Where can I set my preferences how an image import works?

[Jürgen]

Lightroom Version Number

12.3

Operating System

1. Windows 10

Hi there,
each and every time I import images, I have to
- click on "Uncheck all", because I don't want to import old stuff, that is still on the card.
- then I have to scroll the menu on the right up, because I want to...
- change "Build previews" from "minimal" to "standard"
- have to click the checkbox for "Don't import suspected duplicates"
- change "Develop Settings" from "none" to "Lens+CA corrections"
Especially the last two I would love to stick.

This is exhausting. Why doesn't LR keep these settings? Where can I make them stick? I can't find anything about it in the Prefs (not even something like a checkbox about keeping settings made yes/no). Is there an INI-file I could change?

regards
Jürgen

 

[Jim Wilde]

Two things:

1. Most of those settings are "sticky", i.e. they are remembered from the previous import, so unless you are changing on each import then I don't understand why you would have to keep resetting them.
2. To remove doubt, look at the bottom of the centre panel....there you can set and choose an import preset, which covers most of what you want to "stick". The import source cannot be stored in the preset, however.

 

[Jürgen]

Two things:

1. Most of those settings are "sticky", i.e. they are remembered from the previous import, so unless you are changing on each import then I don't understand why you would have to keep resetting them.
2. To remove doubt, look at the bottom of the centre panel....there you can set and choose an import preset, which covers most of what you want to "stick". The import source cannot be stored in the preset, however.

Hi Jim,

thanks for your reply. There seems something wrong, because I have this problem for some years, and I was always thinking "Man, I could swear these things were sticky". They don't stick. I have to do this each and every time. When I start an import all those things that I've listed above are not set. I set them, do the import, close Lightroom, start it again one hour later to import some more pictures and there we go again.

Looking at the import preset down at the center bottom of the screen I see "None" as set. Following your advise, I did all the ticks and things, saved this as a new preset and closed LR and started it again. It works!

Thanks a lot! :-D

Jürgen

 

[Califdan]

Other than the "Uncheck all" everthing else is sticky. However for it to stick you have to either click Done or let an antual inport complete.

You actually don't need to use the "uncheck all" button for your example. If you have don't import suspected duplictates checked in the right panel group, and "New Photos" checked above the top left and top center of the grid, then it will automatically uncheck previously imported images and hid them in the grid.

 

[Jürgen]

Other than the "Uncheck all" everthing else is sticky. However for it to stick you have to either click Done or let an antual inport complete.

You actually don't need to use the "uncheck all" button for your example. If you have don't import suspected duplictates checked in the right panel group, and "New Photos" checked above the top left and top center of the grid, then it will automatically uncheck previously imported images and hid them in the grid.

With my LR it is not sticky. As I have said above, I do make imports. And after each import I have to set all these things anew.

Also, I run two different catalogs that's why I have to uncheck them first. But that thing I can understand and do it. Just don't get why the other things don't stick (especially since I am convinced, in the old days it used to stick). But now, with a preset, it works. There must be some obscure setting, where the sticky-ness can be switched off, I guess, because, I have already moved LR to a new PC twice, since these things don't stick anymore.

 

[Califdan]

I know it is weird but try resetting your preferences file. It fixes all sorts of things that have no other explaination and for no apparent reason.

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-do-i-reset-lightrooms-preferences/

 

[Jürgen]

I know it is weird but try resetting your preferences file. It fixes all sorts of things that have no other explaination and for no apparent reason.

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-do-i-reset-lightrooms-preferences/

I tried this (renamed the prefs file) and now those things are sticky again. Cool!

Thanks, Jürgen

 

[Califdan]

And yet again, resetting the preferences file fixes some weird thing.

 

[vbnut]

And yet again, resetting the preferences file fixes some weird thing.

Does Adobe care that somehow LrC is apparently corrupting its own preferences file?
Would there be any value to sending these corrupted files to Adobe (as someone who recently completed a 40+ year career as a SW engineer, the two things I would want are the corrupted files and, if possible, what the user did to trigger the corruption)?
Is there any information in the preferences file that a privacy-sensitive individual might not want to share with Adobe (and if so, what would be the best way to remove it)?

 

[Gnits]

Does Adobe care that somehow LrC is apparently corrupting its own preferences file?

I have been making the point that Adobe should have a reset feature, which resets the work area of the preferences file and protect the user settings, so the reset can be done without undue user pain. As it is ... a user must try to remember and or rebuild their preferences.

At a minimum, Adobe should save and restore the user preferences when there is a need to trash the preferences file.

In my view this is both extremely poor application design and ongoing management of a product when the preferences file shares dynamic work areas and critical user parameters.

 

[bobsomrak]

@Gnits

Adobe should spend some time figuring out WHY the preference file gets corrupted and/or do error checks when reading and applying the preferences to see if the data is valid.

 

[John R Ellis]

I've spent a fair amount of hours over the years analyzing the cause of preference corruption, and I concluded long ago that it was the result of a core design flaw in how LR's preference mechanism is implemented:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/ligh...ences-file-gets-written/idi-p/12981414#M15620

LR has race conditions in its concurrent programming that cause it to write inconsistent values of settings into the preferences file. These inconsistencies could in general be very hard to detect with, say, an error checker that runs when it actually writes the file to disk -- the amount of work required to do the error checking could be larger than the work required to fix the design flaw. Fixing it could involve a large amount of effort, examining and reworking much or most of the code that deals with the user interface.

Adobe is quite aware of the number of times that "reset preferences" is uttered as a magic spell on the forums and by its support agents. Years ago, Adobe announced on the feedback forum they were tackling the issue, and they asked for some sample corrupted preference files. But they went radio silent after that.

I can only conclude that they're unwilling to spend the large amount of engineering effort that could be required to fix the architectural design flaw. After the announcement of the LR cloud ecosystem during Lightroom Classic 7, Adobe publicly stated they would be focusing their efforts on Develop and image quality (which relies on the Camera Raw engine), the implication being they were going to reduce efforts devoted to Library and other non-Develop functionality.

 

[bobsomrak]

@johnrellis

That is why I suggested doing and error check to see if the values are valid when READING the preference file. It could default to a certain value if the value is out of tolerance and report what the error is. That should be a lot easier and would zero in on where the problem is.

 

[Gnits]

I can understand that the code required to properly rearchitect the deficiencies in the Preferences file would be considerable and expensive and from an accountants perspective, difficult to justify.

However, it would be very simple for Adobe to write a stand alone piece of code to save the user specific preferences, reset the preferences file and reimport the saved preferences. They might also add coding to analyse corrupt files to try and isolate the root cause of the corruption.

 

[John R Ellis]

That is why I suggested doing and error check to see if the values are valid when READING the preference file. It could default to a certain value if the value is out of tolerance and report what the error is.

The validity checks could be difficult to write, regardless of whether they're applied when the file is written or read. Under my hypothesis, the values for the settings are all individually valid (within range, containing legal values), but it's their combination that's invalid. That is, setting 1 was recorded from time 1 and setting 2 recorded later from time 2, and while both setting values are individually valid, the combination of those setting values from time 1 and time 2 in the preferences file is not valid.

 

[John R Ellis]

However, it would be very simple for Adobe to write a stand alone piece of code to save the user specific preferences, reset the preferences file and reimport the saved preferences.

It sounds plausible to me, if this were restricted to exactly what is displayed in the Preferences window. That would be much better than nothing.

But there are many other recorded settings whose values depend both on some explicit user-interface control and the state of the user interface. Think of all the persistent menu items and push-button selectors in Library having to do with the Library filter and the metadata panel. They can be painful to reconstruct, and their current values are in part driven by the currently selected sources and selected photos (who remembers all the details of how the Metadata panel works?). But because they can be set automatically as the result of other state in the user interface, not just as the result of what the user does on that specific menu item/button, their current values must be consistent with all the other values recorded in settings.

So your suggested technique would very possibly have to exclude all or many of these persistent menu items and buttons.

 

[PhilBurton]

I've spent a fair amount of hours over the years analyzing the cause of preference corruption, and I concluded long ago that it was the result of a core design flaw in how LR's preference mechanism is implemented:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/ligh...ences-file-gets-written/idi-p/12981414#M15620

Good on you.

I can only conclude that they're unwilling to spend the large amount of engineering effort that could be required to fix the architectural design flaw. After the announcement of the LR cloud ecosystem during Lightroom Classic 7, Adobe publicly stated they would be focusing their efforts on Develop and image quality (which relies on the Camera Raw engine), the implication being they were going to reduce efforts devoted to Library and other non-Develop functionality.

Is this why Facial Recognition and catalog management improvements have languished?

 

[John R Ellis]

Is this why Facial Recognition and catalog management improvements have languished?

Perhaps. I think it's indisputable that Adobe has stayed true to its position of focusing on Develop -- there have been only limited efforts in the rest of the app, mainly focused on performance. But for any one feature request, it's hard to know whether Adobe thinks it is important but doesn't have the resources or they think it just isn't that important regardless.