Lightroom Classic CC 8.0 has been released today. This isn’t an 8.0 in the conventional sense, because it’s now subscription software instead of single payment. New features have been released every couple of months, rather than having to wait for a single 8.0 release. In the last year, we’ve had:
- 7.1 (December 2017) – new AI-based Auto
- 7.2 (February 2018) – performance improvements, folder search, favorite folders, filter for edited/unedited photos
- 7.3 (April 2018) – brand new Profiles system, large preset preview, face recognition improvements
- 7.4 (June 2018) – folder color labels, hide profiles/presets, auto stack after merging
- 7.5 (August 2018) – Book module improvements incl. custom book templates, new book styles
and a mass of mobile and Lightroom CC improvements, as well as smaller features
These days, version numbers are only used for technical support and checking that you’re on the latest version, so Adobe is likely to bump the version number about once a year.
This release does not upgrade your catalog format, so you can roll back to 7.5 if you need to. It uses the same preferences file (Lightroom Classic CC 7 Preferences.agprefs / com.adobe.LightroomClassicCC7.plist), so you can treat it as “just another dot release.”
This release has some major improvements for Canon tethering, a new Depth Range Mask, as well as bug fixes and new camera/lens support. The entire Lightroom CC ecosystem has also been updated.
Updated System Requirements
macOS 10.14 Mojave is officially supported in this release.
Support for macOS 10.11 El Capitan and Windows 8.1 has been dropped in this release, so the team can focus their testing efforts on the most widely used platforms and use new features found in more modern operating systems.
If you’re on Windows 10, you’ll need v1703 or later, which just means you need to have installed Windows Updates at some time in the last 18 months.
Video Support Changes
HEVC format videos (Apple’s new format) is now supported, but only on macOS 10.13 High Sierra and macOS 10.14 Mojave, and on iOS 11/12. It’s not yet supported on Windows.
The legacy AVI video format is no longer supported on macOS, but AVI files already in your catalog will still play in a separate window. You just can’t import new ones. They continue to be supported on Windows.
Map Module Updates
The Map Module has been updated to integrate some changes made by Google. You’ll need 8.0 or later to use the Map module after 30 November 2018.
Canon Tethering Improvements
Canon tethering has been updated to improve reliability and performance, and two new checkboxes – Disable Auto Advance and Save a Copy to Camera – have been added to the Tether Settings. You can also now select the shutter speed, aperture, ISO and white balance from the Tether window instead of having to go back to the camera. 
Depth Range Mask
Already available as a Tech Preview on the iPhone version, the Depth Range Mask allows you to access the depth information in some HEIC format photos, to help you quickly make a selection. To benefit, you’ll need an iPhone with dual cameras (7+, 8+, X, XS, XS Max). You’ll find the Depth Mask Controls in the local adjustment tools, along with Luminance Range Mask and Color Range Mask.
Process Version 5
The Process Version has been updated in order to improve Dehaze and purple noise.
Moving Dehaze to the left could have some unexpected results in earlier versions, like the strange yellow shown below, and high ISO photos could turn purple in the shadows in some circumstances, but these issues are fixed in PV5. You don’t need to update your existing photos unless they exhibit one of these issues.
[twenty20 img1=”21199″ img2=”21198″ width=”300px” offset=”0.5″ before=”PV4″ after=”PV5″]
Single-Step HDR Panorama Merge
There’s a new Photo Merge > Merge to HDR Panorama command to merge exposure bracketed images in a single step, instead of having to merge the HDR files and then merge into a panorama.
New camera support:
- Canon EOS R
- Fujifilm X-T3
- Nikon COOLPIX P1000 (preliminary support)
- Nikon Z7
- Panasonic LUMIX DC-LX100 II
- Click to view the full list of supported cameras
Tethering for new cameras:
- Canon EOS 2000D / Rebel T7
- Canon EOS M50
- Click to view the full list of cameras supported for tethering
New lens profiles:
- Canon EF
- Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS II USM
- TAMRON 17-35mm F2.8-4 Di OSD A037E
- Canon RF
- Canon RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM
- Nikon F
- TAMRON 17-35mm F2.8-4 Di OSD A037N
- Parrot
- Anafi 23mm F2.4
- Sony FE
- Venus Optics Laowa 15mm F2 Zero-D
- Click here for the full list of available Adobe Lens Profiles
Bug fixes:
There are loads of bug fixes, but Adobe hasn’t published a list this time.
How do I update?
To update, 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.
Is the book updated?
The eBooks for Adobe Lightroom Classic – The Missing FAQ are already updated for these changes, and available for download in the Members Area for current Classic Premium Members.
I’m currently using Photoshop 6 and Lightroom 5.7.1 on a desktop with i5-3330 CPU, 8 Gb RAM running Windows 7 SP1, 64-bit operation system. I particularly want the updated Book module but I’m worried that if I buy a subscription to Lightroom Classic CC, it won’t be supported for very long. I don’t want to upgrade to Windows 10 as other programmes I use will not be compatible any more. Am I being unduly worried? Your advice would be very much appreciated.
They have just killed off Windows 8 support, as it was only about 2% of Windows Lightroom users. Windows 7 is still very heavily used though, and likely to continue that way for a while. They may start adding features that require new features added in Windows 10, but considering the Windows 7 market share, I doubt they’ll drop Windows 7 support anytime soon. You might want to start researching replacements for your old incompatible software, just in case you decide to upgrade Windows (Microsoft will also stop supporting it at some point) but I don’t foresee any urgency in that matter.
Does anyone know of a utility for Lightroom and/or Photoshop to back up all of the Lightroom presets and Photoshop presets and actions? I was trying to round up all of those files for both programs and yikes! Stuff is all over the place. Why is this so hard?
Forgot to mention I am using Windows. But I guess maybe Mac users would also want to know if there is a way for them.
-Scot
You’d be better looking at backup software that would back up your whole boot drive.
HJi- I am using a Mac with OS 10.13.6 (High Sierra) and am on LR v 6.9 stand alone. Do I have to start a monthly subscription to upgrade now to the latest version? I had been hoping to keep everything local and not on line. I did try to upgrade within LR to 6.14 but got an error message ( U44M1P7). Waiting to get this sorted out before upgrading my OS to latest version.
Hi Jeremy
You can upgrade to the final perpetual version of Lightroom, 6.14
Link to Adobe is below
https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/kb/lightroom-legacy-version-updates.html
The U44M1P7 error is an installer error. It means it’s missing some essential files. The solution is to uninstall Lightroom, then reinstall 6.0 then the 6.14 patch.
You may want to add a note to this Article that in order to continue using the MAP module after 11/30/2018 you must upgrade to LR8 as no maps will be shown on any prior version.
Thanks for the reminder Dan
Looking for guidance for order of install between OS X Mojave and PhotoshopCC/LightroomCC. Is best to upgrade my CC software and then upgrade to Mojave? Or… upgrade to Mojave and then upgrade my Lightroom and Photoshop?
Paul
I’d upgrade the Adobe software first. It’s a step that is much more contained (OS can affect so many Apps)
Then I’d check it all out, leave it a few days to ensure there’s no oddities, then go for Mojave
New versions of LR & PS seem very stable (I lobe the changes in PS!) although to be fair there are few issues reported with Mojave either (in respect of Adobe products)
HTH!
Paul
Thanks Paul!
Updated to Lightroom classic CC v 8 via adobe creative cloud subscription. Now, none of my presets appear in the presets panel (and I had many previous to the update). I do not have the check mark checked next to “store presets with this catalog”. When I click the gray down arrow under “presets”, there is just a big black area that used to be populated with my presets. As I scroll down, then I see the other module options.
I have not had issues with LR updates effecting presets in the past. I am running Windows 10 on a desktop. Any ideas how I can fix this? Many thanks!
Hi Patricia
If you go to Help menu > System Info, what do the first two lines say? That might just help us understand what’s happening!
Paul
Lightroom Classic version: 8.0 [ 1193777 ]
License: Creative Cloud
Note: When I right click on presets and select “manage presets” a selection box pops up that lists all of the LR standard presets as well as my own. All have check marks next to them which should mean they should populate (?) Perhaps I need to direct the new version of LR where to look for the presets. When I select “show LR develop presets” from the preferences menu, it takes me to Adobe -> Camera Raw -> Settings. All of my preset files are there and they are all .xmp should they should be useable in this new version.
Thanks for any help you can provide!
Try selecting a different file type. The presets that aren’t fully compatible (perhaps because they have a raw-only profile included) don’t show up.
I can’ t find an answer to this question. The Process Version changed to 5. What is the number I have to use in a LR Preset?
e.g.
LR 6: ProcessVersion = “6.7”
LR 7: ProcessVersion = “10.0”
LR 8: ProcessVersion = “??”
I have many presets that use the Process Version, even the one used at import.
Hi Andy
LR8: ProcessVersion = “11.0”
Thank you , Paul. Much appreciated!
Hi Victoria.
Do you have a workflow or tip for moving images from an iPhone over into Lightroom CC classic? Is there a foolproof method? It doesn’t seem like Adobe recognizes iPhones as a camera. Is this covered in one of your books that I can buy? I now have the latest LR CC 8.0 and Mojave. Thanks for any help you can give.
Hi Alan,
I use Apples Image Capture utility (High Sierra) to import and then import into LR7.5. It is an extra step but has been dead easy for me.
It should just be a normal import, with the phone showing up in the Import dialog. If that’s not working for you, here’s instructions on how to report it to Adobe: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/send-bug-report-feature-request-adobe/. Personally I let the photos automatically import into the Lightroom mobile app and they automatically sync down into my catalog.
I know that this subject has been covered many times over the last few years, but having just “upgraded” to Classic CC 8, I am now suffering from cripplingly slow imports from my SD card reader. What is the latest and most effective advice for dealing with this issue please?
You weren’t seeing it in 7.5 John? Which OS? Is the SD card reader plugged straight into the computer or via a hub?
Hi Victoria, I have gone straight from LR6 perpetual to CC Classic. Lexmark SD reader goes straight into Mac Pro. I had similar issues some years back that were resolved with a LR update…
In that case, here’s instructions on how to report it to Adobe: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/send-bug-report-feature-request-adobe/ There were a few reports about a year ago but I’m not seeing much recently. Include your system specs and information from Activity Monitor (e.g. is the CPU usage going crazy while importing)
Thank you Victoria
LR Classic CC has been a mess for me since the upgrade to 8.0 last week (I have a Fuji X-T3, so was happy to see this camera support added).
When open, LR slows my entire computer (MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM), and looking via Activity Monitor, shows it consumes a huge amount of processing power, with erratic spikes in consumption.
Also, when going into Develop mode, the histogram sometimes says “calculating”, and takes quite a while to display histogram.
Exporting even one file has been so painfully slow that I killed the process more than once.
That does sound odd, and thankfully I’m not hearing widespread reports like that. I’d start by uninstalling, rebooting and then reinstalling. If that doesn’t do the trick, I’d try the standard troubleshooting steps next https://www.lightroomqueen.com/standard-lightroom-troubleshooting-steps/
GISELE DUPREZ: Please post an update when your MacBook Pro problems are improved. I’m running the same computer and now don’t dare upgrade to LR 8; thankfully, 7.5 is running fast and smooth.
Lawrence, I’m not hearing widespread reports of issues, so you’re probably safe to upgrade. If you have problems, it’s very easy to roll back to 7.5 again as it doesn’t upgrade the catalog format.
I spent an hour on chat + remote control with Adobe. They started by trying to get me to clear my cache and video cache. Every single time we tried that, LR hung and eventually had to be force killed. Eventually they said “we are getting reports of problems. Either wait for an update or roll back”. Um…that stinks because I have an XT3 and wanted the camera support that 8.0 offers. At times it’s better, but I still get this brief “calculating” message in the histogram when switching between Library and Develop modes. Also, sometimes the main image area goes white briefly until the photo appears there.
Thanks, Gisele. Thanks, Victoria. For now, I’m going to stand pat. No LR 8. No macOS Mojave. I’m playing it safe and sticking with what works. Unlike Gisele, I have no need to move forward.
Hi Gisele, I just talked to Adobe’s Digital Imaging Customer Advocate, who tracks the incoming reports, and he’s not heard of it either. Sometimes customer services say that when they don’t know what else to try. He suggested the following:
Close Lightroom
Restart the computer
Use the Adobe Creative Cloud App to uninstall Lightroom Classic CC
Restart the computer
Install Lightroom Classic CC via the Creative Cloud App
Restart the computer
Launch Lightroom
Wait 5 minutes
If that doesn’t do the trick, report it this way so it definitely gets in front of the engineers: Here’s instructions on how to report it to Adobe: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/send-bug-report-feature-request-adobe/
Thanks, Victoria. I will try those steps!
Still a mess after troubleshooting tips above. Going to report it now.
Hi
After ver 8.0 LR CC: My logo doesn’t have effect on my exported files. What can I do so this shows up again in the exported pictures?
Regards
Michael
That’ll be a watermark? Have you tried a text watermark to see if that works ok?
I see that the new Fuji XT3 is supported and so, as I have the XT2, I hope that Lightroom 8 includes improved processing of the Fuji RAW files. Any news on this specific issue?
There’s no changes to Fuji processing in this release, but I know it’s on their radar.
Cannot sign out of Lightroom 8.0 or the update to Photoshop. I called Adobe, they got on my PC and were not able to fix it. They did scew up my Network though. Had to call local tech to fix what Adobe screwed up.
Yikes! Report it at https://feedback.photoshop.com so the engineers are aware
I have put a post on the link you gave me. No responce yet. Hope they fix it soon. I would roll back to Lightroom 7.5 but I am afraid I might lose something doing that. What do you think Victoria about rolling back?
Yeah, no harm in doing that. If that doesn’t work, I might also try uninstalling all Adobe software, running the Adobe CC Cleaner app https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html and then reinstalling, as that often cleans out gremlins.
You could also try Adobe support again. Some of their support guys are better than others.
Victoria, Do you know if you can have Lightroom 7.5 and 8 on a PC at the sme time? Can’t find the answer to this anywhere.
Not at the same time, because it’s basically just another dot release, so it overwrites the previous Classic install.
Second thoughts… I think you can run them side by side, just not open at the same time!
Great. I am thinking of going back to 7.5 since there are so many problems with 8. Just don’t want to run into any more problems downloading 7.5. I think when I updated to 8, 7.5 was still on my PC. When the guy from Adobe got on my computer I think he deleted 7.5 beside screwing up my network. I had to call a local tech guy to fix that. Glad he did it for free or I would have had to bill Adobe it.
The purple look in shadows and blacks in lower light at high ISO was a noticeable improvement.
That’s great news Zenon. I didn’t have any photos that demonstrated it well, so it’s good to hear it’s making a difference in the real world.
I posted an example on the forum. I found another one from that shoot which was a shadow in a hallway. It also made a significant improvement. That was my first day with the Canon 5D4 and I was testing ISO 32,000. Sometimes I had to import a Canon TIFF, which produced correct blacks to solve that. Not anymore.
Sorry I have asked a stupid question. a few minutes ago I asked where the naming function when importing had gone in LR8. It, of course, had not gone anywhere. I have just realized that if you import and add there is no add function whereas when copying a photo there is. Amazing how even after 10 years using lightroom something different surfaces.
Sorry once again to waste your time.
There are no stupid questions. I’m sure that’ll help out someone else googling the same question one day. Well done for figuring it out!
Have updated to LR8 and upon importing photos cannot find a way of renaming photos on import. Where did it go?. I hope it is still there somewhere.
If I am running Lightroom Classic 7.2, will the update to 8.0 include the changes in 7.3 to 7.5? Or do I have to update each one?
You can skip straight to 8.0
I am getting more and more frustrated and angry with the built in obsolescence by Apple and Adobe. First Apple won’t support the older machines (MacPro 4.1) with the new OS and now Adobe won’t support older operating systems. We are being blackmailed into purchasing new hardware when in fact the hardware we have is more than sufficient. This is nothing more than conspicuous consumerism. I raised this Issue with Skylum (then MacPhun) upon release of Aurora 2017 and they stepped it back and supported El Capitan OS, kudos to Skylum. I guess I’m done with Adobe and switching over to Skylum products in total.
If you have one of the affected computers, it is frustrating, but Adobe’s minimum macOS Sierra can run on Macs released since late 2009, so we’re talking about 9-10 year old computers that can’t run the latest version of Lightroom. That’s an eternity in computing terms. A computer that old wouldn’t run the current versions of Lightroom well. Looking at it a different way, should Adobe prevent Lightroom running well on modern computers in order to support a few remaining 10 year old computers?
Why do you expect your older hardware and/or software to be supported indefinitely?
This could in theory be done, but can you imagine the cost of having to hire hundreds of engineers to provide support for all versions on all hardware, when 80% will be using the latest. You can be sure that that would have to be passed on to the cost of new software when most users would get no benefit.
There are good reasons why new software won’t actually run on old hardware, such as the migration to 64 bit processors and need for more RAM than can physically be fitted into a motherboard in order to support the increasingly sophisticated operations.
You wouldn’t expect Microsoft to enable Lightroom to run on DOS, nor would you expect Apple to keep writing software to allow WhatsApp to run on an iPOD.
Clearly, the hardware you have is actually NOT sufficient to allow the latest features to run well, or even at all.
The cost of progress in feature enhancement is providing it with the appropriate hardware on which to run.
I don’t expect my petrol car to run on electricity, so I will be updating that as well. Is that consumerism? I say No!
That’s actually progress, not obsolescence.
That’s right Peter; the hardware lifecycle is only about 3 years, maybe 5 years for retail users. Essentially correctly spec’d new hardware should run current applications well, but performance will deteriorate as new, more resource intensive, applications are written. New software features are often only made possible by using the latest hardware architecture and instruction sets. Eventually, a decision has to be made to replace the old hardware , or continue using old software.
Incidentally, I worked in IT for over 30 years, before recently retiring.
I run windows 8 so very frustrated with this latest turn of events. I have put off upgrading to 10 and now feel I am being forced to if I want to take advantage of continuing upgrades to lightroom. If I upgrade to 10 will I have to move all my photos and settings to a temp hard drive whilst installing the new operating system?
As far as I can see, Windows 8 to 10 upgrade doesn’t require a fresh install. Of course it would be sensible to make sure your backups are up to date before you start.
I did update for the latest LR Classic for the Nikon Z7 support but after the update I am not able to open my catalog because it is ‘protected against writing’. So I sadly turned back to the previous version… 🙁
Any suggestions?
That sounds like a folder permissions issue, so you either don’t have read/write permission for the folder holding the catalog, or it’s on a drive formatted in the wrong format, or most frequently, you’re trying to open a backup in a zip file.
But when you went back to the old version it works again? If so, I think we might need to know exactly what that error message says.
Aaah… I was trying to open the zipped backup catalog… silly me.
LR 8.0 runs fine now, thanks!
The most widely used Windows platform is still Windows 7…. Adobe is even trying to work less despite the pile of money is getting. That’s despising the customers.
Windows 7 continues to be supported by Adobe for that very reason.
I’ve just returned from a business trip excited to check out this latest update (bit of a LR geek that way!) and, although I’ve successfully updated to the latest version of Photoshop, Lightroom is showing ‘not compatible’. When I click the ‘info’ button it advises me to update to Windows 10 or later…
My system is Windows 7 HP 64-bit SP1 and completely up-to-date with Microsoft updates and other driver/software updates. It’s well above the minimum hardware requirements, except possibly the GPU which is an older AMD HD 7750 and only DirectX 11.1 (as opposed to DX12) as I don’t game. I’ve never had problems with Adobe updates before.
Never mind – seemed to work after I updated Photoshop and then restarted, for some reason! 🙂
Oh good, I love things that fix themselves!
No issues on this end with Mojave and this new update, along with the new features Victoria has outlined, seems to be a bit faster. Scrolling lots of images in Grid is smoother without the ‘gray’ thumbnails I’ve seen in the past.
That’s good to hear, thanks Andrew!
Good news. Hoping the October update of PS CC will be ok with Mojave too. Not that I’m in a hurry to upgrade yet. I usually take a wait and see approach.
That’s always a sensible approach Paul. I’ve updated my laptop for testing, but my main desktop machine will wait for at least the 10.14.1 release.