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johnrellis
johnrellis
Legend
June 8, 2026

P: SDK: Race condition with photo:applyDevelopPreset() and catalog:updateAISettings()

  • June 8, 2026
  • 9 replies
  • 218 views

If a plugin calls catalog:updateAISettings() immediately after photo:applyDevelopPreset(), the application of the preset is ignored. This bug was introduced in LR 15.3, likely with the background processing of AI commands.

 

To reproduce on LR 15.3 / Mac OS 26.4.1:

 

1. Import the attached preset “_Update Bug.xmp”.

 

2. Put the attached file “updateaisettings-bug.txt” into the LR Scripts folder.

 

3. Go to Develop with a test photo.

 

4. Do Scripts > updateaisettings-bug. Observe that Exposure is not changed (incorrect -- it should change to 4).

 

5. Apply the preset “_Update Bug”. Observe that Exposure changes to 4 (correct).

 

A workaround is to call LrTasks.sleep (0.1) before calling catalog:updateAISettings().

      Pinned Reply By Bec from LR

      Greetings all,

      A new update for the Adobe Photography products has been released. The September Lightroom Classic release (15.6) contains an update regarding this issue. 

If you do not see the update in your Creative Cloud Application, you can refresh it by pressing [Ctrl/Cmd]+[Alt/Opt]+[ R ]. 

Note: It may take up to 24 hours for your update to be available in your Creative Cloud app.

      Thank you for being so patient. 


      9 replies

      Community Manager
      Bec from LRCommunity ManagerPinned
      Community Manager
      September 29, 2026

      Greetings all,

      A new update for the Adobe Photography products has been released. The September Lightroom Classic release (15.6) contains an update regarding this issue. 

If you do not see the update in your Creative Cloud Application, you can refresh it by pressing [Ctrl/Cmd]+[Alt/Opt]+[ R ]. 

Note: It may take up to 24 hours for your update to be available in your Creative Cloud app.

      Thank you for being so patient. 


      johnrellis
      johnrellisAuthor
      Legend
      June 8, 2026

      [View this post in your web browser. It contains formatting and images that don't appear in email.] 

       

      ​@C.Cella One workaround I use to coordinate with the photo:applyDevelopPreset() is to create a Progress scope within which I summon photo:applyDevelopPreset(). When this parent scope is complete, I trigger the next action.

       

      Any Menu does that -- it uses a progress scope, within which the chosen menu item or preset is applied to all the selected photos. Then outside the scope, catalog:updateAISettings() is applied.

       

      I’ll look into catalog:applyDevelopPreset(), though that will require reworking the code to special-case applying presets as compared to other menu commands.

      C.Cella
      C.Cella
      Legend
      June 8, 2026

      catalog:applyDevelopPreset() allows to apply a preset to an array and shows ONLY one scope for the entire process. 
      It also ahs the 4th argument “udpateAISettings” which makes redundant to use catalog:updateAISettings() as a second step (like we had to do before to prevent N scopes to appear)

      I had to do a bit of rewrite of my codes (I have Plug-in that applies presets in simple ways that LrC doesn’t allow)

      This said catalog:applyDevelopPreset() in succession have race conditions and can’t coordinate.

       

      johnrellis
      johnrellisAuthor
      Legend
      June 8, 2026

      [View this post in your web browser. It contains formatting and images that don't appear in email.]

       

      ​@C.Cella I haven’t found a reliable “sleep” time for all situations.

       

      That’s the general problem with using sleep to workaround race conditions -- there’s no assurance about whether it workarounds 50%, 90%, or 99.9999% of the races.

        C.Cella
        C.Cella
        Legend
        June 8, 2026

        I can’t reply properly.
        I get a red “Something’s Gone wrong” message.


        There seems to be a character limit or something like thatt because I could NOT post in a single reply.

        johnrellis
        johnrellisAuthor
        Legend
        June 8, 2026

        [View this post in your web browser. It contains formatting and images that don't appear in email.]

        ​@C.Cella a red “Something’s Gone wrong” message.

         

        That happens to me about once every couple of weeks. I’m guessing there are many different triggers.

        johnrellis
        johnrellisAuthor
        Legend
        June 8, 2026

        ​@C.Cella Might be of interest to you.

        C.Cella
        C.Cella
        Legend
        June 8, 2026

        I’ve already encountered race conditions with all APIs that themselves provide a progress scope.

        For instance, if one tries to perform photo:applyDevelopPreset() followed by photo:setRawMetadata(), the latter might occur before even the preset was applied.

        In my experience, setting a LrTasks.sleep() is not reliable because, for my “heavily edited” photos, it can take seconds to apply a preset due to various reasons. I haven’t found a reliable “sleep” time for all situations.

        C.Cella
        C.Cella
        Legend
        June 8, 2026

        One workaround I use to coordinate with the photo:applyDevelopPreset() is to create a Progress scope within which I summon photo:applyDevelopPreset(). When this parent scope is complete, I trigger the next action.
        In some codes, when I apply settings or presets, I directly read the catalog with SQLite to check for the appearance of history steps, which is the trigger I use to perform the extra action.

         

        I suggested to the team that we be able to observe scopes so that we could coordinate.

         

         

        P.S.

        If you still rely on photo:applyDevelopPreset() in your plug-ins (Any Menu, I guess), then now you can use catalog:applyDevelopPreset(), which presents ONE scope for all the array.

        So, there’s no longer a need to do photo:applyDevelopPreset() and catalog:updateAISettings() as we had to before.

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