Narrative saves your progress automatically as you cull, so there's no need to press Save. Every time you make a change, like adding a star rating or cropping a photo, Narrative saves it straight away.
Note: Narrative needs to be able to reach and save to the folder your photos are in. Keep the drive connected while you work.
What does Narrative save with my photos?
Narrative saves these changes with your photos the moment you make them:
Star ratings
Color labels
Tags
Crops and rotation
Capture time changes
For RAW files, Narrative saves them in an XMP sidecar file (a small .xmp file with the same name, next to each photo). For JPEGs, it saves them inside the photo file itself.
If you import the photos into Narrative again, it reads these changes back in. Keep each RAW file and its XMP file together whenever you move, copy or back up a shoot. Learn more about XMP files.
What does Narrative save on my computer?
Narrative saves everything else about a project on your computer, not in the XMP files. This includes:
Your project and where you're up to
Scenes
Focus scores, AI First Pass and other AI assessments
Faces and People Filter groups
Duplicate information
Narrative keeps its AI assessments after it first processes your photos, so you can close a project and come back later without waiting for them to run again.
Can XMP files restore a deleted project?
XMP files can't fully restore a deleted Narrative project. If you import the photos again, Narrative reads back your ratings, labels, tags, crops and capture times. It processes the photos again for Scenes, assessments and faces.
Does Narrative back up my projects?
Narrative's automatic saving isn't a backup. Narrative doesn't back up your projects to the cloud, and XMP files don't contain your photos. Keep your own backups of your original photos and their XMP files.
Narrative projects don't move between computers automatically. If you use Narrative on more than one computer, see Can Narrative sync across multiple devices?
Why doesn't my editing software show my latest Narrative changes?
Your editing software may not have read the latest changes from your XMP files yet. See Why are my ratings, tags or AI Presets not appearing in Lightroom or my editing software? Take care not to overwrite newer edits you've made in your editing software.
For more on what happens to your photos and data, see What happens to my images and data with Narrative? and How does Narrative use your photos?.