Ratings, tags or AI Preset edits showing in Narrative but not in Lightroom? Work through these checks in order. The most common causes are a drive Narrative can't save to, or a Lightroom import setting.
Most of these checks apply to whichever editing software you use. Steps 4 and 5 are specific to Lightroom Classic.
1. Update Narrative
Make sure you're on the latest version of Narrative, then try again.
2. Check what should carry across to Lightroom
Star ratings, color labels and tags carry across to Lightroom.
First Pass assessments stay in Narrative. They're AI guidance, not ratings.
AI Preset edits only carry across if you selected an AI Preset in Ship + Edit and the editing finished before you imported.
Seeing a First Pass assessment on a photo you've rated is normal. It doesn't mean your rating didn't save.
If only your AI Preset edits are missing, see Images shipped but AI Presets aren’t showing in Lightroom.
3. Check Narrative can save to your drive
Narrative saves your ratings into your photos' files. If it can't save to the drive, they won't show up in Lightroom.
Keep the drive connected, with some free space.
Keep each RAW photo's XMP sidecar file in the same folder as the photo.
Make sure the drive isn't read-only.
On Mac, NTFS drives are read-only. NTFS is a Windows format. macOS can read it, but can't save to it. To check your drive's format, right-click the drive in Finder, choose Get Info, and look next to Format.
Get Info shows the drive’s format. This example is ExFAT, not a read-only NTFS drive.
If your drive is NTFS, move your photos to a drive your Mac can save to. Don't reformat a drive that has photos on it to fix this.
On Windows, check you can open the drive in File Explorer and save files to the folder your photos are in.
Not sure? Contact us before changing anything on the drive.
4. Check Lightroom Classic’s import settings
When you import photos into Lightroom Classic, open Apply During Import and set:
Develop Settings: None
Metadata: None
Otherwise, Lightroom can apply its own preset or metadata over what Narrative saved.
In Lightroom Classic’s Apply During Import panel, set Develop Settings and Metadata to None.
Make sure you're importing the same photos and sidecar files you culled in Narrative, not an older backup.
5. Check photos that are already in Lightroom Classic
Lightroom Classic doesn't automatically pick up changes to photos it's already imported. You can tell it to read them again, but be careful.
Reading metadata from files replaces what's in your Lightroom catalog, including any edits and ratings you've made in Lightroom since. Back up your catalog first. If you want to keep your Lightroom work, contact us before doing this.
To bring in what Narrative saved:
In Lightroom Classic's Library module, select one photo to test.
Choose Metadata → Read Metadata from File.
Read the confirmation, and only continue if you're happy to replace that photo's Lightroom settings.
Check the result before doing this for more photos.
Don't use Save Metadata to File for this. It does the opposite, and writes Lightroom's settings over the ones Narrative saved.
6. Test with a few copies
Still not working? Copy a few photos, and their XMP sidecar files, into a new folder on your computer.
Create a new Narrative project from that folder and rate the photos. Then import them into a new Lightroom Classic catalog, using the import settings above. Leave your real shoot and catalog as they are.
If the test works, the problem is likely with your original drive. Let us know which drive it was, and we'll help you work out what's going on.
Still missing?
Contact our support team and tell us what's missing (ratings, tags or AI Preset edits) and whether the photos were already in Lightroom.
If you use the Narrative Lightroom Classic plugin, also check it's enabled in File → Plug-in Manager.