Import LR Import Screen - did it happen?

[derek-be-easy]

Lightroom Version Number

12

Operating System

1. Windows 11

A very long time, perhaps around 2010, there was an update to LR that significantly changed the Import screen. Or maybe there wasn't and I just dreamed it!

In my "dream", the Import screen was completely overhauled with a different layout and additional functionality. But then, within weeks of the update rolling out, there was an outcry from users, especially professional users, who claimed that the new format broke their workflow. Adobe immediately reversed the update and the old-style Import screen was put back in a patch to the update.

Did this actually happen? Or did I just imagine it?

If there was a different short-lived Import mechanism all those years ago, can you describe what it offered, and/or what happened? Will we ever see those features again?

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Your memory is correct, that was Lightroom 6.2. They tried to simplify the import dialog but some features got removed in the process. It went down in history as “the import debacle”. https://www.lightroomqueen.com/whats-new-in-lightroom-cc-2015-2-and-lightroom-6-2/

 

[Califdan]

Yes, it was a disaster. The problem was not that it was a redesign of the user interface, the problem was that in the process they did not add any new functionality and removed heavily used features that people had come to rely on. The apparent goal was to "simplify" the interface (i.e. make it more "phone like") but in order to do that they decided to remove several tools.

Here's what I wrote in my Tutorial Series at the time

Adobe’s False Start​

The Import Dialog which I’ll show you in a moment had been consistent in all versions of LR up till Version 6.2. In version 6.2 – including LR/6.2.1, CC/2015.2 and CC/2015.2.1 Adobe dramatically changed the import dialog and in the process removed about half of the functionality that had previously been there. There was such a large outcry from the serious LR user community that Adobe publicly apologized (pretty rare) and returned to the old Import dialog as of version LR/6.3 (and CC/2015.3). When you click the “Import’ button, if your import dialog does not look like what I describe, then you are on that 6.2 version and as that version was also very buggy, I suggest you go to either a later or earlier version of LR. Basically any version other than those that start with either 6.2 or CC/2015.2 are fine. As that short lived version was, well very short lived, I am not going to document it in this tutorial.

 

[Rob_Cullen]

Not to be forgotten, there is still the 'simplified' interface available-

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Not to be forgotten, there is still the 'simplified' interface available-

View attachment 19433

That's the compact view. The simplified dialog was really dumbed down, there's screenshots in my blog post.