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Author Topic: Lr Settings Gone  (Read 3873 times)

Remo Nonaz

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Lr Settings Gone
« on: November 20, 2016, 08:50:55 pm »

Some time ago I posted that when I upgraded my version of Lr to the current version, 2015.6, I lost all of my settings, presets and plug-ins. I was advised to check my settings and be sure that the "Store presets with this catalog" box was checked. I checked it.

Today I went to do some work and Lr refused to open. Not knowing the issue, I rebooted my machine (Windows 7) and then opened Lr. Lr opened rather slowly and was performing in an odd manner. I then noticed that all of my settings, presets and plug-ins are missing again. I checked the "Store presets with this catalog" box and it was unchecked. This was not an upgrade - it was just a standard application launch. Oh, and one other observation - when I launched Lr it requested me to sign in to Adobe Cloud, which it does not normally do and then it began showing me the beginner tutorials, which I turned off, as if I had never used Lr before.

What the heck is happening here? How do I prevent the loss of my settings - it takes quite a bit of time to reset everything and download all the plug-ins. I really don't want to be doing it over and over.
« Last Edit: November 20, 2016, 09:10:41 pm by Remo Nonaz »
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Rhossydd

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Re: Lr Settings Gone
« Reply #1 on: November 21, 2016, 04:04:26 am »

How do I prevent the loss of my settings - it takes quite a bit of time to reset everything and download all the plug-ins.
I can't say why it's happening, it's never happened here with the perpetual version on W7.

You shouldn't need to download anything again, they should be where they are on the disk.

I think the important thing to consider here is how good your backup strategy is. You really ought to have a decent backup of your current installation that you can easily return to.
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Remo Nonaz

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Re: Lr Settings Gone
« Reply #2 on: November 21, 2016, 11:59:22 am »

I'm pretty well backed up. The backup catalog is on an alternate drive in the computer and the images and catalog are frequently backed up to a removable drive stored in a safe place. I found that most of the user presets returned after I checked/unchecked the "Store presets with catalog" box and re-started a couple of times but the plug-ins do not come back. I was able to reinstall the most needed one easily enough but I just don't understand why, when there was not even an upgrade, Lr would decide to default itself to the new installation settings.

A web search turned up a lot of posts on this topic, so it is apparent that this is not a new problem nor has Adobe ever fully addressed it.
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I really enjoy using old primes on my m4/3 camera. There's something about having to choose your aperture and actually focusing your camera that makes it so much more like... like... PHOTOGRAPHY!

rdonson

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Re: Lr Settings Gone
« Reply #3 on: November 21, 2016, 01:31:49 pm »

This nonsense happened to me a few years ago. I was able to put Humpty Dumpty back together again but decided I needed to find an easier way to recover from those times again. I found TPG LR backup to be a great way to restore settings when they disappear.

https://photographers-toolbox.com/products/mdawson/tpglrbackup/

It's worked for through all versions of LR
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Remo Nonaz

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Re: Lr Settings Gone
« Reply #4 on: November 21, 2016, 01:55:18 pm »

Looks like a good solution at a reasonable price. I'll give it a shot, thank you.
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I really enjoy using old primes on my m4/3 camera. There's something about having to choose your aperture and actually focusing your camera that makes it so much more like... like... PHOTOGRAPHY!

Remo Nonaz

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Re: Lr Settings Gone
« Reply #5 on: November 21, 2016, 03:06:17 pm »

I installed TGP Backup and in the process I discovered some things that may be relevant to this problem.

In the folder C:Users\Name\AppData\Roaming\Adobe, there are two Lr folders: "Lightroom" and "LightroomCC 2015". "Lightroom" has files and folders within it from 6/11/2016 to present. "LightroomCC 2015" has folders from 7/22/2012 to 6/16/2016, which I think is about the time I did the last major Lr upgrade. "LightroomCC 2105" seems to have many (all?) of the presets, templates, import and export settings that I lost earlier this year during an upgrade - probably right around 6/16. Many of the folders within each of the top level folders have the same names, though the contents are different.

I've also discovered that the Lr Preferences>Presets "Show Lightroom Presets Folder..." button links to the file C:Users\Name\My Pictures\Lightroom. In this folder is a folder "Lightroom Settings" This folder has all the same folders as the "Lightroom" and "LightroomCC 2015" but the files which are in "LightroomCC 2015" are missing. My guess is that if I copy all the files from "LightroomCC 2015" to C:Users\Name\My Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom Settings, I'll have all my setting and whatnot back. Now, should I delete the folders C:Users\Name\AppData\Adobe\"Lightroom" and LightroomCC 2015"? How do I keep Lr upgrades from building all these unnecessary files?
« Last Edit: November 21, 2016, 05:58:52 pm by Remo Nonaz »
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I really enjoy using old primes on my m4/3 camera. There's something about having to choose your aperture and actually focusing your camera that makes it so much more like... like... PHOTOGRAPHY!

Remo Nonaz

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Re: Lr Settings Gone
« Reply #6 on: November 21, 2016, 09:51:58 pm »

I'm beginning to figure out what is happening here but I need someone with more Windows 7 knowledge to jump in and complete my thinking.

I went ahead and added all the missing settings to the files in C:Users\Name\My Pictures\Lightroom. This worked like a charm and now Lr has all the settings that I've been steadily losing over the past six months. In the process of doing this, I noticed that Windows calls the folder My Pictures "My Pictures". Lr calls this folder "Pictures". Could this be part of the confusion? I did a little web searching and came up with a page that explains that "My Pictures" is not a folder, it is a library. As are (My) Documents, Music and Videos. Libraries are different than folders and the article at TN Windows 7 Libraries explains this - sort of.

I don't fully grasp the Library/Folder relationship, but essentially you can have virtual files in the library or real files. Right  now I have real files. I think what is happening is that when Lr upgrades, it puts the new files and folders into some regular folder, like C:Users\Name\AppData\Roaming\Adobe and then copies the virtual files over to the My Pictures folder, so you wind up with two copies. Lr seems to prefer to use the My Pictures folder and if the preferences folder does not copy correctly, you lose your preferences. If anyone can explain this better, I think we can come up with a strategy that will fully correct this problem.

« Last Edit: November 21, 2016, 09:55:45 pm by Remo Nonaz »
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I really enjoy using old primes on my m4/3 camera. There's something about having to choose your aperture and actually focusing your camera that makes it so much more like... like... PHOTOGRAPHY!

Rhossydd

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Re: Lr Settings Gone
« Reply #7 on: November 22, 2016, 01:34:27 am »

You may be on to something there.
None of my installations use the My Pictures/pictures structure, as I have all my settings, catalogues, plugins, backups etc in a specific (easy to manage) folder I've chosen. In my case F:/lightroom
So far I've never had any issues with data being lost.

Maybe a better strategy to use.
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stingray

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Re: Lr Settings Gone
« Reply #8 on: November 22, 2016, 06:54:17 am »

I specifically avoid using any of the Windows library folders as default folders (eg My Docs, My Pictures, etc) for any of my installed apps, especially Lr.  I also advise all Lr users I coach  to do the same.

I prefer to set up a master top level folder on a drive of my choice and have all my Lr folders as subfolders of this. I then do not have to worry about default behaviour of Windows, but more importantly, default behaviour of various apps where they may have specific code to deal with such Windows library folders.

   
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Remo Nonaz

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Re: Lr Settings Gone
« Reply #9 on: November 22, 2016, 10:47:46 am »

...but how do you tell Lr to NOT use the libraries and use the folder you have selected? There is nothing in the update process that directs where Lr goes, that I am aware of.
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I really enjoy using old primes on my m4/3 camera. There's something about having to choose your aperture and actually focusing your camera that makes it so much more like... like... PHOTOGRAPHY!

john beardsworth

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Re: Lr Settings Gone
« Reply #10 on: November 22, 2016, 10:52:52 am »

Move the catalogue using Explorer, then use File > Open Catalogue. Or double click it in Explorer. There's also a preference about which catalogue to open.
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Remo Nonaz

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Re: Lr Settings Gone
« Reply #11 on: November 22, 2016, 01:13:41 pm »

OK, so if I understand this right...  I set up a new, top level folder. I move the Lr catalog and all the associated Lr files now in My Pictures folder to it. I make any changes necessary in Lr so that it can find the catalog correctly. Once done, I assume I can delete all the other copies of Lr's folders. And, on updates, Lr will just update the new folder?

Update on this. I created the Lr folder on C and copied all the files to it. I opened the catalog and all seems petty well. I then did an upgrade to version 6.7. This created an update file in the folder C:Users\Name\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\LightroomCC 2015, not the folder C:lightroom that I created, apparently Lr is preferring that folder. That folder has most of the settings that I need though there are some Blurb presents that will not show up in Lr no matter which Lr folder I put them in. All very strange and confusing.
« Last Edit: November 22, 2016, 05:53:05 pm by Remo Nonaz »
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I really enjoy using old primes on my m4/3 camera. There's something about having to choose your aperture and actually focusing your camera that makes it so much more like... like... PHOTOGRAPHY!

Remo Nonaz

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Re: Lr Settings Gone
« Reply #12 on: November 23, 2016, 12:05:02 pm »

I think I have this figured out so I might as well post my findings.

If you check the preferences box, "store presets with this catalog", Lr will create a new set of presets wherever your catalog is stored - in my case in the "My Pictures" folder. But, when you do an upgrade, Lr is going to go the the folder C:\users\name\appdata\roaming\adobe\lightroom and update all the folders there, but not the folders in My Pictures. Further, it seems that Lr likes to create a folder within the folder C:\users\name\appdata\roaming\adobe\lightroom called "Lightroom Settings". Within this folder are duplicates of all the template and preset folders that are also in \lightroom but without the actual files. I won't know for sure if the folder "Lightroom Settings" is necessary until I do the next upgrade. Right now all the template and preset folders are in the "Lightroom" folder. If the upgrade creates a new "Lightroom Settings" folder and places empty folders within it, I will delete these and replace them with the folders that have the settings files.

I think the key to this is to NOT check the "store presets with this catalog" so that Lightroom looks to the same set of setting for both daily use and upgrades. 
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I really enjoy using old primes on my m4/3 camera. There's something about having to choose your aperture and actually focusing your camera that makes it so much more like... like... PHOTOGRAPHY!

Hoggy

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Re: Lr Settings Gone
« Reply #13 on: November 24, 2016, 05:14:10 am »

I think the key to this is to NOT check the "store presets with this catalog" so that Lightroom looks to the same set of setting for both daily use and upgrades.

I just saw this, but I'm very surprised that no one mentioned it early on..  Yes, it's very much true that you normally do NOT want that preference checked.  A reason for checking that preference is if you want to move all settings to another computer, for instance.  When that SPECIFIC catalog (.lrcat file) is opened on the other computer, there will be access to all the presets (etc.) used to create the alterations to the files it references (remember, ALL develop settings are actually stored as text in the ".lrcat" file - i.e. non-destructive).

It baffles me why some people have actually told you to check that preference in the first place.  ???
« Last Edit: November 24, 2016, 05:19:26 am by Hoggy »
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Remo Nonaz

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Re: Lr Settings Gone
« Reply #14 on: November 24, 2016, 07:23:23 am »

ALL advise must be taken with a degree of caution.  ;D The good news is that in this process I think I have gotten a  good understanding of this all works. Even better, I now know where all of my presets can disappear to and how to go and find them.
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I really enjoy using old primes on my m4/3 camera. There's something about having to choose your aperture and actually focusing your camera that makes it so much more like... like... PHOTOGRAPHY!
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