Is Picasa image metadata compatible with Lightroom? The short answer is yes…but. However, this short answer has to be gualified. They are compatible because of Lightroom and not because of Picasa. Or in other words Lightroom is backward compatible. Read on to see the specifics.
6 video modules - over 30 videos containing step-by-step instructions for Windows or Mac programs like Lightroom, ACDSee, Picasa and Photos.
All my e-Books for free - all my products are included.
Completely self-paced. Learn at your own pace and take as long as you want until you learn how to organize your photos. More info
Image metadata compatibility exercise
Sometime ago I performed a little experiment with Lightroom and Picasa with regards to the metadata they both add to image files, specifically to JPEG files.
So, I imported into Lightroom some pictures that had tags added with Picasa. Lightroom had no problem reading them. But how about the other way around?
I have added some new tags in Lightroom and brought these pictures up in Picasa. Ta da! I could see the image tags in Picasa. Pretty cool!
This means that no matter what I use, my metadata is portable. This is what I want. Read my complete guide to Picasa generated image metadata.
Lightroom image tags are compatible with Picasa
Lightroom uses the new XMP metadata framework but also fills in the old IPTC metadata fields while Picasa uses mostly the old IPTC framework to record image metadata.
The cool thing is that Lightroom saves image metadata, specifically image tags, in the IPTC format as well in addition to XMP. This is why Picasa is able to read image tags created in Lightroom.
Image metadata is somewhat compatible between Lightroom and Picasa.
Picasa face detection is compatible as well
The new face recognition capability in Picasa is pretty cool. There used to be a concern about Picasa’ face detection tags, but it turns out that Picasa saves face detection tags correctly in the EXIF metadata section.
What about RAW files in Picasa
Raw image files are challenging for Picasa to begin with…Picasa converts every RAW file to JPEG in order to deal with them.
When it comes to metadata however, metadata entered in Lightroom for RAW files will not transfer to Picasa. Raw files (unless they are in DNG format) have their metadata in sidecar files which Picasa does not handle at all.
The bottom line is that I can count on metadata compatibility between Picasa and Lightroom only for jpeg files.
What do you think about Picasa and the way it handles image metadata? Do you have any compatibility issues?
Essentials for organizing your digital photos
Here are the essential products and services I have come to rely on for many years to keep my media collection organized and safe. Even though these are affiliate links, I wholeheartedly recommend them. 
Excellent Lightroom and Picasa alternative. If you need a cheaper and simpler photo manager then ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac (save 30% until May 24th) or ACDSee Pro for Windows (save $30 until May 24th) is my preferred solution for organizing all my media. It has a very fast browser, great image editing and it's simple to use.
If you do a lot of image editing like I do, I recommend using Adobe Lightroom Classic CC via the annual Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. Lightroom has best photo editing capabilities even though it comes with a steeper learning curve. If you do image editing, Adobe Lightroom is my favorite.
I recommend Backblaze Cloud Backup for affordable & reliable unlimited cloud backup. I have been using Backblaze for backing up all pictures & videos for more than 5 years now. All my invaluable digital memories are safe and secure. This is the best solution especially if you have a large quantity of media files.
Use a reliable & affordable external hard drive for backing up everything on your computer. It is absolutely essential for keeping all your memories backed up and safe.
Start organizing now using detailed, step-by-step instructions and videos:
Personal Coaching (closed) Independent Course Private Lessons
Reference book Basics book Picasa book
YOURS FREE! 10 crucial steps most people miss when organizing their digital photos
Most people want to just organize their digital pictures and ignore these crucial steps right at the beginning...when they are shooting and transferring their digital pictures. Then they wonder why they can't organize their digital photos! Avoid most people's mistakes and start on the right track!
My Picasa fail to read the People Tag of the photo which i did in Lightroom. It showed the “tag” in Picasa but it wont show in people tab there and i need to redo the manual tagging in Picasa again.
May i know how you solve this problem? How can I make the People Tag that I did in Lightroom able to read by Picasa. Currently the People Tag that i did in Picasa able to read by Lightroom.
Thanks
Good comments both. For me face detection in Picasa is still not very useful since I add tags for the people in the pictures.
I have a simple solution, install Jeffrey Fried Face-Recognition Import Plug: http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/picasa-face-import
I know this post is a few years old, but I thought I would point out that Picasa’s face detection can still be of some use for Lightroom users. Allow Picasa to do its face scanning and help it along with manual tagging to the extent you wish, then select all images for a given person and add a tag with that person’s name. This is probably not worth doing for all of the faces that Picasa recognizes, but as a quick first pass at tagging the top ~10 subjects, this has the potential to save some time rather than sorting through thousands of images.