Today’s Question: As a follow-up to your recent post concerning compatibility: I have a few early images that were created without the Maximize Compatibility option enabled [in Photoshop], so Lightroom Classic cannot read them. How do I go back and make them compatible?
Tim’s Quick Answer: You can enable Maximize Compatibility for existing PSD files by opening those images and using the Save As command to save again with Maximize Compatibility enabled. You could also batch process the images using the Image Processor in Photoshop via Bridge.
More Detail: In the July 3rd edition of the Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter I discussed the Maximize Compatibility issue in Photoshop. This setting must be enabled for PSD or PSB files for you to be able to import them into Lightroom Classic.
If you have existing images that had been saved without the Maximize Compatibility feature enabled, you’ll need to re-save those images with the option enabled.
If you only have one or two images that need to be updated, you could simply open and re-save them in Photoshop. To get started, go to the File Handling tab of the Preferences dialog in Photoshop and choose either “Ask” or “Always” from the “Maximize PSD and PSB File Compatibility” popup. Then open the images than need to be re-saved, and for each of them choose File > Save As from the menu. When saving, you can even re-save with the same filename to update the existing file if you want. Note that if you selected the “Ask” option in Preferences you’ll need to make sure the checkbox is turned on for Maximize Compatibility in the confirmation dialog that appears.
If you have more than a few images that need to be processed, you can use the Image Processor command to batch process. In this scenario it is most convenient to put all the files in a single folder for processing, as long as that won’t create other problems in your workflow. You can then select all the images you want to process in Adobe Bridge, and from the menu choose Tools > Photoshop > Image Processor.
When the Image Processor dialog comes up in Photoshop you can turn off the “Open first image to apply settings” checkbox in the first section. In the second section you can choose the “Save in Same Location” option to save the images in a subfolder by file type within the current folder. You can also choose the second option and click the “Select Folder” button to choose the folder where you want to save the processed images. In the third section turn on the “Save as PSD” checkbox, making sure the “Save as JPEG” and “Save as TIFF” checkboxes are turned off. Below the “Save as PSD” checkbox make sure the “Maximize Compatibility” checkbox is turned on and turn off the “Resize to Fit” checkbox. Turn off the “Run Action” checkbox and turn on the “Include ICC Profile” checkbox. Click the Run button to run the Image Processor.
Once you’ve re-saved the applicable images with the Maximize Compatibility feature enabled, you can move them to the correct folder location if needed and then import them into Lightroom Classic.
