It’s official! Adobe is going to restore the old Import dialog in the next dot release and have promised to make future changes via an open dialog with new and existing customers. No timing has been announced yet, as the team still has a lot of work to do, so you may still want to roll back to 6.1.1 in the meantime.
The team have made mistakes with this release, but this unexpected move shows how much they care about their customers. It takes a lot of humility to accept they made the wrong decision and go backwards, and I applaud them for their choice.
(Thanks to the people who pointed out that in the US, it’s customary to treat collective nouns as singular (Adobe is). They’re usually plural (Adobe are) here in the UK!)
Elliot says
October 17, 2015 at 7:13 amAs I am updated to 2015.2 is it safe to just stay at this update as everything seems to be working…and just wait for the update….or roll back to previous version?
Victoria Bampton says
October 17, 2015 at 7:15 amIf you’re happy with it, you’re fine to stay on 2015.2.
JamesPalik329 says
October 19, 2015 at 6:37 pmI am on 2015.2 and the convert to DNG is missing in Import. I tried to go back to 2015.1 following your instructions but because I am a creative cloud subscriber, Creative Cloud just reinstalled my 2015.2. How do I get around this.
Jim
Victoria Bampton says
October 20, 2015 at 8:37 amConvert to DNG’s still there – it’s just split in two now. You have to select Copy at the top and Convert to DNG in the Advanced panel.
The roll back instructions linked above do work for CC too – you just have to follow them exactly as they’re stated. Don’t try to install the update from the CC app, because it’ll go back to the 2015.2 version again.
Axel says
October 17, 2015 at 8:00 amWell, they’re still threatening “to continue to investigate ways to improve the ease of use of our photography products” :-p … I can only hope some competition like C1 arises after the demise of Aperture, this is the only long-time safety Adobe will take care of existing customers. We cannot blog-bomb them forever :->
I hope you’ll use your influence as a pre-release tester (shhhh, no one is to know, and we won’t tell) to press for code quality and bugfixing which benefits new and old users alike.
It’s the “little” things that annoy me – you can search for “caption is empty” but not “title is empty”. Ugh? Am I the only one using these things, is it “low usage” and about to be removed?
Victoria Bampton says
October 17, 2015 at 8:37 amI think they’ve learned their lesson!! But don’t worry, I wouldn’t let them forget this either.
JamesPalik329 says
November 1, 2015 at 11:45 amHi Axel,
I agree completely. Consistency and adherence to standards are the most important measures of good software. Thank you for your comment.
Jim
Bob M says
October 17, 2015 at 8:03 amI really didn’t think they would do that. I only found your website just before this upgrade was launched. Wish I found it earlier as your advice was invaluable. As is your book. I’ll keep using the current version as it seems to reasonably stable at present.
Victoria Bampton says
October 17, 2015 at 8:41 amTo be honest Bob, I didn’t think they’d bring it back either – and I don’t think they thought they were going to!
It takes a lot of humility to make such a public turnaround, and I’m proud of Tom, Sharad & their team for having the courage to do it.
They could have easily dug their heels in and made some half-hearted gesture, but it shows they really do care about what users think.
Mr Gladwin says
October 18, 2015 at 5:24 pm” I didn’t think they’d bring it back either” … What did you think they were going to do? Not bring the missing options back and leave the people who needed them up the creek?
Victoria Bampton says
October 18, 2015 at 6:42 pmNo, I never imagined they’d leave users hanging. The most likely course was to add the missing functionality into the new dialog. A complete roll back was a surprise, but a good one.
Radovan Habá? says
October 20, 2015 at 6:34 amI also think they don’t roll back to old design. I’ve got the feeling that the new Import dialog was a “trial-balloon” to test Windows 8, 10 interface and in next months we could expect the same in whole Lightroom UI. I also think that Adobe tries to unify UI of Desktop and Mobile Lightroom.
Axel says
October 17, 2015 at 9:19 amSomeone in the Adobe blog threads mentioned the “New Coke” analogy, stating that this was a disaster of equal proportions. However, after correcting the mistake the return of “Classic Coke” turned out to be beneficial to the company, because customers really appreciated what they had before :->
Terry Warren says
October 17, 2015 at 8:31 amAlways cheaper, and easier to keep an existing customer, than to acquire a new one.
Victoria Bampton says
October 17, 2015 at 8:37 amVery true Terry!
John Quixley says
October 17, 2015 at 9:49 amThat’s good news indeed Victoria. Glad they listened at last
James Clay says
October 17, 2015 at 10:23 amI’d like to thank Adobe for listening to reason and allowing common sense to prevail amidst what has been a trying week or so for everyone involved.
Quite an unprecedented turn of events I would say. I was hoping that some of the lost features would be returned in future updates, but from the sound of things, they are pretty much reinstating everything which I admit comes as quite a surprise, and demonstrates a lot of humility on Adobes part. It’s not always easy to admit when you’ve made a mistake, so I commend Adobe on this front!
As I’ve said previously, I appreciate the need to continually develop the product, and expose it to new potential markets. I do believe however that it is imperative that this professional grade software remains just that: professional and flexible, allowing professional and advanced users to work diversely with complex workflows. If Adobe feel the need for a simplified user experience during import for new users, then I would ask that they work with the wider Lr community to develop a few simple wizards that could be optional for new users while maintaining the diverse and complex workflows and options for advanced users. Let’s not forget, Lightroom is professional grade software and an initial learning curve and certain level of user proficiency is to be expected to some extent.
Thank you adobe, I’m sure all of us here and in the wider Lr community look forward to the reinstating of the lost and critical features.
Victoria Bampton says
October 17, 2015 at 10:55 amWell said James.
David says
October 17, 2015 at 10:50 amI am surprised at this move by Adobe. Surprised in a positive way.
I think people can only truly judge a companies customer service when they see how it actually responds to an issue. If they bury their heads in the sand and make excuses then thats s sign they don’t care. To own up and then do what the customers are asking is a big plus.
Victoria Bampton says
October 17, 2015 at 10:56 amYeah, I think they’ve just gone up in a lot of people’s estimation. They even surprised me.
Axel says
October 17, 2015 at 1:22 pmMy understanding is that they weren’t necessarily in favor of this move, but simply saw no other way out. Quickly re-adding “lost” feature and debugging the new import process would have taken too long, and simply adding two import versions side by side would have increased code and support complexity.
Unless they create a “LR Elements” I expect to see another attempt to tackle the import process. They’ve been very clear that they see this as a major blocking issue for new users, and nothing they’ve written indicates they’d gone back on this assessment.
Victoria Bampton says
October 17, 2015 at 5:25 pmTo start with, they were definitely ruling out going backwards, but the user feedback has been very strong, and they’d have been stupid to ignore that. I’m certain they’ll tackle import again, but at least this has brought them back on track, talking directly to users.
Tim McMahon says
October 19, 2015 at 6:41 amHey Victoria
First post for a longtime follower here.
I’ve taught Lightroom to newbies (at a level lower than you ) for some time. I think Adobe is right that new users are confused by import. But the issue they have is not the issue Adobe apparently thinks they have. File handling, a.k.a. “where are the pictures stored?” is not the problem. The problem for newbies is simply not understanding the dual process going on in import: i.e. both copying the files from the camera/card “into the computer”, and creating the catalog entries. But the term ‘import’ leads newbies particulalry to think of import in terms of shifting the files. They want to see the catalog as the same directory/folder structure they can see in the ‘Finder’ or its Windows equivalent.
FWIW I reckon Adobe could make the process simpler, and not upset we grumpy old users, by separating the processes. The ‘Bridge people’ would have no trouble coming to grips with the idea of (i) shifting the images from the card to a directory/folder on a Hard-drive (in a default or user-specified structure) and then (ii) separately setting LR to create the catalog entries (using ‘Add to Catalog’). I think I remember reading either yourself, or Martin Evening, suggesting that this was a good way of helping people, who have a died-in-the-wool way of setting up their directories, into Lightroom.
Anyway, good on Adobe for re-thinking. 2015.2 wasn’t smart.
Victoria Bampton says
October 19, 2015 at 9:32 amHi Tim, great to meet you. Yes, I agree, the concept of catalogs confuses a lot of people. You could always post your ideas for an easier split process on the feedback forum. It sounds like they’re open to ideas now!
HowardDuran says
October 20, 2015 at 9:46 pmExactly!! Older guy here, after LR2,3, 6 and now CC, reading the Missing FAC then the new Appendix C.. Not sure which to study, should I wait for next dot?
Victoria Bampton says
October 21, 2015 at 7:12 amHi Howard! For simplicity, I’d roll back to 6.1.1 using https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-do-i-roll-back-to-lightroom-2015-1-1-or-lightroom-6-1-1/ and then study the main CC book. No point spending all that effort learning the new Import dialog when it’s going to be removed again shortly.
Kees Kort says
October 25, 2015 at 8:18 pmI am all in favor of the decision of Adobe, the best thing they could do. Otherwise they should have an internal review how this could happen. At least I unsuspectedly updated only to be surprised by an unworkable upload feature. At least the setting back to 6.1.1 (CC version) went flawlessly. Hopefully I have never to endure these surprises again.
Marc Goldring says
October 17, 2015 at 11:50 amIt’s hard not to be pleased by this change of direction and I suppose reason to celebrate a willingness to acknowledge a profound mis-reading of user reaction. That said, I will withhold judgment until I see 6.3 and even beyond. We have learned something about Adobe and their excellent behavior after the fact ought not obscure that learning. So I’d describe myself as pleased and wary. Let’s see what the near- and mid-term future holds.
Mike Buckley says
October 17, 2015 at 1:43 pmAdobe had done two things at the same time. They released a new version with a bug that was so terrible that it prevented use of the program. The new version also eliminated previously available import capabilities without letting customers know and plan for it in advance. That created two storms of outcry at the same time. The skeptic in me, while acknowledging that I’ve never had any communication with anyone on the Adobe development team, tells me that if there had been only one such screw-up (one such storm of outcry), the decision to bring back the previous import capabilities probably wouldn’t have been made. Ironically, if it’s really important to you to have those import capabilities, be really, really glad they also had the other screw-up.
Victoria Bampton says
October 17, 2015 at 5:23 pmIt’s tough to say Mike. From the conversations I’ve had, I’m under the impression they’d have rolled it back anyway, even without the stability bugs, just because of the user feedback.
jed best says
October 17, 2015 at 3:01 pmYes, but no comment nor acknowledgement on the continuing problem with crashes on El Capitan. In addition, while they say they are working on the “problems”, no timetable is given so those who are paying a subscription and those who bought it outright have no idea when a fix is coming. At least a tentative timetable should have been published. I could say more on what a cluster screwup this is and was but I will hold my tongue.
Victoria Bampton says
October 17, 2015 at 5:21 pmDefinitely a work in progress Jed, but you might like to roll back to 6.1.1 for the moment. 6.1.1’s been running fine on my El Capitan machine. That said, El Capitan is very new and I don’t remember Adobe actually saying it’s supported yet.
jed best says
October 17, 2015 at 5:50 pmI have rolled back to 6.1.1 on my laptop which crashes if I am connected to the internet and if it does open I keep getting error messages that it cannot read the file.. My Macpro is working OK. The point is that Adobe knew El Capitan was coming out and yet they still released it. Yhey also knew that there were bugs in it and yet released it. They are now paying the price for, I my opinion, not caring about their users. This is exemplified by the notice released that mentions nothing about the crashes. I have also read that it is crashing on windows machines as well. I am a health professional for my day job and if I practiced the way this product has been released I’d be in big trouble. I think, frankly, that Adobe is taking their users for granted. Just my opinion.
Lenny Lind says
October 17, 2015 at 5:57 pmWhat is the difference between version naming conventions: 2015.1 Release vs 6.1.1 ?? If I’m the former, am I good for now and I should simply await the next “mea culpa” release from Adobe?
Victoria Bampton says
October 18, 2015 at 6:04 amIt’s just a different branding for a different licensing system – the 2015.1.1 is the CC version and 6.1.1 is the perpetual license.
The bit you’re looking for is the number(s) after the dots, so 2015.1 is the release just before 2015.1.1 or 6.1.1. They just added a couple more emergency fixes in the latter.
If everything’s working ok, you’re fine to stay where you are until they release 2015.3
Don says
October 17, 2015 at 6:54 pmSince the new release I’ve had all the sliders stop working periodically . The check boxes work, spot removal works, the adjustment brush turns on but the sliders don’t work, On1 and NIK add on programs work, etc. If I click in front of or behind the current slider position it will move to the clicked location but that’s all.
Victoria Bampton says
October 18, 2015 at 6:12 amStrange! I haven’t been able to reproduce that myself. Are you Mac or Windows? I don’t suppose you’re using a Wacom mouse or pen?
Howard says
October 17, 2015 at 7:08 pmI upgraded to CC the day 6.2 came out, all the trial and error and reading your Appendix C cover to cover, now we’re going back.. So 6.2 will be redesigned or removed and 6.3 will be or new import. Will there be a choice of 6.1.1, 6.2 or 6.xx? This old mine would rather have a 6.xx.
Victoria Bampton says
October 18, 2015 at 6:09 amIn 6.3, the Import dialog will match the one in 6.1.1, but you can carry on using whichever version you fancy.
scott says
October 21, 2015 at 1:55 pmVictoria, is there a date for LR 6.3 or CC2015.3 to be released? Seems like that version is the one worth waiting for to upgrade.
Scott
Victoria Bampton says
October 21, 2015 at 5:52 pmNot yet Scott. It’s worth giving them time to get it right! 😉
Bob F. says
October 17, 2015 at 7:17 pmWell, I tried rolling back to previous versions however very slow performance issues remain with Yosemite. (I haven’t been brave enough to move to El Capitan) Every time I try to do something I watch the spinning colored pinwheel for 30 sec. or more. Then after 4 or 5 times LR becomes totally unresponsive and I have to force quit. How long will it take to get these issues corrected? This whole thing has been very disappointing.
Victoria Bampton says
October 18, 2015 at 6:08 amIs this on 6.1.1 Bob? Was this happening before you updated to 6.2?
Paul Wright says
October 19, 2015 at 4:43 amVery welcome news. And unexpected for Adobe to very publicly eat such a loaded slice of Humble Pie and admit they were wrong with Lr 2015.2/6.2. I hope Adobe and other software vendors can learn from this experience.
And thank you Victoria for providing your own viewpoints plus a credible platform for photographers around the planet to so instantly post their opinions and suggestions.
Lightroom Queen is just one of the dozens of blogs/forums/and social media platforms that enabled such an instant loud, global response when Lr 2015.2/6.2 went pear-shaped. So thanks.
Victoria Bampton says
October 19, 2015 at 9:33 amHappy to help Paul. I don’t like to stir up trouble, but people needed to be informed so they could form their own opinions.
John Coveney says
October 19, 2015 at 12:57 pmVictoria
Keep up the good work on this. Fortunately, I didn’t download it and I am now studiously avoiding the update notices from Creative Cloud until you give the green light 🙂
Re the import dialogue, based on my experience demonstrating to LR to fellow camera club members, in principle I think simplification for new users is a good idea but as an OPTION for existing users. And of course, new users should be able to move up to the full dialog when they are ready.
Finally, I like and regularly use the “Destination Folders” – am I the only one? If I have several shoots on a card, it’s handy way to break them into chunks by date. One glitch is that, often when the Destination tab on the RHS of the import screen is closed – no images at all show on the card. This is SCARYuntil you learn to sort it by opening the Destination tab. I mentioned this to you a while back but you said you couldn’t replicate it. I think it’s linked to which tabs I left opened or closed the previous timeI used Destination Folders but I haven’t had time to tease it out – especially as the workaround is simple once I know how. Something for Adobe to fix that is broken!
John C
Victoria Bampton says
October 20, 2015 at 8:45 amYou’re definitely not the only one – I use the Destination Folders preview all the time as a double check, and teach all new users to do the same.
Wayne Thornbrough says
October 20, 2015 at 1:57 pmThankfully, I was out of town for two weeks while the whole Lightroom mess began so I had not upgraded. A good friend warned me about the problem on my return and I was able to process 2000 photos without a difficulty. I am now on hold waiting for an upgrade that works. One of the other comments expressed caution about everything being OK with a new upgrade. I would echo this. They have made the first decision correctly, now the hard part begins — Making the upgrade right. This is where the situation differs from the Coca Cola comparison. They had two formulae for their beverage. Which one to use? Once decided it was simple to go forward. Software is not so simple even if you desperately want to do the right thing.
This whole thing also ignores other issues that Lightroom has been ignoring for some time that are major problems. The whole importing process is a performance disaster compared to competitors such as Photo Mechanic, Photos and even Capture 1. I had already begun checking out workflow changes before this all happened. A new front end was tops on the list. Secondly, Lightroom has been unable to effectively deal with conversion of files from the Fuji X chip. Several other conversion programs are way ahead of them dealing with this issue. I was checking for solutions here as well. Adobe and the Lightroom team were not ignoring just their users but their competitors too. This is dangerous and probably dates from a complacency that developed after Aperture was dumped by Apple.
I am going to proceed very cautiously before I upgrade to anything they issue, particularly if it arrives too quickly.
Victoria Bampton says
October 20, 2015 at 4:44 pm> Software is not so simple even if you desperately want to do the right thing.
So true Wayne!
Are you thinking of that 600% slower import video that’s doing the rounds? A couple of my colleagues reran the same tests using 6.1.1 and much more similar settings, and found Lightroom only very slightly slower than Capture One for imports. Photo Mechanic is still way ahead of the crowd if you need really fast import though – it’s just their speciality.
Ed Knuff says
October 21, 2015 at 12:38 amGreat news! When?
Victoria Bampton says
October 21, 2015 at 6:54 amWe don’t have a date yet. It’s going to take them some time to put the import dialog back in as there’s a mass of other bug fixes that had also gone into 6.2, and we definitely want them to test it properly this time! In the meantime, it’s easier just to roll back to 6.1.1.
Ed Knuff says
October 21, 2015 at 6:36 pmThank you, Victoria.
I rolled back to 6.1.1 about a week ago.
Linda Schettle says
October 26, 2015 at 4:06 pmI followed your instructions and think I have the 6.1.1 version installed but not sure how to check the version for sure. It still says Lightroom CC at the top.
Victoria Bampton says
October 26, 2015 at 6:04 pmHi Linda. In the splash screen that shows up when you start LR, check the bottom left corner. Or go to Help menu > System Info and check the first line.
DeWayne says
October 30, 2015 at 10:29 pmVictoria, I have Lightroom CC 2015.2.1 on my iMac and it works perfectly.
However, on my 1 year old Macbook Air, it is a mess, slow unresponsive. Simple things like setting a rating will bring the dialog box up and it will not go away. And when that happens then the custom library filters will not open 🙁
Any ideas, I deleted and reinstalled, no help. Also; when I am flying in a plane (no internet) it really comes to a crawl. Absolutely worthless.
Thanks so much
Victoria Bampton says
October 31, 2015 at 12:40 pmI’d roll back on your MacBook Air – some of the performance issues seem to be related to the network connection, which could explain why you’re only seeing it on that machine.
DeWayne says
November 1, 2015 at 10:04 pmThanks, I decided to try one more thing. I uninstalled Lightroom CC, I also noticed that I still had Lightroom5 on my laptop so I deleted that and googled what else you need to do to completely remove LR5. I followed the instructions and did a deep dive into the library, to delete everything associated with LR5.
I finished up by running Disk Utility and restarted my laptop. After all that I re-downloaded the latest version of LRCC.
Bottom line, all is working well.
Thanks so much
Victoria Bampton says
November 2, 2015 at 8:21 amGreat news!
James Herman says
October 31, 2015 at 2:41 pmFor what it’s worth I am running LR 2015.2.1 with the GPU activated on a Windows 10 box with an Intel i7 CPU, 64Gb RAM, OS and apps on an SSD, a relatively new Radeon 390x video board, latest not beta drivers, and 3 4k monitors.
Regarding the Import module, I changed my workflow for importing images and rather than mucking around with explorer or some other third party app, I now do everything in LR. First step just get them into the catalog, I use a generic directory for all incoming photos. Then use the tools already in LR to add GPS coordinates either directly in the map module or with Jf”s geoencoder plugin, change name using LR F2 key and move to permanent storage. Done. And faster.
Worth reevaluating your own workflows periodically. Do the reasons for the current workflow still exist? Is there a better way?
Victoria Bampton says
November 2, 2015 at 8:22 am> Worth reevaluating your own workflows periodically. Do the reasons for the current workflow still exist? Is there a better way?
Excellent advice James. The world of photography is changing and technology is moving on all the time.
Axel says
November 4, 2015 at 5:55 pmI’d love to have LR as an all-in-one solution, but realistically even with recent improvements in LR6 it’s nowhere there. Try culling ~1000+ similar wildlife shots with raw-rendering in LR vs. using the jpeg previews in Photomechanic or BreezeBrowser on a slower laptop… or compare the results of dedicated 3rd party pano or hdr apps vs. Adobe’s first “one click” attempts.
Holly says
November 1, 2015 at 2:22 amHi Victoria,
I am going to be moving from a tower MacPro to the 2015 iMac 27″, with a 1TB flash as my boot. I’d like to keep my LR catalog on the boot, with the faster speed of flash, but I’m concerned about the current size of my catalog and the preview files fitting on the 1TB (previews is currently 400+ GB). My current boot is a 6TB raid (2 x3TB), plus I have an additional 4TB of space (all of which is cloned nightly). I will be getting two OWC Thunderbay 4 enclosures to fit my current drives (plus adding an additional large drive for time machine). I want to start fresh with this machine and install everything from scratch (not using migration, and (obviously) my data on my existing boot drive won’t fit on the new 1TB boot anyway. Have you every written an article on how to go about this? If I just move over my catalog and preview data to the Lightroom folder (once I install from scratch) will it be able to find my images on the 6TB and 4TB drives that they current reside on? I’m trying to get the procedure straight in my mind, so any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! (Hope what I said makes sense.)
Victoria Bampton says
November 1, 2015 at 8:43 amFollow the instructions here: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-move-lightroom-to-new-computer/
Mr Gladwin says
November 3, 2015 at 10:34 amIt’s been three weeks now … what are your spies telling you?
Victoria Bampton says
November 3, 2015 at 6:56 pmI could tell you but then I’d have to kill you… 😉
Realistically, it’s going to take a bit of time as they have a lot of work to do in rolling back the old import dialog, and then they’ll want to test it really carefully to avoid a repeat of the previous debacle.
Theodore Trimmer says
November 8, 2015 at 7:56 pmAdobe needs to update Lightroom Users
Karsten says
November 9, 2015 at 10:40 amHi Victoria.
Is it true that the Lightroom team does also concentrate on making 6.3 run fast on the actual iMac 5k 27″?
Would be great to know.
Lightroomqueen, your website is very helpful. I like it.
Karsten
from Germany
Victoria Bampton says
November 9, 2015 at 11:17 amI’m afraid I can’t comment on anything they haven’t announced themselves Karsten, sorry. I’ll be sure to put all of the available information up as soon as 6.3 is released though.
sarah heaney says
December 21, 2015 at 9:19 amHi, I have LR CC 2015.3. I have synced but the folder do not import and don’t match my finder :(. Please help! Thanks (os x 10.9.5 macbook pro)
Victoria Bampton says
December 21, 2015 at 9:24 amYou’ll need to explain a bit more in order to figure out what’s going wrong. Best to post it at http://www.lightroomforums.net as it’s easier to chat there.