P: Ability to lock photos to prevent further editing

Everything will depend on the brush selected!
There is article already of in this Forum on this subject!

Hey Bryan,

I am also working without this preview for the past months or maybe even a year already. I noticed this happening when you update PS and copy paste your previous PS settings to the new version (since it sometimes does not ask to migrate the settings...).

So, one thing you can try is to move your Photoshop settings somewhere safe (or rename the folder) and see if you get the function back when PS launches with all default settings.
I haven't tried this myself yet since I rather have my settings.

You find the PS settings folder here (on Windows):

C:\Users\dzisign\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2020\Adobe Photoshop 2020 Settings

You can rename "Adobe Photoshop 2020 Settings" and then launch PS.

If it doesn't help, just delete the newly created settings and rename your folder back to its original name to revert back to your preferences.

I am curious if this will work. Please let me know 😉

Good luck!
Dziga

Hello,

I still consider a lock feature would be of great help to users.

The process I follow when using Lightroom Classic is to import, star rate, develop and, finally, when I'm done I use a color flag to mark the photo as "do not touch, I finished with this".

However, it has happened more than once that I'm on the library module, using the grid view and more than one photo selected and, accidentally, I press a shortcut like "2" or "6" and then, accidentally, I mark many photos with a different color flag or a different star classification.

If I realize the mistake I can press ctrl-Z and undo the change but if not... you can loose a lot of work by mistake and be aware of that a week afterwards!. Well, I have to admit I use lightroom as a hobby (I mean it is not my job) and my children have access to my computer and like to see photos, but even in that case, imagine the waste of time if someone selects the whole library and press any shortcut... !!!!!!! 

What I mean is that we are all 3 clicks away to waste a lot of work because, to my understanding, there is not any way to "lock a photo".

I'm aware there are a lot of things I can do:

1) To backup regularly -> right, but a mistake like described above would lead me to hours and hours of work to recover partials from a backup

2) To take snapshots -> good, but a mistake like described above would lead me to even more hours if I have to go photo by photo recovering from snapshot. Moreover, I would still loose star classification and color flags

3) To use some plugin for that -> well, the only one found is http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/photosafe but only prevents from undesired removal and nothing about keywords, color labels, stars and so on

4) Someone appointed me "not to select multiple photos" -> ... yes, you can also not use Lightroom and problem solved, don't you? 

I have always been told that Lightroom is a non destructive software that leaves pohotos untouched and only modify a record in a database associated with that photo. My guess is that a lock field on that record should not be a madness. 

This feature has been requested by many users since 9 years now. I think it shouldn't be so difficult to implement and many many users would appreciate a lot!

Considering this thread is 7 years old and I have seen requests for locking files on the U2U forum for longer than that if I remember than it must be VERY LOW oe not on Adobes list of Lightroom improvements. Adobe has been adding some long requested improvements lately so it may get implemented some day. I for one would really like a feature like this.

The selection UI blows. If you select a set of images, deselecting the rest when you click one depends on WHERE you click which is stupid and contrary to every UI rule. A click on one should ALWAYS deselect the rest.

With the entire interface being grey, it can be very hard to tell. Add in the different modes (Library vs Develop is the second-stupidest design choice in the program) and its easy to not realize what images I'm actually working on.

I'm a developer, longtime IT guy, photographer for 35 years, former Mac Genius, used Adobe software since 1995, and Lightroom is one of the most painful and poorly-designed programs I've ever run across.

Yes, as do a number of others in this topic.

Yes, as do a number of others in this topic.

Thanks, John. Do you agree that protecting against unintended edits, deletion or otherwise, is of value?

Thanks, John. Do you agree that protecting against unintended edits, deletion or otherwise, is of value?

Oops, that plugin only protects against deletion, not the other kinds of changes you described.