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Map module Map view will be discontinued on this version of Lightroom

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JAY-DEE PURDIE

Jay-Dee
Premium Classic Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2018
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16
Location
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Lightroom Experience
Intermediate
Lightroom Version
Classic
Lightroom Version Number
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 7.4 Release
Operating System
  1. macOS 10.13 High Sierra
Just went into Lightroom and received this message ... "Starting on November 30th, 2018, Map view will no longer be supported on this version of Lightroom. For more information go to www.adobe.com/go/lightroom-map". I checked the web site and one part of the page states that product versions affected are Lightroom 5 & 4. Another part of the web page states that it applies to Lightroom CC. The workaround provided appears to be real complex ... "To see the location of an image on a map, copy the coordinates from the GPS field in the Metadata panel located at the right side in the Map module. Then, search for these coordinates on the Internet."

Anyone have any idea why Adobe is dropping support for the map? Not sure about others, but I use it regularly and often.

Curious ... Jay-Dee
 
Effectively Map view has now been discontinued on all versions of Lightroom other than the current one, as of 1st December 2018.
That means that those of us who stayed with Lr 6 with a purchased license can no longer use the Map view. Not just for new photos or adding gps coordinates or something, you can't use Map at all because Lr needs to talk to Google and Google changed its API.
For me that means I can no longer use Lr and I'm already evaluating alternative DAM software.
So it will also mean, I'm sorry to say, goodbye to this site once I have managed to achieve the nearly impossible task of migrating to something else.
 
Effectively Map view has now been discontinued on all versions of Lightroom other than the current one, as of 1st December 2018.
That means that those of us who stayed with Lr 6 with a purchased license can no longer use the Map view. Not just for new photos or adding gps coordinates or something, you can't use Map at all because Lr needs to talk to Google and Google changed its API.
For me that means I can no longer use Lr and I'm already evaluating alternative DAM software.
So it will also mean, I'm sorry to say, goodbye to this site once I have managed to achieve the nearly impossible task of migrating to something else.
For sometime Lightroom 6 has been in legacy status meaning there would be no future updates . Sometime in August Adobe announced that the Google API used by LR was being discontinued by Google and Legacy products like LR6 would no longer work with the Google map API. This is the risk that anyone pays for staying with an unsupported application. True to its word Google has removed the Map API effective as of November 30th. Adobe gave notice 3 months ago that this would happen and users should not be surprised that the Mapping module is no longer functional. AFAIK, there is no functional equivalent to all of the features in LR, especially the integration of the mapping module and image management.
 
If Map is really the reason you can't use LR any longer, Darktable has maps.

I occasionally do web design projects and a few years ago implemented Google Maps a couple of times. When they stopped working this summer, one former client was not interested in paying for my time updating their site, while another is still a client and wanted to pay me to adapt the code.
 
Effectively Map view has now been discontinued on all versions of Lightroom other than the current one, as of 1st December 2018.
That means that those of us who stayed with Lr 6 with a purchased license can no longer use the Map view. Not just for new photos or adding gps coordinates or something, you can't use Map at all because Lr needs to talk to Google and Google changed its API.
For me that means I can no longer use Lr and I'm already evaluating alternative DAM software.
So it will also mean, I'm sorry to say, goodbye to this site once I have managed to achieve the nearly impossible task of migrating to something else.

I ask this in all seriousness - why is mapping so important to you? I may have something to learn.
I guess I could see it if you need details on precisely where the photo was taken, such as at street detail.

I use it occasionally, for those photos I have GPS info for. My DSLR camera doesn't have GPS, but my smartphone does. When I think of it, I'll take a photo with both phone and camera, and copy the GPS coordinates over to a photo or group of photos. It did help me on a 10 day trip through Ireland when I didn't always know where I was (I was on a small group tour).

But most of the time I can get away with keywords. When I put together collections, I often have a keyword on a specific place combined with something else.

If I was like you and needed mapping, I would probably find a DAM that had a map, but I'd run it in parallel with LR. I wouldn't give up the LR post processing capabilities.
 
If Map is really the reason you can't use LR any longer, Darktable has maps.

I occasionally do web design projects and a few years ago implemented Google Maps a couple of times. When they stopped working this summer, one former client was not interested in paying for my time updating their site, while another is still a client and wanted to pay me to adapt the code.

I use Import, Export, Library, Develop, Map and Print. Several plug-ins are useful too ;). I use hierarchical keywords extensively and had been thinking about how to improve on the laborious keyword assignment of Lr, without any conclusion. As a one-time programmer I even thought about learning Lua!
I did an evaluation of a dozen DAM candidates about 4 years ago and found Lr did pretty much everything I needed and then some. I have adapted my working methiods a bit and have been very satisfied, until now.
This episode where we users of earlier versions have just been dumped as far as a major functionality is concerned makes me really nervous and it adds urgency. I already knew that Google can't be trusted and now it's clear that Adobe can't be trusted either. I have posted something to Google but their auto-response says they won't read it.
 
I ask this in all seriousness - why is mapping so important to you? I may have something to learn.
I guess I could see it if you need details on precisely where the photo was taken, such as at street detail.

I use it occasionally, for those photos I have GPS info for. My DSLR camera doesn't have GPS, but my smartphone does. When I think of it, I'll take a photo with both phone and camera, and copy the GPS coordinates over to a photo or group of photos. It did help me on a 10 day trip through Ireland when I didn't always know where I was (I was on a small group tour).

But most of the time I can get away with keywords. When I put together collections, I often have a keyword on a specific place combined with something else.

If I was like you and needed mapping, I would probably find a DAM that had a map, but I'd run it in parallel with LR. I wouldn't give up the LR post processing capabilities.
Maybe your memory is better than mine! I set up my smart phone to record my track when I go off walking or driving and then I retrieve the track gpx file when I get home and import the photos. match the two and it's job done for the geo position. I still sometimes forget to start the phone and then I have to fall back on the dragging manual assignment of position.
I have travelled and do still travel quite a bit. Some of my photography is club-based and some is travel and snaps. It's nice to look up what photos I took near some place or other (using Jeffrey Friedl's plug-in). I may return to some place and wonder where exactly I took a certain photo because I had an idea to improve on it.
I use keywords for lots of things too, and I used to use hierarchical keywords for location, before GPS, and I still do that to some extent. All this DAM stuff is about finding a few photos that meet some criteria and geo position is important to that.
I may well end up doing just what you say, until Adobe or Google or some other 3rd party makes it impossible to use some other aspect of Lr.
 
If Map is really the reason you can't use LR any longer, Darktable has maps.

I occasionally do web design projects and a few years ago implemented Google Maps a couple of times. When they stopped working this summer, one former client was not interested in paying for my time updating their site, while another is still a client and wanted to pay me to adapt the code.
Thanks, I'll be looking into Darktable and several others.
 
@clee01l

Cletus,

Interesting point on the integration. That was one of the major reasons I have stuck with Adobe. I probably leverage 10-20% of the post processing development capabilities, however I make extensive use of other parts of the ecosystem. I found the ramp up time to get to the same level of post processing with other tools much harder (but doable); however they really lack the "publish" concept, facial tagging, and plugins. I have just a few plugins, but they really make life easier.
 
Interesting point on the integration. That was one of the major reasons I have stuck with Adobe.
. If I could find one app the has all of the functionality found in LR, I might be using it instead of LR. I'm not an Adobe fanboy but right now they have the only game in town.
 
I ask this in all seriousness - why is mapping so important to you? I may have something to learn.
I guess I could see it if you need details on precisely where the photo was taken, such as at street detail.

I use it occasionally, for those photos I have GPS info for. My DSLR camera doesn't have GPS, but my smartphone does. When I think of it, I'll take a photo with both phone and camera, and copy the GPS coordinates over to a photo or group of photos. It did help me on a 10 day trip through Ireland when I didn't always know where I was (I was on a small group tour).

But most of the time I can get away with keywords. When I put together collections, I often have a keyword on a specific place combined with something else.

If I was like you and needed mapping, I would probably find a DAM that had a map, but I'd run it in parallel with LR. I wouldn't give up the LR post processing capabilities.
Jimmsp,

I have to respond here. For a lot of my photos, geo-location, as fine-grained as possible, is very, very important. A lot of my photography is railroad and railway subjects, mostly outdoors but some indoors or underground. And because a lot of these photos serve as documentation of a time and place, location is very important. When I was visiting Clapham Jct. (in London) this past April, was I standing on platform 2 or platform 8 for a particular photo, as one example.

As soon as I first got my Nikon D3 in 2008, I bought a third-party GPS from Dawn Technologies. The GPS plugs into the Nikon 10-pin data port on the D3. When the GPS cable frayed beyond repair and Dawn didn't have a replacement, I bought a GPS from Solmeta. When I needed a replacement cable, Solmeta had them for sale. Whenever a GPS signal is not available, the Solmeta unit will use the last known GPS position. I keep the GPS unit fastened onto the camera strap with plastic "tie wraps."

If/when I replace the D3 body with another Nikon DSLR, it will either have a built-in GPS or a data port that can accept a third-party unit.

Only as a last resort will I use my smartphone, which has an app called MyTracks. This past June was a "last resort," when I had to rent a Nikon body when I was out of town. However, using a smartphone isn't as accurate as having a GPS right on the body itself.
 
. If I could find one app the has all of the functionality found in LR, I might be using it instead of LR. I'm not an Adobe fanboy but right now they have the only game in town.
And part of that "game" is all the third-party plug-ins.
 
Thanks to newMikeman and to Phil for your explanation of "use".
For how I shoot and where I shoot, precise GPS might be nice, but it is far from critical. I do some hiking in the mountains, and tours through various towns and field museums. The general location, like name of trail and mountain is good enough for me. When I hike it again, I just keep looking for something nice and something to shoot. It is probably rare when I want to return to the exact same location and reshoot a shot. Animals may have moved, wildflowers are different, the weather is different, etc.
 
Thanks, I'll be looking into Darktable and several others.
You should also look at the Open Source package digiKam digiKam
It appears to have a map function, and you may be able to run it in parallel with LR.
 
You should also look at the Open Source package digiKam digiKam
It appears to have a map function, and you may be able to run it in parallel with LR.

Be careful, Digikam is a destructive editor. The map module does work.
 
Thanks Victoria, BillSprague, Rikk Florr, JohannElzenga, Mark Nicholas, Hoggy, Conrad Chavez, johnbeardy, clee01, jay-dee, PhilBurton, Jimmsp and tspear and I'll have a look at (so far) Photo Supreme, iMatch, digiKam, Darktable, Capture One Pro and Corel Aftershot.
I've made a list of high level features I need, a couple of pages in my note book. Something that limits the possibilities is that I make extensive use of hierarchical keywords/tags as well as geo-tags. If I could use some software as a plug-in to Lr it would buy some time for a proper evaluation and selection to replace Lr completely.
I feel massively deceived and let-down by Adobe especially as they are still selling Lightroom 6.14 through retail outlets such as John Lewis (prestige UK department store) and on their own web site here https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/download-install/using/download-install-single-app-Lightroom-6.html.
Thanks for all your help,
Mike
 
I feel massively deceived and let-down by Adobe especially as they are still selling Lightroom 6.14 through retail outlets such as John Lewis (prestige UK department store) and on their own web site here Download and install Lightroom 6 (Single App license).
Thanks for all your help,

If you bought from John Lewis, maybe you can get your money back. Adobe should update their site though, in the same way as they updated it for Facebook's API changes.
 

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Thanks Victoria, BillSprague, Rikk Florr, JohannElzenga, Mark Nicholas, Hoggy, Conrad Chavez, johnbeardy, clee01, jay-dee, PhilBurton, Jimmsp and tspear and I'll have a look at (so far) Photo Supreme, iMatch, digiKam, Darktable, Capture One Pro and Corel Aftershot.
I've made a list of high level features I need, a couple of pages in my note book. Something that limits the possibilities is that I make extensive use of hierarchical keywords/tags as well as geo-tags. If I could use some software as a plug-in to Lr it would buy some time for a proper evaluation and selection to replace Lr completely.
I feel massively deceived and let-down by Adobe especially as they are still selling Lightroom 6.14 through retail outlets such as John Lewis (prestige UK department store) and on their own web site here https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/download-install/using/download-install-single-app-Lightroom-6.html.
Thanks for all your help,
Mike
Mike,

I strongly, strongly urge you not to consider Photo Supreme. I tried it for a while with the idea that I would combine the two in my workflow. I won't repeat myself, just do a search on Photo Supreme and you will find my posts. At least one other forum member also tried Photo Supreme and if I remember correctly, got a refund. I think that iMatch is higher quality software. Also you might consider Daminian but I found it had significant shortcomings for my purposes.

I agree that Adobe have been less than totally honest here. They should have disclosed the discontinuation of Map module support.

Phil Burton
 
Mike,

I strongly, strongly urge you not to consider Photo Supreme. I tried it for a while with the idea that I would combine the two in my workflow. I won't repeat myself, just do a search on Photo Supreme and you will find my posts. At least one other forum member also tried Photo Supreme and if I remember correctly, got a refund. I think that iMatch is higher quality software. Also you might consider Daminian but I found it had significant shortcomings for my purposes.

I agree that Adobe have been less than totally honest here. They should have disclosed the discontinuation of Map module support.

Phil Burton
Thanks for your advice. I didn't read all your 312 posts to the Photo Supreme forum but the sheer number of posts suggests it may not be straightforward software to learn and use. I've also read plenty of posts about the lack of documentation. In fact I did download and try it 2 years ago and my verdict then was "Some good features but slow and clumsy" and I noted that keywords were hierarchical but mapped to flat. I also ran out of time trying it (30 days).
 
Thanks for your advice. I didn't read all your 312 posts to the Photo Supreme forum but the sheer number of posts suggests it may not be straightforward software to learn and use. I've also read plenty of posts about the lack of documentation. In fact I did download and try it 2 years ago and my verdict then was "Some good features but slow and clumsy" and I noted that keywords were hierarchical but mapped to flat. I also ran out of time trying it (30 days).
Mike,

Your identification doesn't show whether you use Windows or Mac. If the latter, be especially cautious! As of release 3 (current is release 4), the Mac version of Photo Supreme relied on an old, no longer supported "software shim" that somehow translated the interface to Windows to the equivalent MacOS interface. In my experience in software product management, that approach is a temporary crutch at best in many cases. Given that Photo Supreme's company is essentially a one person shop, that may have been the only feasible (at the time) approach to getting a MacOS product. But it resulted in a very unstable product. The fact that this shim was no longer supported meant that bugs or crashes couldn't be fixed directly. Another member of this forum bought Photo Supreme for his Mac, and eventually got a refund for the software because of so many issues with it.

Phil Burton
 
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