Compare - can't select Left image in 9.4

Forum|Forum|29 days ago
July 7, 2026
6 replies
42 views

I’ve used the Compare feature (Opt+C) in Lightroom heavily for a long time. It’s critical that we be able to bring focus to either the left or right image in Compare view, in order to flag / crop / edit that image.

But In Lightroom 9.4, clicking the Left image fails to select it. However, if I click the Swap icon, it’s now the right image that can’t be selected.

Update: Turns out the issue and source of UI confusion is actually the Multiple Images / Before and After selector. If I toggle it to Multiple, it works normally again. But something about the 9.4 update switched the default to Before/After (I guarantee that I didn’t do that - I never touch that widget), resulting in the broken behavior.

Correct answer scot.hacker

To clarify, yes it was “confusion” between the Multiple Images/Before After selector BUT I have never touched that selector and am fairly confident that it newly defaulted to Before & After even though I had only ever used it in Multiple Images mode and in fact had never seen that selector before this issue surfaced. It “feels” like the most recent update changed that selector to Before/After, causing this confusion. But I just tried launching with Shift+Opt and reset my preferences, and it was correctly on Multiple, so maybe that’s not it either. Hmm.

Claire H.

Community Manager

Hi @scot.hacker, I'm just checking in to see if it was just UI confusion with the Multiple Images/ Before and After selector or if you are still running into this issue? Let us know how things are going. Happy to keep troubleshooting with you if needed. Thanks! ^CH

scot.hackerAuthorCorrect answer

Inspiring

To clarify, yes it was “confusion” between the Multiple Images/Before After selector BUT I have never touched that selector and am fairly confident that it newly defaulted to Before & After even though I had only ever used it in Multiple Images mode and in fact had never seen that selector before this issue surfaced. It “feels” like the most recent update changed that selector to Before/After, causing this confusion. But I just tried launching with Shift+Opt and reset my preferences, and it was correctly on Multiple, so maybe that’s not it either. Hmm.

scot.hackerAuthor

Inspiring

Sorry that report went through twice - the form here was being a bit confusing.

Srishti Bali

Community Manager

Hi @scot.hacker

Thanks for reaching out and for sharing the detailed information. Could you please provide a few more details?

System Info from Lightroom: Go to Help > System Info, then copy and paste the entire report here.
A short screen recording or a few screenshots showing the issue, if possible.

Also, please try resetting Lightroom's preferences:

Launch Lightroom while holding Shift + Option (macOS) or Shift + Alt (Windows).
When prompted, choose to reset the preferences.

This often helps resolve minor glitches like the one you're experiencing.

Thanks, Srishti Bali | Community & Engagement Strategist, Digital Imaging | Adobe

scot.hackerAuthor

Inspiring

Sure thing, my system report is below, and I’ve attached a screen recording showing the behavior change relative to the mode toggle.

Lightroom version: 9.4.1 MAS arm64 [ 20260625-0318-d30e963 ] (Jun 24 2026)
NGL Version: 1.43.0.5
WF Version: 8.4.1 542baca
VF Version: 1.0.164
HIL Version: 40501
CAI Version: c2pa-c/0.6.0 c2pa-rs/0.46.0
PH Version: 6.1.1
Adobe GSDK Version: 1.4.0.210
Catalog ID: 46f38897884141c0ac03e4f7ef507b1e

Operating system: macOS
OS Version: macOS 26.5.2 (25F84)
Application architecture: arm64
Computer model: Mac17,9 / Apple M5 Pro
Logical processor count: 18
Real memory available to Lightroom: 49,152.0 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 3,217.0 MB (6.5%)
Peak memory used by Lightroom: 4,487.0 MB
Memory cache size: 8,278.7 MB

Internal Camera Raw version: 18.4 [ 2608 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 10
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: Neon
Camera Raw virtual memory: 0MB / 22528MB (0%)

Displays: 1) 3024x1964, 2) 5120x2880
Dark Mode: Yes

Graphics Processor Info: Metal: Apple M5 Pro
Graphics Processor Detail: loaded: Yes, supported: Yes, compute: Yes, init: I4_GPU4, hard: success, soft: success, al: Yes, dl: No
OS Media Capability: true

Application Folder: /Applications
Settings Folder: /Users/shacker/Library/Containers/com.adobe.mas.lightroomCC/Data/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom CC
Library Folder: /Users/shacker/Pictures/Lightroom Library.lrlibrary

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