This was fixed 5 months ago in trunk (see the upstream ticket at http://redmine.yorba.org/issues/4297) and so the fix will be present in the upcoming 0.13 release. If you'd like the fix today, you can either install Shotwell from the Yorba daily PPA (https://launchpad.net/~yorba/+archive/daily-builds) or upgrade to the Ubuntu Quantal pre-release, which includes Shotwell 0.12.90 which has this fix.
** Changed in: shotwell (Ubuntu) Status: Confirmed => Fix Committed -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Desktop Bugs, which is subscribed to shotwell in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/894553 Title: "Writing metadata to files..." never finishes To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/shotwell/+bug/894553/+subscriptions -- desktop-bugs mailing list desktop-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/desktop-bugs