P: Bring back the ability of Enhance to run in the background. (LrC)

Go back to 14.3.1

@Superpow: "I recently updated Lightroom (version 14.4) and I find myself using noise reduction again. Previously, I would edit my photos beforehand, and then apply noise reduction at the end, let it work, and during this time I could process another album in Lightroom in parallel. Today I have to do 1 by 1 and I can't do another action in parallel. I don't know if I'm clear? Does anyone have this problem? Could you give me some solutions?"

Unfortunately, the new design of Denoise prevents you from running it in background while you do other work in LR. As you can see in this thread, many users are quite unhappy about that.

However, you can apply Denoise to an entire batch of photos at once, rather than doing it one by one -- use Copy/Paste, Sync Settings or Auto Sync to copy the Denoise setting from the first photo to the other photos in the batch. Or you can define a preset, which you can apply to a batch of photos in Library by doing Quick Develop > Saved Preset.

There are two separate issues going on with this update.

1. The end result, having a sidecar and catalog data instead of a separate DNG file. I think THAT is generally an improvement. I don't see the need to get rid of the DNG file for those who want one but otherwise its not really the problem.

2. The new UI and workflow is a big problem. Its slower and clunkier, requires kludgy and awkward workarounds, and negatively impacts multi-image workflows.

Reverting to the previous UI, where a user could select RAW files, click a Noise Reduction button to show a modal window to set the NR level, and then click Apply to have the calculations made in the background would be a good solution.

The new way is truly the worst update I've ever had lmao. 

I also believe Lightroom needs to be reprogrammed from the bottom up. It's old software.

the denoise is a total failure.  just get rid of it! ALSO make a down arrow to hide it TAKES UP tOO MUCH SPACE ON THE menu. many other portions are collapsible. i have to scroll up and down on every jpg now.   make it an OPTION.  you love it, great. seems like most of us do not use it. takes up an inch in the menu

@ronb2 
The lrcat-data is a database, it was conceived precisely to store big data but at the time of tis inception it was only Ai masks which are much, much lighter than Enhance.

The potential issue of the lrcat-data is that it can't can't be stored on an external volume (per Adobe's recommendation) so if you are running out of local space then you can't Enhance anymore.

In this case is better to store into a .acr sidecar like ACR does.

Still this doens't solve the issue of the thread, all Ai operation in batch block the UI.

@C.Cella the lrcat-data file is explicitly the worst place to put any kind of sizable data like this. A sidecar file, be is the proper way to do it. While the DNG is not ideal, it is an order of magnitude better than the new system of bloating lrcat-data.

The idea that taking a workflow breaking method and breaking it worse by adding four or more steps to retain the data without bloat (export-> remove enhancement -> optimize -> reimport) is acceptable is crazy.

@ronb2 "It's important to have the DNG method back because the new model instead bloats the lrcat-data file, which is immovable. "

This is not true.

Baking the various Enhance into DNG means loosing the ability to edit the file after, means loosing non destructibility for Enhance.
It is not a good idea is really a bad idea.

• LrC could compute Enhance non destructively without blocking the entire UI and assure safety by blocking temporarily the images.

Also if your concern is the size of the lrcat-data then at any time you can export to a file and have the enhance baked.

Get rid of the enhance edits in the catalog and they will disappear form the lrcat-data as well *
But at least till you export you have true non destructibility editing which directly baking to DNG will never offer.

Finally for those like you worried about lrcat-data size there is another option.

•• LrC could offer the choice to save the Enhance not in the lrcat-data and not in the XMP (which is inefficient) but instead save Enhance next to the files in an .acr sidecar like ACR does.

The .acr sidecars are 25% lighter than the XMP counterpart and would have the "benefit" of being stored next to the files.

A tthe end of the day Enhance data needs to go somewhere, so "bloat" is inevitable BUT we could chose where the bloat happens

. In the XMP
. In the lrcat-data
. In the .acr

. Baked in a file (DNG or Export)

Baking into the DNG is the worst way to do it.


* to get rid of Enhance data in the lrcat-data you must disable it form the images and optimise the catalog.
Unfortunately this is bugged and numerous optimise are required.

It's important to have the DNG method back because the new model instead bloats the lrcat-data file, which is immovable. If you have any kind of volume for the enhance raw processes (denoise, super resolution, enhance) it will become a blocker since you can't offload this to network or external drives.

The new method is also completely disrespectful of people's workflows, locking up Lightroom unnecessarily.