How can I restore Lightroom edits after "Read Metadata From File" overwrote them?

Question

I used ExifTool to update lens metadata on a large batch of photos, then in Lightroom chose Metadata > Read Metadata From File so Lightroom would pick up the changes. That worked for the lens info, but it also replaced Lightroom’s stored edit metadata for those images, so I lost my adjustments in the current catalog.

I have backups of both the Lightroom catalog and the photo files. What is the best way to restore the edits for only the affected images? If possible, I’d like to keep the new lens metadata too.

Also, what workflow should I use in the future when changing EXIF/XMP outside Lightroom so I don’t lose Lightroom edits again?

user3810 · Accepted Answer

To restore only files with lost modifications:

Open your gallery backup in Lightroom
Select those photos and choose File->Export as Catalog. You could also save metadata to files, but that does not include all data (for example, flags are not included, while color labels and stars are).
Open your original catalog again
Delete files you just exported (only from catalog; not from the disk).
Select File->Import from Another Catalog and select catalog from step 2.

In this process, your custom lens information is overwritten, and you have to redo it.

Workflow to avoid this in the future:

Import into Lightroom
Make modifications
Save your modifications to original files/sidecars. In grid view, select all appropriate images, right-click and select Metadata->Save Metadata to Files (alternatively, ctrl+s / cmd+s
Make your modifications with exiftool
Reread metadata to Lightroom.

Do note that not all information is stored in metadata. For example, Pick flags are part of Lightroom library, not metadata. If in step 5 files are imported to a new library, flags are not included (but color labels and stars are).

How can I restore Lightroom edits after "Read Metadata From File" overwrote them?

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