P: Smart preview workflow & AI masks when reconnecting to originals-(Affects Catalog Sharing also)

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I'm a photo editor for other photographers. When I edit images for a client, I work with a catalogue with smart previews. When I'm ready I send this catalogue to the client and he/she imports this catalogue into the original catalogue with the original images. But then they get an error with the masks 'select subject' and 'select sky'. No problem with the other masks I've used (like brush).

Is it possible that the masks that I made with the smart previews don't match with the original images of the client?

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Rikk Flohr-RetiredCorrect answer

Effective with Lightroom Classic 11 (because of the new masking) it is necessary to send the .lrcat and the .lrcat-data (if it exists) along with the Smart Previews. yourcatalogname.lrcat-data contains any AI-generated masks (in pixel form) that belong to the images in that catalog. Can you send the .lrcat-data to the client and have them place it alongside their .lrcat file (with Lightroom Classic closed) and relaunch Lightroom and see if the masks will reconnect?

Now, having said that, it should not be necessary to recompute the AI mask but there may be a quality advantage to recomputing it when you are attached to the original over the smart preview.

Note: This also applies to other shared catalog scenarios such as sharing a catalog within other users or desktop to laptop.

Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org