Today’s Question: The popup for Preset in the Metadata section in the Library module [in Lightroom Classic] shows my import preset for some images, but shows “None” for other images. I’m pretty sure I applied the preset to all photos, so why doesn’t it appear for all photos?
Tim’s Quick Answer: The Preset popup shows the name of the metadata preset that had been applied to the selected image. However, if you change the metadata for an image after applying a metadata preset, or you neglected to apply a preset to some images, the Preset popup will then show “None”.
More Detail: You can create metadata presets that preserve specific metadata values, such as your copyright and contact information, and then apply a preset to photos to add the applicable metadata. You can apply a preset to all photos during import, for example, or apply a preset to selected photos using the Preset popup found in the Metadata section of the right panel in the Library module.
If you have applied a preset to a photo, the name of the preset will appear on the Preset popup. However, as soon as you add or update metadata for a photo, the popup will change to “None” rather than showing the name of the preset, because the metadata no longer matches what had been assigned using the preset.
For example, I use a red color label to identify photos that need to be reviewed to identify favorites versus outtakes. I use a metadata preset during import to assign the red color label as well as my copyright and contact information. Right after import, the Preset popup therefore shows “Tim Grey Import” as the name of the preset.
If I then remove the red color label from a photo, the Preset popup will then show “None” rather than the name of the preset. Even if I then add the red color label back to the image to get it back to the metadata values assigned by the preset, the Preset popup will still show “None”. I could, of course, choose my “Tim Grey Import” metadata preset from the Preset popup, which will update the image with the metadata included in the preset and show the name of the preset again on the Preset popup.
