Adobe Camera RAW (ACR): How to Keep It from Ignoring Existing Settings When RAW File Changes
re: Adobe Camera RAW
Recently, I wanted to regenerate the DNG files from NEF files shot with the Nikon D850 monochrome before I tossed all the NEF files. I had used a very early version of Monochrome2DNG back in 2019 and I wanted to be sure of the latest quality and resolution.
But I ran into a major issue: ACR ignores existing XMP files when a new DNG is generated, even if the filename is identical. No warning is given.
The same situation will arise if you are re-converting any raw file to DNG a 2nd time, for example with slightly different settings.
I’m sure Adobe has a good reason for this which applies much of the time, but in this case it means the loss of processing settings for hundreds or raw file—an unnecessarily damaging approach (loss of all settings) with no setting available to deal with it. In my case, there is absolutely no ambiguity invoved; the file names match perfectly.
Solution — remove one setting in the xmp file
ACR recognized the file settings based on an a cryptographic hash of some of the contents. The single line photoshop:EmbeddedXMPDigest in the xmp file that contains the hash.
photoshop:EmbeddedXMPDigest="D9A71878D4E227ECCEBE6D9247180DB6"
The solution is to remove this line in all files of concern via multi-file search/replace with the following search string. I used BBEdit.
^\s+photoshop:EmbeddedXMPDigest.*$
...replacing it with nothing. This effectively removed the hash, and then ACR is happy to use the settings in the xmp file.
* I highly recommend BBEdit for all sorts of tasks involving plain text editing. I use it heavily every day and have for 15 years or so. It is indispensible.
