
This method is highly recommend for all but the most experienced Classic users. You can turn this “auto save” option on by enabling the Automatically Write Changes Into XMP preference switch inside of Classic’s Catalog Settings menu.
You can set your Preferences in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom so that all of your work is automatically and continuously saved for you into your image files as well as within your Lightroom Catalog database file. This method is better than the factory default but invoking the Metadata > Save Metadata to File command again and again is tedious. If you use this command, and if your Lightroom Catalog gets destroyed, then almost all of your hard work will survive. When you activate this command, your changes will be stored inside of each individual image’s metadata block, or xmp sidecar file, in addition to all of the notes that are saved within your Lightroom Catalog (.lrcat) file. You can choose to save your work at anytime using the Save Metadata to File Command. Sadly, relying on this method only can cause you catastrophic harm if your Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic Catalog ever gets deleted, corrupted, or destroyed.
This is the factory default behaviour but this option is not recommended.
You can choose to save your work only at the Lightroom Catalog level. Unlike most other programs, with Classic you have three choices that determine when and where all of your work is saved. How To Save Your Work In LightroomĪdobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic lets you decide when to save your work. Essential organizational features like your copyright info, your keywords, star ratings, and captions are all possible types of metadata annotations. In addition, your file’s metadata can also include most of the descriptive information that you can add to your images using Classic’s Library and Map Modules. These additional instructions, and more, can also be written into your image files themselves as Metadata. Beneath the surface, these additional instructions are automatically stored inside of your Lightroom Catalog file. These additional instructions tell Lightroom Classic to make your photo appear brighter, warmer, or more saturated. Every time that you move a slider in Lightroom, to improve the appearance of your photo, you are simply assigning a new set of instructions into your Lightroom Catalog about the way that it should interpret the pixels in this file. Before we discuss the different ways to save your work in this program, you need to understand that Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic will never permanently alter the pixels that you captured inside of your original digital image.