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Author Topic: Lightroom changing date modified on image files.  (Read 984 times)

Redcrown

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Lightroom changing date modified on image files.
« on: August 01, 2022, 03:51:56 pm »

Lightroom is changing the date modified on some of my old image files when I import new files.

I use Bridge and ACR to process all images, rarely Lightroom. When I'm finished processing with Bridge/ACR I use Bridge to move raw, tifs, and jpegs to various folders in my master image library. Occasionally, I'll launch Lightroom and tell it to import all new stuff it can find anywhere in the entire image library. That takes a while to scan 47K + images in a folder structure with many sub-folders, but the results look OK. Only files I recognize as new get imported. I then use Lightroom only to search and filter the library because it is much better at that task then Bridge. Example: find all high ISO images from 2 cameras to test a new noise reduction tool.

I use the SyncBack utility to backup the image library to an external HDD. SyncBack first compares the master to the old backup and shows a list of new files that will be copied to the backup. Recently, I noticed a lot of old files on this backup list. Files I am sure have not been touched in a long time, but their date modified is recent. By "recently" I mean in the last 3 months since I built an all new Windows 11 machine, installing all software from scratch. I let Lightroom build a new catalog from scratch.

I've now run tests to confirm that it is Lightroom that is changing the date modified on old files. It appears random and hits all file types. Sometimes it is less than 10, sometimes over 100. To test, I run SyncBack to update the backup. Then I run it again to confirm there is nothing new to backup. Then I run Lightroom and import anything not already in the catalog. Then I run SyncBack again, and voila!, it finds old files to backup because their date modified has changed to the time of the Lightroom import.

So, anybody have a clue why this is happening. Can anybody else confirm? It's a PITA because the backup utility takes longer to run. And I can no longer search for everything I've done in the past 3 months because the search it littered with tons of false positives.

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fdisilvestro

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Re: Lightroom changing date modified on image files.
« Reply #1 on: August 02, 2022, 07:46:15 am »

Are you sure you are not applying any change during import or that you have the option to "Automatically Write changes into XMP" cheked?

For files other than proprietary raw, this will write the metadata to the original file (jpg, tiff, dng, etc.)

Redcrown

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Re: Lightroom changing date modified on image files.
« Reply #2 on: August 02, 2022, 12:08:43 pm »

Bingo, you may be on to something. Thanks. The "Auto Write to XMP", and "Include Develop settings in metadata JPEG, TIFF" were both checked in my Lightroom. Don't know how, maybe the default?

So I unchecked them and now will wait and see. Still seems strange that doing an Import scan would trigger updating files themselves and not just the catalog.
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digitaldog

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Re: Lightroom changing date modified on image files.
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2022, 01:37:06 pm »

The "Auto Write to XMP", and "Include Develop settings in metadata JPEG, TIFF" were both checked in my Lightroom. Don't know how, maybe the default?

So I unchecked them and now will wait and see. Still seems strange that doing an Import scan would trigger updating files themselves and not just the catalog.
You want this on!
https://photographyconcentrate.com/lightroom-tip-turn-automatically-write-changes-xmp/
AFAIK, this has nothing to do with an Import per se.
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fdisilvestro

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Re: Lightroom changing date modified on image files.
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2022, 04:29:20 pm »

As far as I know the only setting that makes LR write back to the original files is the "Auto Write to XMP", so you probably don't need to un-check the "Include Develop Settings in Metadata JPEG, TIFF"

With the "Auto Write to XMP" unchecked, all changes are written to the catalog only.

There are other settings that may update the metadata in the background, such as "Look up city, state and country of GPS coordinates to provide address suggestions"

LR will update the metadata on almost everything you do, except viewing or sorting.

In regards to the recommendation to leave the "Auto Write to XMP" checked as Andrew suggested, it is a good one with the drawback that it does modify the files and it does not write info related to virtual copies. I personally prefer to backup and verify the LR catalog frequently.
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