Lightroom Classic 15.6 – Moving selected photo to another folder loses active Grid selection
Title: Lightroom Classic 15.6 – Moving selected photo to another folder loses active Grid selection
This is 100% reproducible in a brand-new catalog containing only 17 photos. Delete works correctly; Move does not. I have deliberately ruled out catalog corruption, sorting, Auto Advance, GPU, folder hierarchy, and multiple selection
Environment
- Lightroom Classic: 15.6
- Operating system: Windows
- Lightroom Classic Library module, Grid view
- Local folders
- Problem occurs with both Capture Time and File Name sorting
- GPU acceleration tested both enabled and disabled
Problem
When I select a photo in Library/Grid view and drag it to another folder using the Folders panel, Lightroom removes the photo from the current Grid but does not make the next photo in sequence active.
Instead, the Grid remains displayed with no active photo selected. Navigation keys/commands then behave as though there is no current selection; pressing Right Arrow or Ctrl+Right Arrow jumps to the last photo in the Grid.
This is disruptive because my established workflow for approximately seven years has been to move a photo to another folder and continue working sequentially through the remaining photos in the current folder. Previously Lightroom would advance to the next photo.
Reproduction steps
- Open Lightroom Classic 15.6 on Windows.
- Create a new catalog.
- Import 17 photos.
- Create two sibling folders.
- Put all 17 photos in Folder A.
- Open Folder A in Library/Grid view.
- Select the 7th photo.
- Drag the selected photo to Folder B using the Folders panel.
- Observe the Grid.
Actual result
The 7th photo disappears from Folder A, as expected, but no photo is active/selected.
Pressing Right Arrow causes Lightroom to select the last photo in the Grid rather than the photo immediately following the moved photo.
The same occurs with Ctrl+Right Arrow and with Library > Next Selected Photo.
Moving the photo back from Folder B to Folder A produces the same behavior.
Expected result
After moving the selected photo out of the current folder, Lightroom should retain the user’s position in the Grid and make the next photo in the current Grid active, allowing the user to continue processing sequentially without having to find their previous position again.
Additional controlled testing
The problem reproduces in a completely new catalog, so it is not specific to my normal catalog.
I tested:
- New catalog — same problem
- 17-photo test catalog — same problem
- Two sibling folders — same problem
- Parent/subfolder arrangement — same problem
- Capture Time sorting — same problem
- File Name sorting — same problem
- Auto Advance OFF — same problem
- Auto Advance ON — same problem
- GPU enabled — same problem
- GPU disabled — same problem
- Moving in either direction — same problem
- Right Arrow — jumps to last photo
- Ctrl+Right Arrow — jumps to last photo
- Library > Next Selected Photo — jumps to last photo
As an additional control, deleting a photo from the same test catalog works correctly: Lightroom removes the photo and automatically activates the next photo in the Grid.
Therefore the problem appears to be specific to moving the active photo to another folder, rather than a general Library selection/navigation problem.
Additional observation
If the photo is flagged before moving it, the flagging indicator remains displayed after the move even though the flagged photo is no longer present in the current Grid. After using Previous/Next Selected Photo to establish a new selection, the flag indicator disappears.
This suggests Lightroom may be retaining some portion of the previous selection state while failing to establish an active photo in the current Grid after the move.
Frequency
100% reproducible in my testing.
Severity
High for a sequential photo-management workflow because every moved photo causes the current position in the Grid to be lost, requiring manual navigation back to the working position.
Any suggestions would be appreciated
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