Today’s Question: How does the Auto Advance feature work in Lightroom Classic, and do you recommend using it?
Tim’s Quick Answer: If you enable the Auto Advance option in Lightroom Classic, when you assign one of the key attributes (star rating, color label, or pick/reject flag), Lightroom Classic will automatically advance to the next image. I consider this option a matter of personal preference, though I happen to prefer leaving it turned off.
More Detail: There are actually a few ways you can enable (or disable) the Auto Advance feature in Lightroom Classic. The most obvious option is to select Photo > Auto Advance from the menu. When the option is enabled a checkmark icon will appear to the left of the Auto Advance command.
With Auto Advance enabled, if you update the star rating, color label, or pick/reject flag for the current image, you will automatically be advanced to the next image. This can obviously be convenient when reviewing photos such as to identify favorites versus outtakes.
In addition to using the menu command, you can also toggle the Auto Advance feature on or off using keyboard shortcuts. Turning on the Caps Lock feature on your keyboard will toggle the Auto Advance feature. This provides what amounts to a keyboard shortcut for toggling the feature, but it also creates a risk that you might enable or disable the feature accidentally, leading to confusion.
Similar to the use of the Caps Lock option to toggle the Auto Advance feature, you can also temporarily toggle the feature by holding the Shift key while pressing the keyboard shortcut for the attribute you want to assign to the image. For example, with Auto Advance enabled if you press the “5” key to assign a five-star rating you’ll automatically be advanced to the next image. But if you use Shift+5 instead, you won’t be advanced to the next image. Conversely, if Auto Advance is turned off then adding Shift to the keyboard shortcut for assigning an attribute will cause you to advance to the next image.
Personally, I prefer to keep the Auto Advance feature turned off. This is in large part because when reviewing images, I’ll sometimes skip an image without assigning an attribute. I therefore use the right-arrow key to manually move to the next image in that case. Using Auto Advance would mean that I use the arrow keys to skip to the next image if I’m not assigning an attribute but then having the image advance automatically if I do assign an attribute. I prefer the consistency of always using the arrow key for advancing to the next image.
Having said that, I do recognize the convenience of the Auto Advance feature and would certainly encourage using it if you appreciate the benefit it provides.
