Do DNG files save data after reformat?

Hello everyone,

I'm very new to Lightroom. I bought it on special for 70 bucks and love it. Unfortunately I have to reformat my computer and I've edited a bunch of pictures. When I imported them I changed them to DNG. After making changes, will the DNG files remember the changes so when I reformat, technically nothing will be lost (in the way of editing that is)??

Thank you!

LR is a bit weird the way it works with a catalog. Someone will have the answer, but here's how you find out for yourself: Make a change such as +4 exposure, close lightroom. Drag and drop the raw file into photoshop. If it has +4, then it's written to the DNG.

Alternately if you don't have PS do the adjustment, close LR, copy the file to another directory, rename it, and import it. See if it has the adjustment.

tim wrote in post #14108605
LR is a bit weird the way it works with a catalog. Someone will have the answer, but here's how you find out for yourself: Make a change such as +4 exposure, close lightroom. Drag and drop the raw file into photoshop. If it has +4, then it's written to the DNG.

Alternately if you don't have PS do the adjustment, close LR, copy the file to another directory, rename it, and import it. See if it has the adjustment.

Okay, I'll try that.

It doesn't make sense though. If someone's computer crashes then they'll lose all of their adjustments made to their photos.

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I did what you suggested and it imported the new renamed file with the 4.00 exposure. Hmmm

deeselcyde wrote in post #14108619
Okay, I'll try that.

It doesn't make sense though. If someone's computer crashes then they'll lose all of their adjustments made to their photos.

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I did what you suggested and it imported the new renamed file with the 4.00 exposure. Hmmm

That's why you should always back-up the LR catalogue as well as your images.

NinetyEight wrote in post #14108698
That's why you should always back-up the LR catalogue as well as your images.

I think that's why. Being the newbie I am with Lightroom, I had my photos on another internal driver and when I reformat I will lose my catalog and all my information with it (i.e. back ups). I guess I'll store my catalog on the same HDD as my photos.

deeselcyde wrote in post #14108619
Okay, I'll try that.

It doesn't make sense though. If someone's computer crashes then they'll lose all of their adjustments made to their photos.

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I did what you suggested and it imported the new renamed file with the 4.00 exposure. Hmmm

Well, in that sense DNG is different from the proprietary CR2 Raw files, so you learned something!

Lightroom is designed to not touch the Raw data and, in fact, the only time I believe it writes into a proprietary Raw file (CR2) is if you have set your Catalog Preferences to write Date/Time changes into the actual file. But I never mess with DNG, so you can become an expert for the rest of us!

If you check your catalogue preferences in lightroom, you will find that there is a check box which can be set to auto save metadata changes to either the dng or xmp sidecar if other format.

By default this is unchecked and so auto saving is not turned on. The changes are therefore held in the catalogue and are not written to the dng(xmp).

So either

• Turn autosave on or
  
• Every-so-often identify images with changes and do a manual “save to file” cmd+S.
  

DunnoWhen wrote in post #14108747
If you check your catalogue preferences in lightroom, you will find that there is a check box which can be set to auto save metadata changes to either the dng or xmp sidecar if other format.

By default this is unchecked and so auto saving is not turned on. The changes are therefore held in the catalogue and are not written to the dng(xmp).

So either

• Turn autosave on or
  
• Every-so-often identify images with changes and do a manual “save to file” cmd+S.
  

If you have lightroom 4, the last option is preferred because you can now have a smart collection which will identify files which have had changes made.

I can't find any of those specific options.

Are you talking about Catalog Settings OR Preferences?? I cannot find preferences. I can see the Lightroom Preferences but nothing that specifically says Catalog Preferences.


Another question:
What if I want to move all of my photos to another harddrive therefore giving it another directory. Will Lightroom automatically find the photos if I move my catalog over there as well?
For example: I just edited a pictured, made a copy of it (from the directory NOT LR), put it on another HDD, opened it, and it's the unedited picture.

The HDD I have my pictures on is small, and I'll be upgrading within the next 6 months to a big external. I don't want to lose all my editing!!!!


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I just started messing around with it. I took a photo and overexposed it. Moved it to a different drive. It gave me a message saying that photo 12341234 was offline or missing (obviously). It asks if I want to locate it. So if I moved 2000 photos I'd have to locate every one????

deeselcyde wrote in post #14109220
What if I want to move all of my photos to another harddrive therefore giving it another directory. Will Lightroom automatically find the photos if I move my catalog over there as well?

Use Lightroom to move the photos. Just open the FOLDERS panel, select the directory your want to move and drag/drop it to the new location.

deeselcyde wrote in post #14109220
I can't find any of those specific options.

Are you talking about Catalog Settings OR Preferences?? I cannot find preferences. I can see the Lightroom Preferences but nothing that specifically says Catalog Preferences.

I’m on a mac so I go to

Lightroom > Catalogue Settings > Automatically write changes into XMP.

deeselcyde wrote in post #14109220
I can't find any of those specific options.

Are you talking about Catalog Settings OR Preferences?? I cannot find preferences. I can see the Lightroom Preferences but nothing that specifically says Catalog Preferences.

Yes, in the Edit menu you should see both Preferences and Catalog Settings. The Catalog Settings has the "save metadata to file" option in the Metadata tab.

There is also a button to switch to the Catalog Settings in the General tab of the Preferences dialog.

DunnoWhen wrote in post #14109304
Use Lightroom to move the photos. Just open the FOLDERS panel, select the directory your want to move and drag/drop it to the new location.

Yes, use Lightroom to make the move! Otherwise, Lightroom loses the "link" to the metadata that is in the catalog if it's a Raw file or a jpeg/DNG or other type of file where you have not saved the metadata into the file!

The Lightroom catalog is the default system for saving all the added metadata, including edits. You can go to that catalog setting and change that behavior, although it does come at some "cost" to your performance. Alternatively you can, as was mentioned earlier, choose a batch of files/folders to Save the Metadata to File.

Seriously, please take some time going through Lightroom Help, obtain a Lightroom "primer" by Scott Kelby, Marting Evening, and/or Victoria Bampton, and going through some of the abundant resources and tutorials that are all over the Web! You really don't need to struggle with understanding the basics!