How can I connect the dngs to my raws

[DeerBaby]

Hi guys,

I used someone for editing several hundreds of photos. I exported a smart catalogue with smart previews for him, he edited them and returned the finished catalogue with smart previews. Somewhere along the way, he turned the file names into dng names and now my Lightroom can't tell which edited preview belongs to which of my raw files. How do I fix that without connecting each preview to the raw by hand?

I would love your help! Thanks!

Julia

[JP Hess]

Your editor must have used the DNG conversion feature in Lightroom. Unless someone has a plug-in that will do what you need, I don't know what to tell you. You should instruct your editor not to mess with your smart previews in the future.

[johnrellis · Accepted solution]

If the files have the same base name, e.g. IMG_3756.NEF and IMG_3756.DNG, you can copy all the Develop adjustments and metadata from the DNG back to the corresponding raw using the Syncomatic plugin: Syncomatic - Sync files with same name or time

[cmgap]

If he still has the files - ask him to export again without converting to DNGs. It's not the worst thing to happen however as now the edits are embedded in the file and you reduce the risk of having to start over - if you lost the XMP files for example. Perhaps if you use this editor again you can specify that you don't want DNGs in the future.