Programmatically force Lightroom to sync metadata

I want to automatically accomplish "Sync metadata" for a photo from within the Lightroom SDK (that is, programmatically). Is this possible?

Saving metadata via the photo:saveMetadata method works in all modules, just note:
* It's slow as molasses if you have to do a bunch.
* it only initiates saving, i.e. it returns before it's saved, so if you want to assure it's saved before you act, you need to check it...
One might think since it's only initiating a save and returning before saved, it would be fast - but one would think wrong...
Download any of my plugins and look at Catalog.lua in Framework/Catalog folder and you'll see what I did - there are two methods:
* saveMetadata (batch mode)
* savePhotoMetadata ( single photo ).
Disclaimer: save-metadata function is not only undocumented, but it doesn't exist in Lr4 - so ya know..
~R.

Similar Messages

Lightroom Mobile Sync - Extremely High CPU Usage/Sync Process Causes LR To Lag

Since my other thread doesn't seem to be getting any responses, I'm pasting what I've found here. Please keep in mind I am not a beginner with Lightroom and consider myself very familiar with Lightroom's features excluding the new mobile sync.
1st message:
I'm on Lr 5.5 and using the 30 day trial of Adobe CC to try syncing one collection of slight more than 1000 images. Despite already having generated the Smart Previews, I can see my CPU crunching through image after image (the rolling hills pattern in the task manager) while doing the sync. I was assuming, since I already created the Smart Previews, that the sync of this collection would begin immediately and be done by simply uploading all of the existing Smart Previews. The Smart Previews folder of the catalog is 871MB and has stayed the same despite the CPU obviously doing *something*. As it is now, the sync progress is incredibly slow, almost at a pace like it's actually exporting full-res JPGs from the RAW images (as a comparison only, I know this should not be what it's actually doing).
Another side effect of this is that I'm basically unable to use my computer for other tasks due to the high CPU utilization.
Win 7 x64 / Lightroom 5.5
Intel i5 2500k OC'd 4.5GHz
16GB RAM
SSD for OS, separate SSD for working catalog and files
2nd message:
As a follow up, now Lightroom thinks all 1026 photos are synced (as shown in "All Sync Photographs" portion of the Catalog though all images after the 832nd image show the sync icon per image stuck at "Building Previews for Lightroom Mobile" and the status at the top left corner has been stuck at "Syncing 194 photos" for over 12 hours. Is there no option to force another sync via Lightroom Desktop and also force the iOS app to manually refresh (perhaps by pulling down on the collections view, like refreshing via the Mail app)?
3rd message:
One more update, I went into Preferences and deleted all mobile data, which automatically signed me out of Adobe CC and then I signed back in. Please keep in mind the Smart Previews were long generated before even starting the trial, and I also manually generated them again (it ran through quickly since it found they were already generated) many times. Now that I'm re-syncing my collection of 1026 images, I can clearly see Lightroom using the CPU to regenerate the Smart Previews which already exist. I have no idea why it's doing this except that it's making the process of uploading the Smart Previews extremely slow. I hope this time around it will at least sync all 1026 images to the cloud.
4th message:
All 1026 images synced just fine and I could run through my culling workflow on the iPad/iPhone perfectly. Now I'm on a new catalog (my current workflow unfortunately uses one catalog per event) and I see the same problem: Smart Previews already generated but when syncing, Lightroom seems to re-generate them again anyway (or take up a lot of CPU simply to upload the existing Smart Previews). Can anyone else chime in on what their CPU utilization is like during the sync process when Smart Previews are already created?
New information:
Now I'm editing a catalog of images that is synced to Lightroom Mobile and notice that my workflow has gotten even slower between photos (relative to what it was before, this is not a discussion about how fast/slow LR should perform). Obviously Lightroom is syncing the edited settings to the cloud, but I can see my CPU running intensively (all 4 cores) on every image I edit and the CPU utilization graph looks different than before I started using LR mobile sync. It still feels like every change isn't simply syncing an SQLite database change but re-generating a Smart Preview to go with it (I'm not saying this is definitely what's happening, but something is intensively using the CPU that wasn't prior to using LR Mobile).
For example: I only update the tint +5 on an image. I see the CPU spike up to around 30-40%, then falls back down, then back up to 100%, then back down to another smaller spike while Lightroom says "Syncing 1 photo". I've attached a screenshot of my CPU graph when doing this edit on just one image. During this entire time, if I try to move onto edit another image, the program is noticeably slower to respond than it was prior to using LR mobile, due to the fact that there appear to be much more CPU intensive tasks running to sync the previous edit. This is proven by un-syncing the collection and immediately the lag goes away.
I'd be happy to test/try anything you have in mind, because it's my understanding that re-syncing photos that are edited that are already in the cloud should be simply updating the database file rather than require regenerating any Smart Previews or other image data. If indeed that's what it should be doing, then some other portion of LR is causing massive CPU usage. If this continues, I will probably not choose to proceed with a subscription despite the fact that i think LR mobile adds a lot of value and boosts my workflow significantly if it wasn't causing the program to lag so badly in the process.
I know this message was incredibly long and probably tedious to read through so thanks in advance to anyone who gets through it
-Jeff

Thanks for reporting. Just passed along your info to some of our devs. One of the things that needs to be created (beside smart previews) during an initial sync are thumbnails + previews for the LrM app - Guido
Hi Guido,
Thanks for pointing this out. I realized the same thing when I tried syncing a collection for offline mode and found out the required space sounded more like Previews + Smart Previews rather than just the Smart Previews.
greule wrote:
Hi Jeff, are your images particularly large or do you make a lot of changes which you save to the original file as part of your workflow?
The CPU usage is almost certainly from us uploading JPEG previews not the Smart Previews - particularly during develop edits as these force new JPEG previews to be sent from Lightroom desktop, but would not force new Smart Previews (unless the develop edits are modifying the original file making us think the Smart Preview is out of date) to be sent.
Guido
My images are full-resolution ~22mp Canon 5D Mark III RAW files so they're fairly large. Even if I only make one basic change such as exposure changes, I saw the issue. By "save to the original file" I'm assuming metadata changes such as timestamps, otherwise edits to the images aren't actually written to the original file. I'm only doing develop module edits so I shouldn't be touching the original file at all at this point in my workflow.
I think it makes sense now that you mention that new JPEG previews need to be generated and sent to the cloud due to updated develop edits. My concern is that this seems to be done in real-time as opposed to how Lightroom Desktop works (which is to render a new Standard Preview or 1:1 Preview on demand, which means only one is being rendered at any given time while viewing it in Loupe View or possibly 2 in Compare View). If I edit, for example, 10 images quickly in a row, once the sync kicks in a few seconds later, editing the 11th image is severely hindered due to the previous 10 images' JPEG previews being rendered and sync'd to the cloud (I'm assuming the upload portion doesn't take much CPU, but the JPEG render will utilize CPU resources to the fullest if it can). Rendering Standard/1:1 Previews locally and being able to walk away while the process finishes works because it is at the start of my workflow, but having to deal with on-the-fly preview rendering while I'm editing greatly impacts my ability to edit. Perhaps there can be a way to limit max CPU utilization for background sync tasks?
It may help to know that I'm running a dual-monitor setup, with Lightroom on a 27" 2560x1440 display maximized to fit the display (2nd display not running LR's 2nd monitor). Since I'm using a retina iPad, the optimal Standard Previews resolution should be the same at 2880 pixels.
Thanks again for the help!

Sync metadata to multiple files - how does that work?

Frustrating. In Library Module of LR4.4 under Vista 32, I have corrected a "Capture Time" of a single jpg Photo via the "Edit Capture Time" dialog. The new date correctly shows up in the "Date Time Original" EXIF field of the Metadata panel on the right.
Now, I want to sync that date to other jpgs which all come with incorrect "Date Time Original" - so, I highlight the above photo, mark the other ones to less light grey, press "Sync Metadata". THe dialog of "Sync Metadata" appears, showing the new date under "ICPT image" as "date created" - so far so good. I mark that field, and press the ok button and the sync runs. After that, no change is shown to the respective field of any of the photos metadata fields to be sync'd, no sync has actually happened, and even the "Save Metadata to file" command does cure this situation.
Using the command with a single target file instead of multiple ones does not help either.
What does help?
Why can't I update a set of superold pictures to their correct "date created" date via Metadata sync? This Metadata sync does not sync.
thanks for comments
Gerd
Message was edited by: gerdh - clarification

Well, of course, one can always take the escape route to software that works. -
However, IF Adobe advertises "Metadata sync" in a software licensed for money, THEN this function should work. Am I right or am I right?
I found, that particularly the one single Metadata field "Capture time" can be set for a multitude of images (selected before using this command from the pulldown menue) - which helped for my problem. But what about other Metadata fields, if the "Sync Metadata" function does not work as intended? No word in the documentation such as "there is a function "Sync Metadata" but please do not expect ANY function at all when using it".
Using a freeware such as ExifMeta to get arund a "non-function" is not the purpose of using a software such as Lightroom - please understand.
Gerd

Dangerous 'feature' in "Sync Metadata"

The "Sync Metadata" has a feature that is extremely dangerous, and Adobe should really explore some kind of 'safety' to keep people from inadvertently destroying hours of work.
The problem is that the 'Rating' is considered part of the Metadata. So making a bulk change in Metadata can accidentally result in the loss of all ratings.
It happened to me, but fortunately I was able to recover.
Suppose you have one shoot that has all the Metadata that is exactly the way that you like it, and you want to apply it to another shoot. So you go to a photo in the source metadata, do a "copy Metadata", and select all the metadata. You then go to your destination shoot, and apply the Metadata to one photo, and then sync all the photos to that photo. You just applied the same star rating to all your photos.
I had gone through over 1000 photos, star rating them. Many hours of work. I then applied the metadata and 'poof' all the star ratings became the same 1 star. All my rating work was lost.
What saved me? I had moved all the 2 star files into a separate sub-folder, so I was able to reset everything in that folder to 2 stars. If I had not physically separated the differently rated photos, I would have lost all my rating work.
For something like this, Lightroom should really warn "All of the star ratings will become the same in the selected photos. Continue?"

no no, I agree that this sort of thing can really be a problem... just offering a suggestion in case it happens to someone who doesn't have a subfolder. I once almost lot a ton of ratings because my finger missed the key I wanted and accidentally hit the "2" when a bunch of images were selected. As with you, "poof" all the original ratings were gone. Fortunately, I noticed it immediately and hit "undo." I've been pushing for a keystroke to lock/unlock the database. In order to write into the database, you have to have it unlocked. This saves accidental screwups from damaging large portions of the DB while one is just looking around at things. Maybe it would allow changes to organization of photos and collections, but not to photos themselves. It wouldn't have helped you in this case, but it's another way to prevent a small user mistake from causing big problems.

How do I force a manual sync for my iPod touch w/iTunes v.11.0.1.2?

After the upgrade to iTunes 11.0.1.2 I am unable to find a way to force a manual sync for my iPod Touch. Also, some of the podcasts seem not to go into the proper folders, they wind up in an "unkown album" folder after downloading. Is there a way to fix this or even manually move them into the proper folders(albums)?

If you have iTunes 11 turn on the Sidebar. Go to iTunes>View and click on Show Sidebar. You can also do a Crtl+S to show the sidebar and Control+B to show the Menu bar
To sync to your iPod go to iTunes>Help>iTunes Help>Sync your iPod....>Sync You Device>Set up Syncing>Sync your device manually and follow the instructions.

Lightroom CC syncing and deleting across Mac, iPhone, and iPad Lightroom apps

I have searched for nearly an hour for some answers and find the Lightroom support sections massively confusing, even contradictory (example here: Adobe Lightroom on mobile FAQ In one answer it says that "Lightroom on mobile syncs original JPEG and PNG files that originate from your mobile device in the Creative Cloud" and in another question right below it says "Since Lightroom on mobile does not store your original image files, but instead syncs Smart Previews"). I need some basic questions answered around how these various platforms inter-operate [BTW, I am running latest OS and App versions across the board]:
1) Do images taken with my iPhone automatically get uploaded to Creative Cloud (CC) or not and are they at full resolution? [Seems like they sync once I open the app, but not sure of resolution. Would be good to know what is supposed to trigger the syncing, e.g., opening the app, taking the picture, etc.]
2) Once an image is uploaded to CC from the phone, and I can see it in Lightroom desktop, are changes made to the image from either device's version of Lightroom automatically synced, i.e., I will see the changes made from any device on any other device the next time I log into CC from that device? [It seems like this is the way it works, but again not sure]
3) Assuming the whole image is uploaded intact from the phone to the CC, if I delete the image in the Apple Photos app, will that in any way affect the CC cloud image? I am not deleting it from within any Lightroom app at this point -- just the native IOS app. [Does not appear to be in any way connected -- which is both good and bad -- must delete in multiple places now]
4) If I delete the photo in the CC from the desktop, does it delete the native photo on the phone as well, or do I need to delete it in both places to get rid of it entirely? [It would seem that when I delete the photo from the Lightroom iPhone app, after it has been synced, it does not delete it from the Lightroom desktop version -- I still see it there]
5) I assume videos taken with the phone are not uploaded -- is that right? [They are not loaded to the CC as best as I can tell]
6) Do the iPhone photos that get uploaded to CC end up only as preview-like images on the desktop version of Lightroom, or is the entire original resolution image downloaded to the desktop? If it is not downloaded, how do I export a full resolution, modified image from Lightroom desktop (or from the iPhone for that matter)?
7) I am not seeing any of the 25,000+ photos stored on my desktop version of Lightroom getting synced to the cloud -- isn't supposed to sync a preview image, and if so, how do I enable that? What happens to changes to that preview image made from the phone -- do they get made back on the desktop version of the image through Lightroom?
Thanks for the help. I wish Adobe made this clearer up front so as to avoid any accidental deletions and to ensure the products are interoperating the way they should.

Let me try to answer your questions.
1)
collections created within the Lr Mobile app will be automatically synced to the back-end. You can add photos manually from your camera roll or enable a collection for "Auto Add". With that all future camera shots will be automatically imported to Lr Mobile and synced
2)
correct. changes will be synced from Lr Mobile to Lr Desktop - back&forth
3) local camera roll deletion is not connected to the Cloud back-end. But be carefull that the import/sync is finished before you trigger that.
4)
as answerd before. the cloud back-end is not connected to the device camera roll
5)
video is not supported yet
7)
original resolution images will be downloaded to Lr Desktop. Preview images will be shown in the Lr Web view Adobe Lightroom
8)
when you create a collection within Lr Desktop and add your photos you would like to sync, then you can enable this collection for sync. As soon your are signed-in and start the sync (via the top left activity panel) you will notice a little checkbox beside the collection. When you check this sync start to run. Lr Deskop generates smart previews and uploads these to the back-end (plus thumbnail previews + meta-data). When you open up Lr Mobile app and you would like to make an edit, the Lr Mobile app loads the smart preview form the back-end and syncs back the meta-data or edit setting.
Hope that helps you to start.
Guido

Does iTunes sync metadata when syncing photos to an iPad/iPhone? I am using Aperture v3 as my photo library.

Does iTunes sync metadata when syncing photos to an iPad/iPhone? I am using Aperture v3 as my photo library.

This might sound weird, but here's an idea which worked for me re music that was newly added to itunes and showed up in my ipod but wouldn't play - I simply played the tracks in itunes first, just a second of time or so will do it, not the whole track, then connect the ipod and sync again and this time they played - hope this helps.

2.0.1 update forcing library/iPod sync, despite "manual" setting

I just updated to iTunes 2.0.1, and it is now forcing me to sync my iPod with my iTunes Library - even though I have my iPod set to "Manually manage iPod music & videos."
If I try to bypass or cancel out of the sync, I get an error message claiming that it will erase all the unsynced music from my iPod.
If I agree to sync, but then stop the sync manually, and then go to delete the songs it's transferred from my iPod back into my library, I get this message: "are you sure you want to remove the selected songs from your iTunes library? These songs will also be removed from any iPod which synchronizes with your iTunes library."
This is frustrating. I don't have the space to keep 8 gigs of music on my computer - hence the reason for the iPod! I back the music up onto CD, keep it on my iPod, and then delete it from my iTunes library. Is there any way to get around this?!

try this. open iTunes, and then under Preferences (Edit > Preferences), under the Syncing tab, check *Disable automatic syncing for all iPhones and iPods* then try connecting again.

Lightroom Mobile Sync Problems

Hi
My Lightroom Mobile syncing process is running very slow. I deleted the sync.lrdata file and started a new sync of approx 9500 images. Currently I have around 2100 images to sync, however the process has almost stopped. Any help or guidance would be appreciated.

Hi Trev,
Have you tried Syncing in Safe mode on the Mac? This would be to eliminate any processes that might be active in normal mode that might interfeer with the upload. Does you screen has a Retina Display? I have seen some topics where this might create a longer time for generating Smart previews to a smaller size
(iPad/iPhone screen size, compared to the Retina display)
Did you verify a Speedtest for your connection, just to make sure this is not influencing the sync behavior
This you can check for instance with Speedtest.net by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test
There are some more topics on the forum where people experience problems using the Sync with a high amount of images in the Catalog.
- Re: Lightroom 5.4 to Lightroom Mobile sync is soooo slow - why no local sync?
- Lightroom Sync Issues
Hope this helps

Forcing Lightroom to render rather than Photoshop

The Lens correction facility in LR3 is great, especially if ou have a fish eye. Only problem is if you have CS4 and you ask LR to export to Photoshop with lens correction enabled , CS4 is unaware of Lens correction facility and therefore fails to take this into account.
The main reason I need to export this type of image is to use Free Transform to remove some of the distortion that Lens Correction fails to do so. Idealy I'd like Lightroom to render not Photoshop, but I can't find a way to do this, Maybe there isn't a way !
I can work round this for the odd shot I need to take into Photoshop, so apart from buying CS5 is there a way to force Lightroom to render not Photoshop.
Photoshop has the latest ACR 5.7

Yes - when you do Ctrl-E (on Windows) you should get prompted - pick render in Lightroom. That's what I do 100% of the time - I have CS3.
Selby

Lightroom mobile sync "hangs" - I am trying to sync several small LR collections from my desktop computer. The first collection syncs, and then Lightroom syncing seems to hang. It shows "Syncing 150 photos" in top left, but never progresses even after c

I am using Lightroom 5.5 on OS X. I have created several small collections with about 180 images and I am trying to sync them via Lightroom mobile for later iPad access. The first collection syncs properly, and then Lightroom syncing seems to hang. The label in the upper right shows "Syncing 150 photos" but does not count down. Opening and closing LR does not restart the process.

PROBLEM STILL EXISTS...
I spoke to soon! I tried adding a couple of more collections to sync. Lightroom shows "Syncing 814" photos on upper left, but never apparently syncs any. If I exit Lightroom it notifies me there are 814 images to sync. When I reopen it seems to pick up and stall where it left off. These new collections are not posting - this is the same problem as before.
I am pretty sure there is a serious bug in Lightroom here. I encourage support to contact me.

Lightroom CC sync not responding

Hi all
Just upgraded to lightroom 6 CC and when i try syncing a few photos it is not responding. I have made sure all things are checked in the boxes and have logged out of CC shut down and started up again etc.... getting frustrated

Have you installed the Lr Mobile app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android phone and logged into the app with your Adobe id? Are your photos to be synced in a collection in Lr CC?
See this: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Help | Syncing Lightroom - Desktop and the Mobile app

Lightroom is changing metadata on imported photos

I imported a batch of RAW images into Lightoom 4.4 and see that a number of the images are displaying the icon warning that metadata has been changed in Lightroom although the affected images have only just been imported into the catalog and I have not made any changes to them. 130 images out of a batch of 300 are being affected.
I have selected the affected images and re-read the metadata using Metadata / Read Metadata from File, but within a couple of minutes of being re-read, the metadata changed icon has reappeared.
My initial thoughts were that I had changed one of the preferences and something was being automatically applied, but if that was the case then I would have expected it to be applied to all 300 images in the batch which were taken on the same day on a single camera. I've created a smart collection to identify images with metadata changed in Lightroom and find that they appear to be randomly spread through the catalog affecting both RAW images and jpegs from 3 different cameras.
In order to exclude any changes to Lightoom preferences I may have made, I installed Lightroom 4.1 on another PC and created a new catalog using the default settings. I then imported the same batch of 300 RAW images and confirmed that the same ones displayed the warning icon that metadata was changed in Lightroom .
Can anyone explain what might be causing this?
The PCs are Windows 7 Professional, Lightroom 4.4 (Lightroom 4.1 on the test PC), RAW files are from Nikon D90 and D7100 cameras.
Thanks

I agree with most of your points:
Points 1, 2, 3 - I agree.
Point 4.
yes - all of my RAW files have .xmp files associated with them as they contain the metadata and keywords I have entered via Bridge/ACR.
Lightroom imports these details but shouldn't then be making any additional changes which need to be written back to the xmp files. This is where the problem has surfaced as Lightroom has made unknown changes to some of the photos and wants to write them back to the xmp files - see my comments below about point 6.
Point 5.
By installing a trial copy of Lightroom 5.3 on a different PC and creating a new catalog I avoided carrying forward any incorrect preferences etc I may have previously used - all photos in this new catalog have been freshly imported for testing. The fact that Lightroom displays the "metadata has changed" icon to the same photos as my original Lightroom 4.4 installation after importing them demonstrates that an unidentified Lightroom process is making changes to some (but NOT ALL) of the imported photos.
The problem is identifying WHAT Lightroom has changed and the implications of these changes.
Point 6.
"auto write to xmp" - This is not selected in my catalog settings as I want to be in control of when Lightroom updates the xmp files. At present I am still learning Lightroom so I don't want to accidentally write any changes back to the xmp files until I am completely sure of the consequences, hence my main work still takes place in ACR.
Point 7.
My current workflow choice is to continue using xmp sidecar files as per the following statement at
http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop-lightroom/faq.html
"Changes you make in Lightroom can appear in Camera Raw and vice versa. To complete this interactivity, changes in both Camera Raw and Lightroom need to be written to XMP metadata. This is so that each software application can recognize the other's edits."
- but I have to be confident that any Lightroom changes to the xmp files are as a result of my planned actions.
Point 8.
All of the default Develop Settings are deselected in my preferences/presets and I don't have any import presets - the develop settings and metadata are set to "none".
Do you have any suggestions on how to identify what changes Lightroom has made to the photos where it has set the "metadata has changed" icon?

Force obiee Reload Server Metadata when every users login

hi, how to force obiee Reload Server Metadata when every users login?
because I use this method
[http://oraclebizint.wordpress.com/2007/10/29/oracle-bi-ee-101332-presentation-layer-translation/]
to do the translation.
but I found that if the server metadata is not reloaded. the presentation column names keeps previous one (language).

Not sure about what authentication and web services EBS or Siebel have, but here is what we are doing at the State of Minnesota for PeopleSoft and OBIEE single-signon (no LDAP or SSO server required).
Two web services in PeopleSoft are used for user authentication. One web service simply requires valid PeopleSoft username & password in web service request SOAP header. Second web services determines the username of the PeopleSoft PS_TOKEN cookie (cookie is hashed string which is unique to user’s current PeopleSoft browser session).
BI Presentation Server in configured for single signon to pass PS_TOKEN cookie to BI Server as :USER variable.
Users can also connect directly to BI Server using JDBC or ODBC by providing valid PeopleSoft username & password. JDBC/ODBC tool which sends PeopleSoft credentials to BI Server :USER and :PASSWORD variables.
BI Server initialization blocks execute PL/SQL functions which invoke web services using either the PS_TOKEN cookie from :USER or the PeopleSoft username & password from :USER and :PASSWORD.
A user can login in directly to BI Answers/Dashboards by including a valid PeopleSoft username & password in the nqUser & nqPassword parameters of the Analytics URL. This requires PeopleSoft credentials in URL which poses a security risk. Separate Presentation Server without single signon configuration could be used for direct access.
Mark

Auto Sync metadata within a stack?

Is there a setting to enable pictures in the same stack to auto sync metadata? Currently, if you select pictures in grid view, it will only select the top picture. So after I have updated keyword, etc, I must manually expand each stack and update the other pictures in that stack. Is there an easier way?

No, by design, Lr will only apply metadata or develop settings to the top image in a Collapsed Stack. So, the only way is to apply metadata to expanded stack.

Programmatically force Lightroom to sync metadata

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