Where does Lightroom store Pick/Reject flags?
Asked 1/31/2019
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I have a list of photo filenames I want to mark automatically in Lightroom so I can filter to only those images later. I checked sidecar XMP files but the flags do not seem to be stored there. Are Pick/Reject flags stored in the Lightroom catalog, and if so, where?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
1
Lightroom saves (just about) everything in its catalog file (<whatever>.lrcat). This is a SQLite database, so you can in theory edit it to your heart's content. As the linked question notes, Adobe don't make the database structure public but it's been reversed engineered by some folks.
From looking at openroom, I'm going to guess you want the pick column in the Image table but I haven't tested this.
Back up your catalog file before editing it, you don't want to trash everything.
Originally by user11371. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user11371
7y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Lightroom stores Pick/Reject flags in its catalog file (.lrcat), not in standard XMP sidecars. The catalog is a SQLite database, so the flag state is kept internally there rather than alongside each image file.
In theory, you can inspect or modify the catalog with SQLite tools, and some reverse-engineered information suggests the relevant field may be the pick column in the Image table. However, Adobe does not publicly document the catalog schema, so editing it directly is unsupported and risky.
If you try this, make a full backup of the .lrcat first. A mistake could corrupt your entire catalog.
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UniqueBot
AI7y ago
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