard drive. While this procedure is OK for new files that haven't been imported into Lr before, with images already imported into Lr it will discard all catalog data related to this image and replace it with what is on disk. And since Lr stores the edits in its catalog, the edits are lost.
There is only one way to avoid this: The catalog data has to be written to file before you change the file name.
Are you beginning to see that your workflow is not optimal?
You also wrote: "Now the file name does not change and the question mark does not show"
It may be that the cells are compacted. In the Grid View go >View >Grid View Style and check <Expanded cells>.