Skip navigation

Photoshop General Discussion

Currently Being Moderated

get xmp files from cr db

Jul 25, 2012 10:55 AM

Tags: #raw #xmp #sidecar #databse

I forgot to change my options for xmp sidecar files in bridge last time I installed it. For a good two months it's been saving xmp data in the camera raw databse instead of in sidecar XMP files.

Now I need to move a whole bunch of raw files to a new computer and I don't want to lose all the camera raw adjustments. Is there a trick to write out the info it has in the databse to XMP files along with the corresponding raw files?

thanks

1949 Views 23 Replies Latest reply: station_two, Aug 9, 2012 8:56 PM

Replies

20,980 posts
Dec 23, 2006

Currently Being Moderated

1. Noel Carboni,

Jul 25, 2012 11:16 AM in reply to dutotone

Report

I suppose it's possible but I've never seen such a function. It might be better to ask in the dedicated Camera Raw forum:

http://forums.adobe.com/community/cameraraw

-Noel

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

2. dutotone,

Jul 25, 2012 12:34 PM in reply to Noel Carboni

Report

Thanks noel

Anyone know where the db for camera raw 7 is stored? It's not at the same path as it was last time i dealt with it, in cr5 or so. I should add i am on win7.

thanks

Message was edited by: dutotone

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

3. station_two,

Jul 25, 2012 12:43 PM in reply to dutotone

Report

In Bridge, select a folder containing the raw files, then go to the Tools menu in Bridge: Tools > Cache > Build and Export Cache.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

4. dutotone,

Jul 25, 2012 12:56 PM in reply to station_two

Report

station2, thanks but that didnt export the camera raw settings, just the bridge cache as far as I can see?

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

5. dutotone,

Jul 25, 2012 12:58 PM in reply to dutotone

Report

i tried it now, exporting the bridge cache and including it with the folder did not preserve cr settings when moving the folder from one pc to the other.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

6. station_two,

Jul 25, 2012 1:02 PM in reply to dutotone

Report

The raw adjustment settings should have been exported too as part of the cache, but I can't personally vouch for that because I have never, ever set my preferences not to build XMPs and export them to folders whenever possible. As the late Bruce Fraser used to put it, that would be "sheer insanity"—as you're now finding out.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

7. dutotone,

Jul 25, 2012 1:14 PM in reply to station_two

Report

like i said i forgot to change the settings, it's just crazy that the default is to use the db.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

8. ssprengel,

Jul 25, 2012 1:14 PM in reply to station_two

Report

As I replied on the ACR forum:

The camera-raw database is stored in (Windows 7):

C:\users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\CameraRaw\Database

And there is an “Export Settings to XMP” command on the ACR menu that appears to create XMP files for each raw file, but I haven’t tried it. You might just Google that menu item to confirm what it does.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

9. dutotone,

Jul 25, 2012 1:24 PM in reply to ssprengel

Report

thanks ssprengel

where is that export command in acr? I can't seem to find it, I must be blind..!

I am considering just converting the cr2 files to dng as a workaround solution. Then the camera raw settings should become embedded in the DNG right?

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

10. ssprengel,

Jul 25, 2012 1:35 PM in reply to dutotone

Report

At the top of ACR’s righthand panel, where it says Basic in the title bar if you’re on the first toning tab, there is a little three-dots-three-lines icon with a tiny arrow in the corner on at the right end of where it says Basic. If you click on that icon you’ll get a menu of quite a few things including resetting camera raw defaults and saving new ones, and what view you want to see in the main window.

I don’t know about converting to DNGs – if it’s smart enough to know where the settings are for each particular image or if it just uses whatever the current setting is for where to look and won’t find settings for the images that don’t have them where its currently set to store the settings.

Do you at least know exactly which images are the ones that have their settings stored in the ACR Database or are you guessing? I’d hate to have you reset settings for images that aren’t in the database but do have XMP files. You should probably test what happens in this case, to make sure you’re not overwriting your XMP settings with defaults.

|
Mark as:
20,980 posts
Dec 23, 2006

Currently Being Moderated

11. Noel Carboni,

Jul 25, 2012 3:15 PM in reply to station_two

Report

As one who prefers the database, I find it amusing that others feel I'm "insane" or "crazy" (however right they may be) because of that choice.

Adobe has provided the ability to maintain the settings in a database. Personally, given their track record for file handling, I think anyone who would allow Adobe software to write back into the folders containing their original files is being irresponsible, but to each his own.

I don't recall the default being to use the central database, though. In fact, I remember having to switch it the other way.

-Noel

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

12. dutotone,

Jul 25, 2012 2:12 PM in reply to ssprengel

Report

Ok so with help from ssprengel I have a solution now (in case anyone reading have the same problem):

The export xmp command luckily works on multiple files at once.In Bridge I can just search for camera raw files in the parent folder and open them all in camera raw (files are spread across many sub-folders), Then in CR select all files and choose export xmp, problem solved. There are a couple of thousand 21MP files so I'm gonna process them in chunks of a couple of hundred at the time to not bog down the system.

Thanks for the help!

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

13. station_two,

Jul 25, 2012 7:49 PM in reply to ssprengel

Report

ssprengel wrote:

…I’d hate to have you reset settings for images that aren’t in the database but do have XMP files…

Is that scenario even possible? I thought the info was kept in the central database regardless of whether you have XMPs in the folder(s) or not?

I'm not disputing it at all, I'm just calling on your amply demonstrated superior knowledge of Camera Raw as evidenced in years of helping others at the Camera Raw forum the better to inform myself.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

14. station_two,

Jul 25, 2012 7:57 PM in reply to Noel Carboni

Report

Noel Carboni wrote:

…I think anyone who would allow Adobe software to write back into the folders containing their original files is being irresponsible, but to each his own…

Pending any forthcoming confirmation or correction by ssprengel to my understanding as far as the info being kept in the central database regardless of whether you have XMPs in the folder(s) or not, that would be a moot point, wouldn't it? Just asking you.

|
Mark as:
20,980 posts
Dec 23, 2006

Currently Being Moderated

15. Noel Carboni,

Jul 25, 2012 8:05 PM in reply to station_two

Report

Moot? Not in the slightest. I would be happy to hear that the central database is written regardless, but even if it were not I wouldn't want Adobe writing any files back to the folders containing my camera files. They never seem to have gotten out of the 1990s with regard to file handling. I've never heard of an application as likely to screw up file operations as Photoshop.

Also, I'm apparently not as worried about retaining info from my past edits as many folks. Generally speaking, I don't do all that much special to raw files in Camera Raw, and I could re-create the steps to developing a good image in a few heartbeats anyway. I tend to concentrate on getting things right in the original capture, then the fancier things I do to photos (such as blurring backgrounds or cloning out zits) I do in Photoshop proper anyway. I'm not saying this is better or worse than what others do, just the way I do it. A complete loss of Camera Raw data wouldn't make me more than mildly concerned anyway. That said, I don't tolerate loss of data and have it all backed up a number of different ways.

-Noel

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

16. dutotone,

Jul 26, 2012 6:11 AM in reply to Noel Carboni

Report

Just to have things correct, I checked now on my new installation on my new pc. Noel is absolutely correct, the default is to have sidecar xmp files- i dont know how i got my setting changed, might have been sleep walking..or something!

Also, I dont think cr stores anything in the database unless you tell it to. If you delete a xmp file, the adjustments are gone.

On a side note, I had to deactivate creative suite on my old pc and I figured I might as well delete it all together to free up space, wont be using that pc for work anymore. So I uninstalled via the uninstaller and I noticed only 6gb or so got freed up, even if I chose to delete all preferences and everything. After about 10-15 minutes of detective work on my old pc I had deleted another 123 -yes onehundredtwentythree- Gigabytes of cs related files on the pc. I mean I was suspicious, but to leave this amount of trash after uninstall is just ridiculous - they should really provide a proper clean up script or at least inform the user of the possible locations and extent of the leftover files given that the user really is sure he/she wants EVERYTHING GONE!

Edit: I did the manual cleanup AFTER attempting to clean the pc with ccleaner, which is supposed to get rid of temp files and such.

|
Mark as:
20,980 posts
Dec 23, 2006

Currently Being Moderated

17. Noel Carboni,

Jul 26, 2012 7:09 AM in reply to dutotone

Report

Thanks for the follow-up.
dutotone wrote:

they should really provide a proper clean up script

I'm not sure it gets everything, but there is this:
http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

-Noel

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

18. dutotone,

Jul 26, 2012 7:31 AM in reply to Noel Carboni

Report

Aha, great tip, thanks I'll give it a go.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

19. station_two,

Jul 26, 2012 1:27 PM in reply to dutotone

Report

dutotone wrote:

…Noel is absolutely correct, the default is to have sidecar xmp files…

As well as the sensible setting to keep, in Bruce Fraser's and my opinion.

It's very convenient to have the XMP travel along when you move or copy files.

dutotone wrote:

…Also, I dont think cr stores anything in the database unless you tell it to. If you delete a xmp file, the adjustments are gone.

Well, that kind of answers my question, though it had never occurred to me to delete an XMP file by itself, that's why I keep them invisible in Bridge. But perhaps, just maybe, the adjustment settings get deleted from the central database when you nuke the XMP file?

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

20. CameraAnn,

Jul 28, 2012 9:54 AM in reply to station_two

Report

My experience has been that storing side-car .xmp files in the same folder as my images bogs Bridge down enormously — particularly if you have many files in a folder.

I was caught-out (and badly burned!) after installing new software by ACR's default Prefs. to store XMPs locally.

There is no way to move sidecars back into the central ACR Database so finally, in desperation, I simply trashed all of the sidecars and re-processed all of the affected .nefs.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

21. station_two,

Jul 28, 2012 9:29 PM in reply to CameraAnn

Report

CameraAnn wrote:

My experience has been that storing side-car .xmp files in the same folder as my images bogs Bridge down enormously — particularly if you have many files in a folder…

Does that hold true for you in any version of Bridge, or just the latest one in CS6?

Essentially, my working versions of Photoshop and Bridge remain those in CS4, and I have a dedicated minimal system (4 GB Intel MacBook literally rescued from the trash) to run just ACR 7.1 hosted by Photoshop 13 ("CS6") and connected via Ethernet to my main working G5 Quad, with switchable, shared, dual, side-by-side external monitors for both systems.

I do not experience any slowdowns in Bridge 3.0.0.464 and or 5.0.0.399, but then, I have the feeling that I have only a fraction of the number of files per folder you must keep—mostly under 200 or 300 image files per folder.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

22. CameraAnn,

Aug 9, 2012 8:46 PM in reply to station_two

Report

I am so sorry not to have answered before this but have only just found your post.

I am now using CS6 exclusively so my comments did mostly relate to Bridge CS6 — although I fitst became aware of the issue with CS 5.5.

I often do have very large folders with perhaps several thousand images in a single one — untill I get round to re-organising into some sub-folders!

I definitely find it far more efficient to keep all my metadata in a central ACR Database and it is very quick and simple to export .xmp Suitcases to any designated folder if I am burning to a DVD for someone or uploading to an FTP web site.

What I DO need is a way to"export" Sidecars back to the ACR Database if I have ever exported them to an Images folder.

At the moment, it seems that I only have the option of deleting an .xmp and then I have to go back into ACR and re-do the conversion from scratch if I want to put the metadata back into the central Database.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

23. station_two,

Aug 9, 2012 8:56 PM in reply to CameraAnn

Report

Thanks for elaborating, Ann.

Under the conditions you describe, I'd give serious consideration to working with DNGs, just to keep all the adjustments within the DNG wrapper, and forgetting about both the central db and xmp files.

Good to hear from you, Ann.

|
Mark as: