Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: I have the red frame [color label] on images when I import them [into Lightroom Classic], so I can tell which ones are not edited. How do I remove that color from the frame once I did in fact edit it?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Once you’ve reviewed a batch of photos that were marked with the red color label in Lightroom Classic, you can select all those photos, switch to the grid view display, and press the number “6” on the keyboard to remove the red color label.

More Detail: I use a metadata preset in Lightroom Classic to assign a red color label to all new photos as they are imported into my catalog. That signifies that I’ve not yet reviewed the photos to decide on favorites versus outtakes, which helps make sure I don’t overlook any photos in my workflow.

Of course, once I’ve reviewed the photos that means I don’t need the red color label anymore, so it can be removed. To do so I simply select all photos that have been reviewed in the current folder, switch to the grid view display so I can update the metadata for multiple photos at once, and then press the number “6” on the keyboard, which is the keyboard shortcut for the red color label.

It is important to note that the keyboard shortcuts for color labels are toggles, meaning if you press “6” on the keyboard it will assign a red color label to the current photo, and if you press “6” again that color label will be removed. So you need to be sure you know the current color label status for the selected photos before you use the keyboard shortcut. And, of course, if you’re using a color other than red, you’ll need to use the appropriate keyboard shortcut, such as “7” for yellow or “8” for green.

If you’ve finished reviewing all photos in the current folder, you could simply use the “Select All” command to select the images, by pressing Ctrl+A on Windows or Command+A on Macintosh. If you haven’t gotten through all the photos, you can quickly select photos from the current back to the first image that you need to remove the label for. With the current image selected, simply scroll left on the filmstrip (or up in the grid view) and hold the Shift key while clicking on the thumbnail for the first image you want to select.

So, you can use a metadata preset to assign a color label on import, and then use a keyboard shortcut to remove the color label from selected photos once you’ve reviewed the images.

I discussed the workflow I use to assign red color labels to photos on import into Lightroom Classic in an article called “Red Labels for All!” in the January 2021 issue of my Pixology magazine for photographers. If you’re not already a subscriber, you can sign up and get the back issues, including the January 2021 issue, on the GreyLearning website here:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/pixology-magazine

Today’s Question: You mentioned that hard drives fail periodically. I’m curious to know how often you experience hard drive failures, and if you think this is just something we should expect from time to time.

Tim’s Quick Answer: I typically experience a hard drive failure about once every few years. This is based on having more than a dozen hard drives in active use, including primary drives and at least two backup drives for each primary.

More Detail: Hard drive failures are a fact of life, and so really it is not a matter of if a hard drive will fail but rather when. Fortunately, today’s hard drives are overall very reliable. However, failures do occur. I experience a failure about once every three years on average, though sometimes I go longer without a failure and sometimes I experience more than one failure in a single year.

I have also “retired” hard drives that hadn’t yet failed but had given me reason to distrust them, such as if a file fails to copy or gets corrupted, or the hard drive fails to mount through the operating system.

It is difficult to gauge hard drive reliability based on a small data set. I often hear from photographers who say they have had a very bad experience with multiple failures from a single hard drive manufacturer. However, overall industry data supports that failures are relatively rare.

I have actually gotten to the point where I don’t worry about hard drive failures. To be sure, I consider them a minor annoyance, but they don’t generally cause me to lose any data. That is because I maintain a consistent backup workflow that ensures when a hard drive fails I have a backup I can recover from quite easily.

When a hard drive does fail, I’m able to recover from a synchronized backup created using GoodSync (http://timgrey.me/greybackup), which means the backup is an exact copy of the original drive. Therefore, the biggest issue I face when a hard drive fails is that I need to purchase a replacement for the failed drive and create a new backup, so that I’m back to having a primary drive and at least two backup drives.

I should add that in addition to my local backups I use Backblaze (https://timgrey.me/onlinebackup) as an online backup solution to provide yet another layer of redundancy.

Today’s Question: As one who solidly and consistently backs up his photos and catalog, how do you see losing your catalog ever becoming a reality?

Tim’s Quick Answer: I don’t. I’m confident that as long as Adobe doesn’t discontinue Lightroom Classic I’ll never be in a position where I lose my catalog and can’t recover from a backup.

More Detail: In the short term, I would say that the only real risk to my Lightroom Classic catalog is corruption or file loss caused by a hardware failure. I don’t consider either of these to be especially likely, though hard drives do fail periodically.

If my catalog were to be lost or damaged due to a hardware or software issue, I would simply recover from my most recent catalog backup. As I’ve outlined in previous answers, I retain several backup copies of my catalog, including multiple recent backups and a few backups going back as far as a few months or more.

Obviously if I had to recover from a backup of my catalog, I would lose any information that had been added between the date of the backup and when I lost my current catalog. That would be mitigated to some extent by having the “Automatically write changes into XMP” checkbox enabled on the Metadata tab of the Catalog Settings dialog. I would also need to re-import any photos that had been imported after the date of the catalog backup I was restoring from.

The greater risk in the long term, though I hope this is not much of a risk at all, would be if Adobe discontinued Lightroom Classic so that my catalog would no longer be accessible. This would be unfortunate, since Lightroom Classic forms the foundation of my workflow, but it is something I could still work around without too much difficulty.

Because I have the “Automatically write changes into XMP” checkbox enabled I would retain standard metadata such as star ratings and keywords with the source image files, so I could always use other software to access those details and manage my photos. I also try to minimize my use of features that are only preserved within the Lightroom Classic catalog, such as collections, virtual copies, and pick and reject flags.

Overall though, I don’t think Adobe is likely to discontinue Lightroom Classic anytime soon, and my backup workflow is such that I’m confident I could recover from any problems with my current catalog without too much difficulty.

Today’s Question: I have a new MacBook Air running the latest MacOS (Ventura) and Lightroom Classic 12. For years I have been copying my Lightroom catalog to my iMac and successfully printing on my Epson. My iMac will not update any longer and is stuck at Catalina and now I find that it will not upgrade to Lightroom Classic 12. How can I use my Lightroom Classic 12 catalog on my Lightroom 11 iMac?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Put simply: you can’t. Older versions of Lightroom Classic can’t open catalogs that have a different format from a later version. To print from the older computer you would need to export the source files from Lightroom Classic and use those files for printing.

More Detail: You can think of the Lightroom Classic catalog as being tied to the applicable “major” release of Lightroom Classic. A major release is generally signified by a whole number increase in the version number, such as from version 11 to 12. A minor release would be a decimal update, such as from version 12 to 12.1.

In this example the catalog would be compatible with either Lightroom Classic version 12 or 12.1, but that catalog could not be opened with Lightroom Classic version 11. Similarly, a catalog from version 11 could not be opened with version 12 unless it was updated, and the update would cause that catalog to no longer be supported by version 11.

Support for hardware and operating system versions changes over time, with support for older configurations dropping from time to time. For example, right now Lightroom Classic only supports MacOS Big Sur (version 11) or later for Macintosh users, and Windows 10 for Windows users.

Furthermore, as noted in today’s question, some hardware configurations will not allow an update beyond a certain operating system version, which creates a conflict in terms of software support.

In this case the only way to enable both computers to access the Lightroom Classic catalog would be to not upgrade to version 12 on the newer computer. Since you’ve already installed that upgrade, this would require you to roll back to an older catalog, which would mean losing any updates you’ve made within the Lightroom Classic 12 catalog.

The easiest solution in this situation would be to export the photos you want to print from Lightroom Classic 12 and then use those exported copies as the basis for printing on the older computer. Of course, if you can get the printer working with the newer computer, that might be an even better solution.

Today’s Question: For some time, I’ve had trouble viewing several thumbnails in the Bridge Preview. I get just the TIFF icon in the preview panel as shown in the attachment. I have tried purging the cache without any improvement. I would be most grateful for your help.

Tim’s Quick Answer: In this case the issue is that Adobe Bridge is not processing images above one gigabyte in size, so you aren’t seeing previews for those large images. You can correct this by increasing the threshold for processing large files in Preferences.

More Detail: By default, Adobe Bridge will not process image files larger than one gigabyte. The idea here is that those very large files will take considerable processing time, and they are likely to be the exception for most photographers. The files can still be opened in Photoshop, for example, by double-clicking on the icon for the image.

You can also increase the threshold for processing large images, so that Adobe Bridge will show you thumbnails and previews even for very large images. This is found in the Preferences dialog, which can be found by choosing Edit > Preferences from the menu on Windows or Adobe Bridge > Preferences on Macintosh. In the Preferences dialog go to the Thumbnails tab from the list on the left side of the dialog.

On the Thumbnails tab of the Preferences dialog, you’ll find the “Do Not Process Files Larger Than” field in the “Performance and File Handling” section. The default value is 1000 MB (1 GB), but you can update this value as needed to ensure thumbnails and previews will be generated even for your larger image files.

I should point out that this little issue isn’t necessarily all that obvious, but fortunately the photographer who asked today’s question included a screenshot showing the issue. While the pixel dimensions for the images would suggest the files would have only been under about 100 MB, clearly there had been some layers added to the image that caused the file size to grow significantly. The screenshot showed that one problem image, for example, was 1.35 GB in size.

Simply setting the threshold to a higher value, such as around 1500 MB in this particular example, will cause even those larger image files to be processed so you’ll see thumbnails and previews for them.

Today’s Question: One of my backup drives would not connect to the computer. I tried to run first aid on the drive, and it said the drive could not be mounted. When I disconnected the drive and reconnected it, it worked fine. Is it OK to trust this drive for backing up my computer?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Whenever a hard drive misbehaves, I tend to assume the drive could fail at any moment. Therefore, I might continue using the drive as an “extra” backup drive, but I would not trust it for primary storage or as the only backup for a primary drive.

More Detail: There are a variety of things that could cause a hard drive to fail to mount, meaning that it fails to properly connect to the computer so it can be used. This could be caused by something as simple as a bad data cable, a power source that isn’t working properly, a problem with the hard drive, or even an issue with the computer.

One of the problems with this type of situation is that it can be very difficult to determine exactly what is causing the problem. You might try swapping data cables, for example, and even testing to see if using the same data cable with different drives causes the failure to mount. That would suggest that the data cable is to blame.

However, I prefer to take a rather conservative approach when it comes to the storage and backup of my photos and other important data. If a primary hard drive gives me an indication of any problems that suggest there may be a problem with the drive, I will replace that drive.

If a backup drive gives an indication of a problem, I might continue to use that drive as a backup, but I would never use it as my only backup for a primary hard drive. I personally maintain two local backups for each primary drive, so if one of those showed symptoms of a problem I would replace it with another backup drive, but might continue using it as a third backup drive to provide some small additional degree of redundancy in my overall backup workflow.

Just because a hard drive fails to mount properly once doesn’t automatically mean the drive is on the verge of failure. However, when it comes to my photos and other important data, I’m not keen to trust a drive that has shown any signs of a problem. I therefore recommend doing some testing to see if you can isolate the source of the problem, such as by trying different data cables, different ports on the computer, and different hard drives with the same connections, to see if you can determine which component seems to be problematic. But when in doubt, I would not hesitate to replace a hard drive that you don’t have confidence in.

Today’s Question: Your answer to the question about canceling a subscription to Lightroom Classic was reassuring. But are there additional steps you recommend ensuring I’ll always have access to the metadata for my images even if Lightroom Classic were no longer available?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The main thing I recommend doing to help ensure you aren’t completely dependent on the Lightroom Classic catalog in the long term is to enable the option to automatically save standard metadata to the source images. It can also be helpful to minimize your use of features that can only be saved within the catalog.

More Detail: By default, if you lost your Lightroom Classic catalog without any backup to recover from, you would lose all the updates you had applied to your source images. That is because all updates are only saved to the catalog by default. But you can change this option.

I recommend turning on the “Automatically write changes into XMP” checkbox found on the Metadata tab of the Catalog Settings dialog. You can bring up the Catalog Settings dialog by going to the menu and choosing Edit > Catalog Settings on Windows or Lightroom Classic > Catalog Settings on Macintosh.

It is important to keep in mind, however, that enabling this option will only preserve metadata included in existing metadata standards, such as star ratings, keywords, color labels, and more. Interestingly, the adjustment settings from the Develop module will also be included. Features that are specific to Lightroom Classic, such as collections, virtual copies, pick and reject flags, and more, will not be included.

Because some features are only preserved within the catalog, I recommend first and foremost that you maintain a good backup workflow to provide a recovery option if your catalog becomes corrupted or otherwise lost. In addition, you may want to minimize your use of some of the features that are only preserved in the catalog.

For example, I only use the reject flag as a temporary way to mark photos for deletion during my image-review workflow, and I don’t use pick flags. Part of my reasoning for taking this approach is that if I ever lost my Lightroom Classic catalog I would lose those metadata values, and so I don’t want to be overly dependent on them.

Today’s Question: I’m still using Lightroom 6 and Photoshop CS6 standalone applications since I didn’t want to go to the subscription model. My biggest fear with going to the subscription model is what happens to my photos in Lightroom Classic if I stop?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You’ll be relieved to know that if you discontinue your Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan subscription, you’ll still have full control over your photos, and you’ll still be able to use the key image-management features of Lightroom Classic.

More Detail: First and foremost, it is important to keep in mind that with Lightroom Classic your photos are stored and managed locally by you. That means that even if you somehow couldn’t use Lightroom Classic anymore you would still have full access to your photos. Obviously, there are certain metadata and other features that are tied specifically to Lightroom Classic, but your photos would remain on your hard drives right where you have them currently.

What I find many photographers are surprised by is that if you discontinue your Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, you’ll still have access to Lightroom Classic, just with a limited set of features. You would still be able to import photos, update metadata, and share your images in a variety of ways.

Ending your subscription would mean that you lose access to the Develop module (though Quick Develop would still be available), you would not be able to access the Map module, and you could no longer synchronize photos to the cloud.

Of course, you could also reactivate your subscription at a later time and regain the full functionality of Lightroom Classic.

Note, by the way, that when you cancel your subscription, you would lose access to the other applications that were included in your plan, such as Photoshop in the case of the Creative Cloud Photography Plan.

Considering the significant new features and updates since the non-subscription versions of Lightroom, I strongly recommend making the upgrade even though it involves a subscription plan. That’s especially true since there’s really nothing to worry about should you later choose to cancel or suspend your subscription.