Losing CR settings

[pjbraune]

I just moved a folder full of RAWS (including the 2 xmp files) over the network to another machine which is set up identically. The RAWS had all been adjusted and showed the Bridge symbol in the lower right corner. When I viewed them in Bridge on the 2nd machine, the adjustments all changed.
What am I missing? I didn't expect that to happen.

thanks,

Peter

[danaltick]

If you copied the files over the network using Bridge, then the sidecar files did not get copied.  The sidecar files contain your Raw adjustments among other things and end in .xmp.

Dan

[pjbraune]

Dan

Each folder of RAWS has both a .bc and .bct Bridge cache file in it along with the image files. I moved the entire folder over the network in the finder.

Peter

[danaltick]

Peter,

I'm not sure what the finder is.  I'm on a PC, but the .xmp sidecar files get created when you make adjustments to your Raw files using Camera Raw or Bridge.  Apparently those xmp files did not get copied along with your Raw files over the network because it appears as though you lost your Raw adjustments in the process.

Dan

[pjbraune]

Dan

This is getting interesting. There are no .xmp files with the images in the RAW folders on this machine (an iMac G5). ACR 3.3 prefs have been set to save Sidecar files. It seems like something isn't working. Any thoughts? Reinstall 3,3, maybe?

Peter

[SeanD]

Peter...do the XMP files exist on the original machine where you first applied the adjustments?

--Sean

[Rick McCleary]

Peter -

Check your Bridge prefs.  Make sure that in Preferences > Advanced that you have checked "Use Distributed Cache Files When Possible".  When this is checked, Bridge will put the .xmp files in the same folder as the image files.

If "Use Centralized Cache File" is checked, you should be able to find your missing .xmp's in the location listed in the preference window.

(Dan, On a Mac, the Finder is the explorer.)

[pjbraune]

Rick,

Yes, "Use Distributed Cache Files When Possible" is checked.

I'm looking deeper, now. I looked for ".xmp" with Spotlight and got no returns. Looks like they're not being written.

Peter

[danaltick]

Peter,

My guess is that your source machine is not using sidecar files, because if Bridge is showing the ACR modification symbol in the lower right corner of each thumbnail, then the adjustments have been performed and they're stored somewhere.  Also, make sure that your ACR defaults are setup the same on both machines.

Dan

[pjbraune]

OK - I've figured out what's going on here. The Raw folders that seemed to have a "problem" turned out to be legacy files from CS when I had ACR set to save .xmp files to the Camera Raw database.

Now my question is, is there a way to bring these Raws into my current workflow where I'm saving as sidecar files without losing the adjustments?

Thanks to Dan, Rick and Sean for your help on the earlier part of this.


Peter

[SeanD]

Now my question is, is there a way to bring these Raws into my current workflow where I'm saving as sidecar files without losing the adjustments?

Peter...yes, there is a way, but, depending on the number of files in each folder, it may not be a quick fix.

In Photoshop CS, the Camera Raw database is a text file for each folder of images, not a file for each inidividual image. I went back and booted up my version of CS and tried to figure out a quick and realatively easy way to port the settings in the folder database over to new XMP files. There may be away to do it, but if there is, it's not obvious and I am not aware of it. If it can be done then I suspect it involves some level of coding/scripting that is way beyond my cranial mojo.

Here is a workaround that will work, but the catch is that it has to be done to each image individually (I can hear you groaning!).

On your original machine where all the work was intitally done to those files (and most importantly where the Camera Raw database resides---by the way, on Mac the path for that is Username\Library\Application Support\Adobe\FileBrowser\PhotoshopCS), you will need to launch Photoshop CS and in the Camera Raw dialog, reset the Preferences to "Save Image Settings in Sidecar xmp files" (make sure you click OK or Update to save this prefs change). Then, open each file up into Camera Raw and hold down the Option key to change the OK button to an Update button, press said Update button and move on to the next file. Once ACR has been configured to use the XMP settings instead of the system-level database, it will export the previous settings to an xmp file for each image in the folder where the image resides.

If you have large groups of files that were never adjusted, but that you still want XMP files for, you can select a group of them in the File Browser, right-click on one and choose Apply Camera Raw Settings>Camera Default from the contextual menu (you could also do this in the newer ACR/Bridge, too, if you wanted to wait on those).

Slow, yes, but it will get the job done. Fortunately it's fairly quick in that each image does not need new adjustments. I have a ton of files from the past couple of years that have never had ACR adjustments and I am slowly, bit by bit, revisiting them in the current ACR as part of the migration to DNG.

If anyone knows of a quicker way to do this (that does not require a degree in computer science) please let us know!

--Sean

[SeanD]

Peter...

actually, you don't have to open up the ACR dialog completely to export XMP files for each image. Just make sure that you do change the ACR prefs so that its saving the settings to sidecar files and do the following:

Select an image in the File Browser, right-click (control-click on a 1-button Mac mouse), choose Apply Camera Raw Settings and then in the dialog, choose "Selected Image" and then press the Update button.

Unfortuately you cannot select a whole group of images and have it apply the existing settings for each image (at least, as far as I can tell); it wants a specific image setting to apply.

--Sean

[SeanD]

Peter, some further test results:

Interestingly enough, when my test folder (with no XMP files and previously set to have settings saved in ACR database in PS CS) is browsed using Bridge v1.0.3, the previous adjustments DO show up (of course, you would not be seeing the previous settings showing up if you had moved the files to another computer), but new XMP files are not written to the folder, even if I open the file in the current ACR and click DONE. In order for new XMP files to be generated in PSCS2 and Bridge/ACR3.3 I have to make some change to the ACR sliders, and then click DONE.

So it might be just as easy to re-apply the settings using PS CS and the File Browser as I outlined in my previous posts.

--Sean

[pjbraune]

Hey, Sean

Nice cranial mojo. Thanks for applying it to this exercise.
One by one is a little painful, but if there seem to be a lot of these, I may just single out selects and get on with it.
Glad I didn't clean CS off the drive yet.


Peter

[SeanD]

Peter....yes, just doing it to the important selects would make the most sense. There's probably no need to do it for images that are just being archived with little likelihood that they will ever be printed.

Good luck getting it all sorted out!

--Sean