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Classic Opens photos in Preview not Photoshop Elements

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MaxwellT

New Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2019
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8
Lightroom Version Number
12.3
Operating System
  1. macOS 13 Ventura
From Classic, Edit In Photoshop Elements Editor opens the image in Preview not Elements. I have uninstalled Elements and Lightroom. Still happens.
MacBook Air with Apple M2 chip.
 
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"I have uninstalled Elements and Lightroom."- Then did you re-install in this order? Elements first, and Lightroom-Classic second?
LrC likes to know that Elements has been previously installed to create the default link to Elements.

This web link might also be relevant, especially when adding Elements as an 'Additional External Editor' -
ELEMENTS as Edit-in Lightroom
 
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Thanks. I wasn't sure which I re-installed first, so I uninstalled again. Then installed Elements first. Then Lightroom Classic. Still have the problem of image to be edited externally in Elements opening in Preview, not Photoshop Elements. Even updated to Elements 2023 from 2021. This had worked "normally" until fairly recently. Wondering if it started when I upgraded from a 2015 MacBook Pro and a new MacBook Air using the Apple M2 Chip at the beginning of the year.

I am running Lightroom Classic 12.3 and Photoshop Elements 2023

Might there be an old preference which didn't get deleted in the unnstall / reinstall? Some of the ones I can identify in Preferences that ate Lightroom or Photoshop Elements are:
com.adobe.LightroomClassicCC7.plist
com.adobe.Adobe Lightroom Helper (Renderer)
Adobe Lightroom Classic - 10.3, 10.4, 11.0.1
Adobe Photoshop CS5 Settings
Adobe Photoshop Elements
Adobe Photoshop Elements 14 Paths
Adobe Photoshop Elements 14 Settings
Adobe Photoshop Elements 21 Settings
 
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You have a subscription that includes Photoshop (the 'full' version), why have you not installed Photoshop?
I am led to believe it integrates better (than Elements) with the default [Edit In] in Lightroom-Classic.
Yes there are a few items in your list that are unnecessary, but not being an Elements user I am unsure exactly which to advise you to delete.
These two would be related to Lightroom-Classic-
"com.adobe.LightroomClassicCC7.plist -the Preferences file you can delete to 'reset' the LrC Preferences.
com.adobe.Adobe Lightroom Helper (Renderer)" - No problem deleting this one.

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-classic-file-locations/

You could try the 'Nuclear' approach and 'clean' all Adobe related items from your system and then start with a fresh install of your Adobe Apps (Elements first!)-
And a link to the Cleaner Tool for that- CLEANER TOOL
 
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I have continued to use Elements simply because I am used to it and most of my needs are fairly simple. I have trashed a bunch more preferences, uninstalled and reinstalled the 2 apps. Doing Elements first. Still getting Preview not Elements for external editing. I haven't gone nuclear yet.
 
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I have tried as suggested multiple times. Next, I used AppCleaner to uninstall to eliminate all everything related to Elements 2023 and Lightroom Classic. Then ran the uninstallers to see if there were any residual that AppCleaner missed. Installed Elements first and opened it. Then installed Lightroom Classic.

Also, added Photoshop Elements Editor as the Additional External Editor and then selected that additional editor as the editor to use.

Still opens image to Edit In Photoshop Elements in Preview.

Any ideas, please!

Thanks,

Larry
 
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What type of images are affected? You could try the following with a raw file: In the Finder, not in Lightroom, select the raw file and choose ‘Info’ (Cmd-i). In the middle of the info panel you see the default application that is used to open the file when double clicked. No doubt that is Preview right now. Change this to Photoshop Elements and click the ‘Change All’ button. See if that helped.
 
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Thank you. Before I change my whole catalog of thousands of photos, I am still perplexed by what caused a change in how Classic responds to external editing. For a very long time, when I selected an image (TIFF, JPEG and RAW) for external editing, they would open in a version of Photoshop Elements. That stopped. I don't recall exactly when - late last year or early this year. (I wasn't doing a lot of editing outside of Lightroom.) When I first experienced it, if I really wanted to edit in Elements I would export the image, edit it and then import back into Lightroom.

There has been a change in Classic or Elements. My guess is that the bug has come from Classic because I hadn't upgraded my version of Elements for a couple of years. I upgraded to the latest Elements last week, but the problem persists. There have been Classic updates during that period.

Thank you to all for helping with this bug.
Larry
 
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The problem occurs with RAW, JPEFG and TIFF files. It happens when using the default external editor (Elements) as well as when selecting Elements being the designated Additional External Editor.
 
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Yes. Positive.

update - I just had a long on line session with Lightroom Classic tech support. The conclusion is that there is a bug in Lightroom which is causing this problem. We went back to an earlier version of Lightroom Classic and it operated properly, opening selected images in Elements as the external editor, not in Preview.

As a test, while still using the latest version of Classic, the tech support person had me install full Photoshop in addition to Elements which I already had. That shifted to the automatic selection of full Photoshop as the “Edit In” app. Once we made Elements the alternative edit in app, the image automatically opened in Photoshop and when selecting the alternative of Elements, it opened properly there, too. That lead to the conclusion that there is a bug in the latest version of Classic.
 
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MaxwellT said:
Thank you. Before I change my whole catalog of thousands of photos...
Click to expand...
What I suggest does not change a single image. What gets changed is a setting in a MacOS database, where the info is stored which app opens which files.
 
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Thanks For suggesting a possible solution. As I tried to outline in my last post, Adobe has concluded there is a bug in the latest version of Lightroom Classic which has caused this problem. I have gone back to a slightly earlier version which is operating properly, opening external edits in Elements, not Preview,
 
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