How can I refresh Lightroom capture time after changing EXIF dates with ExifTool without losing edits?
Asked 10/18/2015
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2 answers
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I changed my photos’ capture date/time by +3.5 hours using ExifTool because Lightroom wouldn’t let me enter a half-hour offset. The EXIF change worked, but Lightroom still shows the old capture time from its catalog.
If I use Lightroom’s “Read Metadata from File,” it seems to overwrite or remove my existing Lightroom develop edits, which I want to keep.
What’s the safest way to get Lightroom to pick up the updated capture time without wiping my edits? I’m using Lightroom 2015.2.1 on Mac.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
2
You are probably changing the metadata with exiftool before changes are written by Lightroom. To ensure you don't loose LR changes when using exiftool; Make the develop changes in Lightrooom, save metadata in LR, run exiftool, then read metadata in LR.
Originally by user40407. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user40407
10y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Lightroom stores a lot of information in its catalog, so changing EXIF with ExifTool won’t automatically update what Lightroom already has recorded.
The safe workflow is:
- In Lightroom, finish your edits.
- Save Lightroom metadata to file/XMP first.
- Run ExifTool to change the capture time.
- In Lightroom, read metadata from file.
That way, Lightroom’s edits are written out before you update the EXIF date, so reading metadata back is much less likely to lose your work.
If you’re working with RAW files, using sidecar .xmp files is especially helpful, since Lightroom can store develop settings there separately from the RAW file’s EXIF data. In difficult cases, one community workaround is to save metadata to XMP, re-import the files so Lightroom sees the corrected capture time, then place the XMP files alongside the RAWs and update metadata.
So yes: save metadata first, then apply ExifTool, then refresh in Lightroom. Back up your catalog before trying it.
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