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Develop module content history panel disappears after some time

K

kastlier

New Member
Premium Classic Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2024
Messages
8
Lightroom Version Number
14.0.1
Operating System
  1. Windows 11
Hi, Just noticed this major problem. I work with lightroom classic on a windows PC. This is a very fast PC and storage of 12 TB. I have 2 catalogs with each over 80000 images. When I work with the most recent files there is no problem and i can see all the different steps of changes in the history panel but when the files are some older (a few months) the history panel is completely empty for all files. So i cannot go back to previous steps. This problem must be rather recently as I work already for many years with LR and I never faced this issue.
Anyone ideas on what went wrong ???? Karl
 
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This has happened for me too, but only for some older files, and only noticed recently. Same, Windows 11, 14.0.1.
 
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Has this anything to do with the New Snapshot button that is just above the History button..

I have gone over some recent picture and can see that changes have been made in Dev. But no History is available.
Rob
 
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Three possible causes:

1) History specifically deleted by (deliberately) clearing History Steps.
2) Catalog corruption at some point.
3) Issue encountered when catalog was upgrading.

Assuming none of you did step (1), try opening a backup catalog prior to the current update and see if they are there? Perhaps if they aren't, one prior to the 13.3 update too? Ensure (if you use it) you Pause Syncing first. I suggest as a diagnostic step, then reverting to your current catalog, of course.

I suspect it may be the third option as others have reported the same with the v14 upgrade:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/ligh...-history-missing-from-all-photos/m-p/14921408
 
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Read through and (perhaps) try the steps on the Adobe thread. If it was an issue with the upgrade of the catalog, every day you add more photos to the current catalog increases the work to correct.
 
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It happened to me well before v14, possibly v13.3, or even 13 - see my somewhat panicky post -https://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/threads/thumbnails-not-reflecting-edits-and-more.51249/. And on the Adobe Community forum - https://community.adobe.com/t5/ligh...s-which-have-been-edited/m-p/14905960#M381647. These posts mention preview issues which, since then, have been reported by other people as well.

I had to roll right back to a v12 catalog at the time as all v13 backups encountered problems. My recent previews are now OK, older ones (pre-2017) don't show the develop badge or the previews in their developed state. . All previews also now have to be build manually (see some other posts on this forum and the Adobe Community forum where the previews are not building automatically when scrolling).

I am somewhat heartened that I am not the only one with these issues. I have tried every possible suggestion mentioned on the forums, to no avail.
 
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ChristineF said:
This has happened for me too, but only for some older files, and only noticed recently. Same, Windows 11, 14.0.1.
Click to expand...
When you say, "some older files", are you saying it's not all older files, just some? I also have Windows 11 and V14.0.1. The few I checked from 15 years ago were fine.
 
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BobT said:
When you say, "some older files", are you saying it's not all older files, just some? I also have Windows 11 and V14.0.1. The few I checked from 15 years ago were fine.
Click to expand...

Thumbnails/history panel for recent years are OK, but only since going through a lot of rigamarole - see my posts mentioned above.

ALL those from about 2016 back are not OK .

Some of these older images have the whole history panel missing, as mentioned by the original poster Karl. There is just a down arrow underneath 'History', not even an Import date.

In all other cases, the edits do show in the history panel, but:

- 'Develop adjustments' badge in bottom right corner is missing

- Thumbnail does not reflect develop adjustments

- No step is highlighted in History panel (the top step is usually highlighted)

- No sliders have moved, despite there being steps in the history panel

My hunch, totally not-technical, is that something happened with the upgrade to v13.3 when the preview architecture was changed (and the previews didn't carry over for some people), and that the upgrade to v14 or 14.0.1 is somehow revealing it to more people. But that could be completely wrong!
Have you made any progress Karl?
 
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A quick check... in the Old Lightroom Catalogs subfolder, unzip the catalog and check the size against the size of the upgraded catalog? Has it shrunk by much? What about from a pre-13.3 backup?
 
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the situation is a bit more complicated than I first thought. I'm now trying to find out what is wrong and when it happened. I'll let you know. Beside what is very strange : When i check the version i'm working with LR tells me it is version 14.0.1 but when I start LR (the catalog names I use is "own" or "job") there is a reference to version 13 ????
which version.jpg
 
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karl_1 said:
When i check the version i'm working with LR tells me it is version 14.0.1 but when I start LR (the catalog names I use is "own" or "job") there is a reference to version 13 ????
Click to expand...
That's because the new catalog upgrade process introduced with LrC14.0 no longer automatically changes the catalog name when it creates the upgraded catalog (the previous catalog is "archived" into an "Old Lightroom Catalogs" folder). However, LrC now offers a Catalog Rename function which would let you easily rename the new catalog to your preference (many/most users would use that to change the v13 to v14).
 
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I checked in detail what exactly is missing in the history panel :
Catalog 1 : everything more recently than march 2012 is ok, everything before the history panel just gives one step "imported date xx/xx/xxxx"
catalog 2 : everything very recently october/november 2024 is ok but everything before the history panel is completely empty even dough the correct photo editing has been carried out.

can you conclude that this has to do with my own catalog 2 settings? (as the situation for catalog 1 is more or less ok)
 
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Victoria Bampton said:
A quick check... in the Old Lightroom Catalogs subfolder, unzip the catalog and check the size against the size of the upgraded catalog? Has it shrunk by much? What about from a pre-13.3 backup?
Click to expand...

For me:
v12 - 2.57GB
v13 - 2.17
v13.5 - 2.18
v13.5 - 3.05
v13.5 - 3.06
v14 - 3.06
Current v14.0.1 catalog - 3.27GB
Unzipped 'Old catalog' v13.5 - 3.21GB

Is that of any help?
 
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so if I understand well :
I rename the actual catalog e.g "cat 14.0"
open folder older catalog file > unzip cat 13.5 > copy this cat to the same location as "cat14.0"
start LR from cat 13.5
now the system says : cannot find lrcat-data, if you continue the catalog will open but all AI operations will become unvalid !
should I continue ???? ..... if I do that I will probably be able to upgrade to the latest LR version
next time I open LR i start again with "cat14.0" (will the missing steps in the history panels be restored and what about the invalid AI operations ?)

thanks for your patience and help
 
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Will Adobe be addressing this issue anytime soon and will we be able to recover missing History.

slowly loosing patience with Lightroom very close to moving everything to Bridge Apple Photos
Rob
 
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I agree Rob. I have been posting about this, both here and on the Adobe Community forum (due to lack of response here), since 7 Oct, so for over a month, and the issues haven't really even been acknowledged!
 
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I am happy for the people who don't have this problem and also for those who have solved it by just reverting to their previous catalog.

However, for me the issues are far more historical and I had to revert all the way back to v12. And the issues as mentioned above still persist for all images prior to 2017 (I have been using LR Classic since 2011).

I think it is more than just an issue with upgrading from 13 to 14, or 14 to 14.0.1. In my case I think there was possibly a catalog corruption way back with v13 (or maybe 13.3), but LR repaired it and continued on quite happily, passing optimising and integrity checks at every back up. Then a month ago (before upgrading to v14) I noticed all of these issues with edit history and previews, now mentioned by quite a few other people.

I have tried every suggestion made by those kind people who have replied, and I really appreciate their help, but the issues persist.
 
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Victoria Bampton said:
A quick check... in the Old Lightroom Catalogs subfolder, unzip the catalog and check the size against the size of the upgraded catalog? Has it shrunk by much? What about from a pre-13.3 backup?
Click to expand...
Hi Victoria, two of us have answered your question about catalog size. Is the information of any help in working out what is going on with missing history?
 
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and what about my idea to recover the missing data ???

rename the actual catalog e.g "cat 14.0"
open folder older catalog file > unzip cat 13.5 > copy this cat to the same location as "cat14.0"
start LR from cat 13.5
now the system says : cannot find lrcat-data, if you continue the catalog will open but all AI operations will become unvalid !
should I continue ???? ..... if I do that I will probably be able to upgrade to the latest LR version
next time I open LR i start again with "cat14.0" (will the missing steps in the history panels be restored and what about the invalid AI operations ?)
 
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kastlier said:
now the system says : cannot find lrcat-data,
Click to expand...
There should be a file with the lrcat-data extension. It should be renamed along with the matching "lrcat" file. If it is missing then any Previous AI operation like 'generative AI remove' will need to be redone.
 
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To be clear, I am a photographer. You can ask me anything about photography and also about photo editing in lr. I even think it is appropriate that I have a clear idea about the usefulness, operation and possibilities of the catalog. but no, I am not an IT specialist who understands what to do if the program fails. Sorry, but "the good advice" from this forum is too technical, vague and unclear for me. Since I have the original files and the final edited copies, I will accept that I do not have the contents of the history panel because the help via this forum is of no use to me.
 
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I agree totally it's not our place to fix Adobe Lightroom issues. We pay for the software therefore surely we should expect it to work properly. I think
I have now been left behind by Lightroom. My camera is older, I only shoot jpgs I don't really need the level of sophistication on offer.

I am now slowly moving my photos into Apple Photos and will cancel Lightroom at the end of the year.
 
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