What’s New in Lightroom Classic 15.0, Mobile & Desktop (October 2025)? * includes Classic 15.0.1 bug fixes *

October 28, 2025 (Updated November 10, 2025) 59 Comments

Lightroom Classic 15.0, Lightroom Desktop 9.0, and Lightroom Mobile 11.0 have all been released today. Adobe tends to update the main version number annually around the time of Adobe Max, and this year is no exception. Of course, new features have been released every few months, rather than having to wait for a single x.0 release. However, this time there are quite a number of new and updated features on all platforms.

Premium Classic Members of our website, click here for even more details on the changes to Lightroom Classic (you will need to be logged in to access the link).

Premium Cloud Members of our website, click here for even more details on the changes to Lightroom Ecosystem (you will need to be logged in to access the link).

In the last year, we’ve had (only main points listed):

Lightroom Classic, Mobile & Desktop:

14.1 (December 2024) Edit in Photoshop for multiple files (Classic)
14.2 (February 2025) Adaptive Profiles, Dual Monitor (Desktop)
14.3 (April 2025) Landscape Masking, Album Sharing (Mobile & Desktop)
14.4 (June 2025) Enhance without creating extra DNG, Distraction Removal – People & Reflections
14.5 (August 2025) GPU for Preview Generation (Classic)
Numerous other improvements, including performance, as well as smaller features

New bugs…

~~Canon R5, R5 MKII, 5D MKIII are not recognized for tethering after 15.0 update. Workarounds in that linked thread~~ – corrected in 15.0.1

Important note for Classic: This release upgrades your catalog format, so just be aware that you can’t easily roll back to 14.x. You may decide to hold off updating to 15.0 until more general feedback is received.

System Requirements

The minimum system requirements for Lightroom Classic 15.0 and Lightroom Desktop 9.0 have been updated:

Windows 10 v22H2 or Windows 11 v23H2 (or later).
macOS now requires macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later.
Lightroom Classic 15.0 and Lightroom Desktop 9.0 are supported on macOS 26 (Tahoe) – but check our blog for further details.

Note: this means that Support for macOS 13 Ventura and Windows 11 versions 21H2 and 22H2 has been discontinued

Point Color – Variance (Classic & Desktop)

This is a hidden gem! The new Variance slider is in Point Color. It lets you increase or decrease color contrast, for example, evening out tone variations or increasing contrast between similar colors. If you haven’t used Point Color before, and the rest of the panel looks a bit overwhelming, don’t worry, because this slider can be used without touching any of the others. It works well to adjust redness in cheeks; also to enhance foliage colors, add drama to sunsets, balancing out wide-angle polarized skies, and much more!

In our example, we used it to even out the blue sky (slider to the left).

AI-Powered Assisted Culling (Classic & Desktop)

The brand new Assisted Culling tool uses AI to analyze your photos, speeding up your culling process. You might say that AI can’t replace the creativity and intelligence of a human, and you’d be absolutely right, but there are some things it can do very well, like judging sharpness and grouping photos by visual similarity. These don’t remove the human touch from the culling process, but they do help speed it up.

In this initial release, Assisted Culling is designed primarily for photographers shooting large volumes of people photographs, such as portrait and event photographers. However, some of its tools, such as Auto-Stacking by Visual Similarity, can benefit photographers across all genres.

It’s being released as an Early Access tool, which means Adobe wants community feedback on how well it judges images and how the workflow can be improved. To share comments about specific photos, click the Send Feedback button in the Culling Scores panel, or for more general feedback, click the Early Access badge on the Assisted Culling panel header.

Set your criteria in the Assisted Culling panel:

Lightroom divides the photos into Selects and Rejects based on the criteria you’ve set:

Apply settings to Selects and Rejects using Batch Actions:

Assisted Culling is also available during import in Lightroom Classic, accessed via the button at the top of the Import dialog. However, we have some reservations about recommending its use during import, as you could easily format the card without realizing you didn’t import all of the photos:

AI-Powered Visual Similarity Stacking (Classic & Desktop)

In addition to the Selects/Rejects culling workflow, there’s a new Auto-Stacking by Visual Similarity option that uses the same AI analysis. Whereas the Subject/Eyes criteria are focused on people photography, the similarity stacking can be useful for everyone. When stacking by visual similarity, Lightroom automatically puts the photo it thinks is best on top of the stack, with the others stacked behind it in date order.

Zoom while Cropping (Classic)

Finally you can zoom while cropping! This is one that has been requested for a long time.

To zoom in or out, use the Z key (or you can use the buttons on the Navigator panel, or add the zoom slider to the toolbar).
To pan, hold down the Spacebar while dragging.
To use Scrubby Zoom, hold Ctrl-Shift (Windows) / Cmd-Shift (Mac) while dragging.
Use Cmd-arrow to move to the previous/next photo.

Show Photos in Subfolders (Desktop Local)

If you use Desktop in Local mode, this is a big one. By default, Lightroom only shows the photos that are in the selected folder. If you’d like to view the photos in the subfolders as well, go to View menu > Include Subfolders, or toggle the Include Subfolders switch above the preview area.

Besides the convenience of being able to view multiple subfolders at once, it also means you can select your main Pictures folder and use the Refine/Search tools to search through all your photos. This was one of the main barriers that prevented us from recommending Lightroom’s Local mode as your primary photo management tool, so it’s a significant step forward.

Batch Rename (Desktop)

Another one especially useful for photographers using Desktop.

To rename a single photo, simply click in the Filename field in the Info panel and type a different name.

To rename a batch of photos, select them in Grid view and go to Photo menu > Rename X Photos. Select a template from the pop-up or create your own, then fill in any details, such as Custom Text or Start Number, then click Apply. Be careful, because you can’t undo a batch rename or revert the photos to their original filenames.

Color Labels (Desktop)

If you’ve previously used Lightroom Classic or another photo management software, you might have been missing the ability to assign color labels, in addition to flags and stars. They’re finally here!!!

In this initial release, there’s a choice of red, yellow, green, blue, and purple labels – and none, of course.

They can be applied from the toolbar, the square grid view, or using keyboard shortcuts 6-9. They function like flags and star ratings, allowing them to be filtered and saved in Smart Albums.

In the Square Grid view, you can also tint the cell borders using the color label. In Preferences > Interface tab, there’s a new Color Labels Background option. The choices are Off, Subdued, or Vivid.

Limitations:

You can’t view color labels on mobile/web or sync them to Lightroom Classic.
Color labels sync to the cloud, but they’re only accessible on Lightroom Desktop 9.0 or later.
Lightroom Desktop 8.5 and earlier won’t understand color labels, and will hide any smart albums that use color labels as criteria.

HDR Limit (Classic & Desktop)

HDR Limit is now a slider which supports value from 1.0 to 8.0. The upper part of the slider range that is outside of (beyond) the Current Display Headroom is tinted red so that it is easily identifiable. Shift + Double-Click on the slider knob or the label will set its value to Current Display Headroom.

Distraction Removal (Classic & Desktop)

The AI model for the Reflections removal tool has been updated, and the improvements are quite impressive… notice the jacket on the right in this image.

Dust Removal (Classic & Desktop)

The new Dust Removal tool uses AI to identify sensor dust and lens spots from digital images, then applies the standard Content-Aware Remove mode to retouch them. It doesn’t use generative AI, and it’s not optimized for scans.

To use Dust Removal on Desktop, first open the Remove tool by clicking the icon in the Toolstrip, and then open the Dust sub-panel. (It’s only currently available on the desktop, not mobile.)

Masking – Snow (All)

Snow has been added to the Landscape Masking options, and the Architecture mode is now better at detecting bridges, too.

On Mobile, Snow has been added to the Scene Enhance Quick Actions.

Adaptive Presets (Desktop & Mobile)

There’s a new set of presets called Adaptive: Landscape. The presets themselves are called Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, as they suit each season well, but you don’t have to use them exclusively for their respective seasons.

Quick Actions – Blemishes (iPhone, Android & Web)

A new Blemishes button in Quick Action’s Retouch mode quickly removes skin blemishes such as acne or scars. It uses AI to identify blemishes, primarily on the person’s face, and then employs the content-aware remove mode (not Generative AI) to retouch them. If All people are selected, it removes blemishes from everyone using the default settings, but if you tap on specific individuals, you can adjust the settings. The Amount slider determines the number of blemishes to be retouched. If that person also has permanent marks, such as moles or freckles, the Fade slider controls whether they’re removed (100), faded, or untouched (0).

Filtering Criteria incl. Likes/Comments (Classic)

There are a few updates to the filters, but the big news… Likes and Comments added by friends and clients in Lightroom Web are now available in the Attribute filters and Smart Collections. Happy days!

Stacking is now also available in Attribute filters, and Manual Remove and Distraction Remove have been added to Metadata Filters and Smart Collections.

Edit in Photoshop (Classic)

In the External Editing preferences, you can now select different settings for SDR and HDR photos. The number of color spaces has been expanded to include a range of standard color spaces for HDR, and any installed ICC profiles for SDR photos.

Other smaller enhancements – Classic:

Milliseconds in Capture Times: If your camera captures the time with millisecond-level precision, it’s now visible in Lightroom, and you can change it when editing the capture time.
If you’ve previously installed a Fuji or Leica tethering plug-in, there’s now an option to decide which plug-in to use when starting tethered capture, rather than having to disable the alternative plug-in.
AI Edit Status: The AI Edit Status panel now includes an option to delete adjustments for AI features that are not yet available in Lightroom Classic, for example, the new Blemish Removal created using Lightroom mobile’s Quick Actions.
Color Labels in XMP: For the techies among us, there is a new XMP metadata field <xmp:LabelColor>”red”</xmp: LabelColor>, in addition to the existing <xmp:Label>”Urgent”</xmp:Label>. This has primarily been added for compatibility with Lightroom Desktop’s new color labels, so it’ll take a while before it’s adopted by other apps. Color labels added in Lightroom Desktop don’t sync with Classic via cloud sync yet.
ACR Sidecar Files: If you write to XMP, Lightroom Classic now writes large pixel-based edits, such as AI Masks, Denoise, and Super Resolution, to a separate sidecar *.acr file for proprietary raw files, so the *.xmp file goes back to being a small file. This may also reduce the size of your catalog, especially if it’s ballooned since the June 2025 release, as the XMP-formatted metadata is duplicated in the catalog. The Camera Raw plug-in already uses this format for performance reasons. Any existing sidecars will be updated if you manually write to XMP (Metadata menu > Save Metadata to File), even if you haven’t made any other changes. If you have Catalog Settings > Metadata tab > Automatically write changes into XMP checked, they’ll get updated the next time you edit the photo.
Temporarily Disable Hover Previews: If Preferences > Performance tab > Enable hover preview of presets, history steps and snapshots in Loupe is checked, hold down Shift to temporarily disable the main image preview.
Tool Overlay pop-up moved: the Tool Overlay pop-up for the Remove tool and the Crop tool is now located in their respective panels, rather than in the toolbar.
Generative Remove Improvements: If you’re using Detect Objects in the Remove tool, it now does a better job of automatically selecting any shadows.
4K Video Export: When you’re exporting videos, selecting the Max option now supports 4K videos. In the Slideshow module, exporting as a video now offers a 4K export size.

Other smaller enhancements – Desktop:

AI Edit Status: The AI Edit Status dialog has been updated. Now, if you only want to update a single tool, you can click the circular arrow icon. It also now warns if AI is outdated when you try to export the photos, too.
Performance: Improvements have been made to to Image Loading for heavily edited images and new Enhance edits.

Other smaller enhancements – Android:

At the top of the Share screen on Android, there’s a new photo carousel that makes it easy to select additional nearby photos for export. (This feature is already available on iPhone.)
Bug Reports: Report an Issue under Help & Support : Now, use the Report an issue mechanism to report bugs directly to the support team for faster resolutions.

Catalog Upgrade (Classic)

When you open Lightroom 15.0 for the first time, it automatically finds your default Lightroom catalog and asks for permission to upgrade it.

From last October release (14.0) onwards, permission is still required to upgrade the catalog, but the following steps were slightly different from previously:

Lightroom asks for permission to upgrade the catalog, as it did before. If you don’t agree to it, you can’t use version 15, so say yes!
Lightroom creates a subfolder called Old Lightroom Catalogs and saves a backup of the old catalog in this folder. The backup zip is renamed to add the date and time of creation.
Lightroom upgrades the main working catalog without renaming it. This should prevent the catalog names from getting longer with each upgrade. (Due to the old renaming, many people currently have catalogs with names like Lightroom Catalog-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-v10-v11-v12- v13-v13-3.lrcat, but see renaming below)
Lightroom opens the upgraded catalog.

If you need to roll back to the previous Lightroom version because of a workflow-busting bug, these are the steps to take:

Move the current *.lrcat and *.lrcat- data files to another location (perhaps a subfolder).
Delete the * Helper.lrdata file (this is just a performance cache for the catalog).
Use the Creative Cloud app to install the previous version (e.g., 14.5.1), see rolling the version back.
Find the pre-upgrade catalog in the Old Lightroom Catalogs subfolder and unzip it.
Move it back into the main catalog folder alongside the existing Previews.lrdata and other related files.
Double-click to open it.
Go to Preferences > General > Default Catalog pop-up and ensure it’s set to Most Recent or the specific catalog of your choice.

For more details on catalog upgrades, see our blog post Why is Lightroom asking to upgrade my catalog and what does it do?

And finally…

You may have noticed the Lightroom icons have been updated across the entire Lightroom family!

New camera support:

Nikon
- Nikon ZR
Hasselblad
- Hasselblad X2D II 100C (preliminary support)
Ricoh
- Ricoh GR IV
Note: With Adobe Camera Raw (version 17.5), camera matching profiles are now available for the following models:
- Fujifilm X-E5 Film Simulations – BLEACH BYPASS, CLASSIC Neg., NOSTALGIC Neg., Sepia.
- Flexible Color Picture Control on Nikon Z 50 II
Click to view the full list of supported cameras

New lens profiles:

Apple
- Apple iPhone 17 back camera 2.22mm f/2.2
- Apple iPhone 17 back camera 5.96mm f/1.6
- Apple iPhone 17 front camera 2.69mm f/1.9
- Apple iPhone 17 Pro back camera 2.22mm f/2.2
- Apple iPhone 17 Pro back camera 6.8mm f/1.8
- Apple iPhone 17 Pro back camera 16.9mm f/2.8
- Apple iPhone 17 Pro front camera 2.7mm f/1.9
- Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max back camera 2.22mm f/2.2
- Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max back camera 6.8mm f/1.8
- Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max back camera 16.9mm f/2.8
- Apple iPhone Air back camera 6.0mm f/1.6
- Apple iPhone Air front camera 2.7mm f/1.9

OPPO
- OPPO Find X8 Ultra back camera 2.30mm f/2.0
- OPPO Find X8 Ultra back camera 8.67mm f/1.8
- OPPO Find X8 Ultra back camera 16.53mm f/2.1
- OPPO Find X8 Ultra back camera 24.85mm f/3.2
Samsung
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Front Camera
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Rear Ultrawide Camera
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Rear Wide Camera
Sigma
- Sigma 28-45mm T2 FF AF Cine
TAMRON
- TAMRON 18-300mm F3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD B061
- TAMRON 16-30mm F2.8 Di III VXD G2 A064
- TAMRON 25-200mm F2.8-5.6 Di III VXD G2 A075
Venus Optics
- Laowa 10mm F2.8 ZeroD FF
- Laowa 10mm F4 Cookie
- Laowa 15mm F2 Zero-D
- Laowa FF II 15mm F5 Cookie
Click here for the full list of available Adobe Lens Profiles

New tether support (Classic only)

Leica
- M11
- M11 Monochrom
- M11-P
- SL2
- SL2-S
- SL3
- SL3-S
- S (Typ 007)
- S3
- SL Typ 601
- Q3
- Q3 43

Bug fixes:

This is a major update so lots of work was put into the new features, but it did also include a lot of bug fixes. Adobe only publishes the ones that were reported by users.

ACR
- Camera Raw “Settings” resetting with each update
- Remove Tool Pins disappear/reappear
- Tone curve compressed to 3 quadrants when using Adaptive Color/B&W profiles
- Camera Matching Cinelike A2 problem on DC-S1M2, DC-S1M2ES and DC-S1RM2
Classic
- Enable Zoom with Crop Tool
- Crop tool showing last image
- Generative Remove Degradation of results
- Support sub-second (milliseconds) field in file naming templates
- AI Masks Require updating and/or disappear
- Book Module – Used/Unused filters are not showing the correct selection
- v14.5 Lightroom has encountered problems reading this photo | Round circle ‘!’ warning on Images
- Edit Capture Time doesn’t preserve fractional seconds
- Update badges for “Likes” on sync’d collections are no longer showing
- (Win) Consumes RAM during import and fails to release afterwards
- Focus On Subject ignored when copying Lens Blur from master to a virtual copy or vice versa
- Revert Capture Time To Original truncates fractional seconds
- Tone curve compressed to 3 quadrants when using Adaptive Color/B&W profiles
- Checking Image at 100 percent has delay
- Smart-collection Has Raw Details doesn’t match raws with Denoise or Super Resolution
- SDK: photo:getDevelopSettings() doesn’t return state of the Distraction Removal panel’s toggle
- Toggling B&W when the default profile is Camera Neutral leaves WB set to an incorrect value
- FTZ Adapter used with Zeiss lens creates metadata mismatch
- Edit in Photoshop image not the same as in LrC
- Crash when printing (10698660)
- Noise reduction level cannot be used in a ISO independent preset
- SDK: Custom video export presets don’t appear when LrC is running in a language other than English
- Remove brush strokes appear in the wrong place on rotated images
- Wrong translation in LrC 14.5 German UI? Zusatzmoduloptionen -> Plug-in Extras
- Automatically Write Changes To XMP can’t be used with Denoise on large numbers of photos

Classic 15.0.1
- Canon cameras (R5, R5 MKII, 5D MKIII) are not recognized for tethering
- Drag and Drop on dock icon opens the App but won’t import
- System Info error: Unexpected error performing command: ?:0: attempt..

Desktop
- Mask overlay toggle is not persistent
- Ampersands in folder/album names do not appear correctly in tooltips where the name is long
- Lightroom Paste Settings with Denoise creates color artifacts & pink overlays
- Noise Reduction settings cause color distortion when copied to multiple images in Filmstrip
- Brush in intersect mode does not show the cursor
- Hovering over old edits in Versions tab doesn’t show correct Denoise level
- Lr 8.4 after restoring a deleted image, focus for arrow keys isn’t retained in previous albums
- Cursor is replaced by Zoom tool intermittently

iOS/iPadOS
- Lightroom iOS Import settings: HDR edit mode for new photos cannot be turned on
- Problem sharing images on Instagram

Android
- Lightroom mobile 10.5.4 crashes when opening video on Pixel 10 Pro & XL

If you find a bug, click here to learn how to report it to Adobe.

How do I update?

To update on the desktop, go to Help menu > Updates or click the Update button in the CC app. The update servers take a while to push the updates around the world to avoid overloading the servers. You can also open the Creative Cloud app, click the … icon (top right), and select Check for Updates to give it a nudge. To update on mobile, visit the App Store (iOS) / Play Store (Android).

For Lightroom Classic, this release upgrades your catalog format, so just be aware that you can’t easily roll back to 14.5. You may decide to hold off updating to 15.0 until more general feedback is received.

See our instructions above for handling the changed Catalog upgrade.

Are the books updated?

The eBooks and online versions for Adobe Lightroom Classic – The Missing FAQ and Adobe Lightroom – Edit on the Go have been updated to include the new features. We are waiting for the proof copies to come back from our printers to approve them. They are currently available to pre-order (for countries we ship to). We expect it to also be available from Amazon and other online bookstores. This usually takes around a week after we’ve approved the paperback.

The eBooks can be downloaded immediately after purchase. If you already have a current Premium Membership for the relevant eBook, the latest eBooks are available for download in your Members Area.