Just wanted to report back on this issue and close the loop. As a quick recap, my friend was sending me some DNG files after adjusting them in LightRoom, and also applying his custom camera profile. When I imported the DNG files into LR on my end, all his adjustments remained in place *except* that Adobe Standard was the profile in the Calibration tab, and all his calibration sliders were set to zero (he often tweaks them, even when using his custom profile). I verified that I was doing everything correctly, had the right preferences and import settings, etc. *"Update DNG Previews & Metadata"* seems to do the trick. *"Save Metadata to File"* (or Command-S) doesn't always seem to work. But, after using Updated DNG Previews & Metadata, his files came over with his custom camera profile embedded in the DNG, and properly assigned to the file.

From what I read in the Help files ( http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Lightroom/3.0/Using/WS638E3AC9-A04C-4445-A0D3-F7... ), LR automatically updates its catalog every time any change is made to an image from within LR. This apparently updates the catalog, but not necessarily the file itself. If you have your Preferences set to "Automatically Write Changes into XMP", then my understanding was that LR would update the DNG file with the settings in the Catalog (which are presumably the latest, if you only use LR to adjust your camera raw settings). Both my friend and I have this preference set, so I am a bit surprised that his files were not being updated. Am I misunderstanding this?

At any rate, the Update DNG Previews & Metadata command seems to work. Thanks for all the suggestions and help. Regards, Lou Dina