Photoshop Camera Raw 14.0 throws away masks

[Sharishan]

After hours of working in Camara Raw 14.0 for Photoshop 2022, retouching a photo (and frequent saves in between to xmp), I opened the final result as an object in Photoshop. To my surprise ALL the work I did in masks was gone once the image was opened in Photoshop. Spot removal and all adjustments I did on the Edit-tab had been saved, but I lost 5 hours of mask retouching work. Re-opening the object in Camera Raw did not bring back the masks, nor did reloading the xmp. I tried re-opening the original CR3 in Camara Raw, with the same result. The masks were simply not saved to the xmp-file. 

I've just updated to Photoshop 2022, so I'm new to the masks feature, but I've been working for years with Photoshop Camera Raw and the adjustment brush and such. I've never had this problem, nor did I do anything out of the ordinary before opening the photo as an object. 

Is this a know bug? Has anyone else experienced this?

I work on a Macbook Pro 2019 with Monterey 12.0.1 freshly installed, the Camera Raw version is 14.0.0.950.

[Sharishan]

Update: I've taken a look at the xmp-file, and I think I see mask info, but I'm not familiar enhough with the code to be sure. I also think the indentation looks off, so maybe it could be a syntax error? See below for a sample. (Alas, the indetation didn't survive the cut and paste.) I'm really hoping this means my work is recoverable. Could anyone help me look into this, please?

<crs:RetouchAreas>
<rdf:Seq>
<rdf:li>
<rdf:Description
crs:SpotType="heal"
crs:SourceState="sourceAutoComputed"
crs:Method="gaussian"
crs:HealVersion="2"
crs:SourceX="0.397605"
crs:OffsetY="0.620128"
crs:Opacity="1"
crs:Feather="0.3"
crs:Seed="2">
<crs:Masks>
<rdf:Seq>
<rdf:li>
<rdf:Description
crs:What="Mask/Paint"
crs:MaskActive="true"
crs:MaskBlendMode="0"
crs:MaskInverted="false"
crs:MaskSyncID="3A63C40E7B224D30BD050AD00CF560F2"
crs:MaskValue="1"
crs:Radius="0.003497"
crs:Flow="1"
crs:CenterWeight="0.5">
<crs:Dabs>
<rdf:Seq>
<rdf:li>r 0.003489</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>d 0.388467 0.620128</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>d 0.387954 0.620837</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>d 0.387669 0.621793</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>d 0.387473 0.622798</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>d 0.387375 0.623834</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>d 0.387331 0.624879</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>d 0.387282 0.625923</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>d 0.387329 0.626967</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>d 0.387418 0.628005</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>d 0.387553 0.629032</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>d 0.387614 0.630075</rdf:li>
</rdf:Seq>
</crs:Dabs>
</rdf:Description>
</rdf:li>
</rdf:Seq>
</crs:Masks>
</rdf:Description>
</rdf:li>

[DustyBin....]

Did you ever resolve this problem? 

Out of approx 100 images processed and saved ("Done" button), up to 20 images will not have the masks present once reopened. Other adjustments are saved fine,  just not the masks. Absolutely no masks present, even though they should be saved into the XML file. I lost an entire days work before I realised it was happening.

Is this a well known issue, or something simple I’m missing? It has only happened since the new Masks tools have been updated.

Photoshop V 23.3.0

Camera Raw V14.3.0.1072

Catalina

Macbook 2016 i7

[Sharishan]

Hi @DustyBin...., so happy to finally receive a response and find that at least I'm not the only one having this problem. The sad news is: no, I have not resolved this problem and it has happened a couple of times to me since. I've not heard from anyone else having this problem until you just responded to my post. But then again, I've not looked in to this problem for months.

Like you, I lost hours of work and that resulted in me getting weary of using the new masks. So I haven't used them a lot and haven't had a lot of opportunity to troubleshoot and find out where the problem lies. 

If you ever find the solution, could you please let me know? I'll keep you posted as well.

[DustyBin....]

Hi Sharishan

Sorry to hear you haven’t resolved it.

It’s interesting that you seem to have had the same problem for a while now as ACR has surely been updated since you first noticed the problem. Also I see you are on Monterey, and I am on Catalina still, as I did wonder if it could be somekind of “write permission” linked to Catalina / added security, but I think that’s not likely.

I have now moved to Lightroom for larger projects that I work on, as that “Saves” the masks with each adjustment, in real time as far as I understand it. I worked in the stand alone Camera Raw interface for 10+ years and it’s only since January 2022 that I’ve had this issue, as I was on Mojave up to December 2021. In the past, I would create masks and make changes for 200+ files at a time, then click “Done” and it would save all those changes and masks to the XML. Now though, I can click “Done” and then re-open the same files only to find some have the masks missing. To add to that, if it does succesfully save a mask, I can then re-open the same file again, apply some other adjustments to say ”Exposure” etc, re-save/Done, and the masks will be erased or missing when closed and re-opened again, even though I didn’t edit the mask. It’s like it gets ”Forgetful” about saving certain masks, and even over writes the file to record “no mask present” or to that effect. I cannot tolerate that as I have tight deadlines and as I said I have lost a few hours work before.

I will keep you updated if I find a solution. I think one would have to do some dedicated tests with some tests files and see if one can replicate the issue and hopefully find a pattern, if there is one. But I won’t be using it for major work projects for the foreseeable, as it has made me lose all confidence in ACR.

I realise it’s not ideal, but do you have access to Lightroom?

Also these were Nikon D810 Raw Lossless files.

[DustyBin....]

Update

I added some Masks to various files in ACR, clicked DONE and saved them. Reopened in ACR, the masks were msising.

I then imported those same RAW files + XML files into Lightroom. The Masks were all showing and fine.

Not a fix but maybe it helps narrow down where the issue actually happens.

Also I have created 1000’s of masks within Lightroom this week, and they all save fine and none disapear, perhaps unsurprisingly, but as far as I know, Lightroom runs on the same Camera Raw code so it would at least suggest it’s an interface problem, not the Camera Raw engine itself.

I then took a batch of RAW+XML files created in Lightroom with masks, and opened those in ACR. All masks were present and fine. Then I adjusted and saved those same files, multiple times, in ACR. All masks fine and present as far as I can tell.

So if I’m not mistaken the problem seems to be with Masks “created” and saved in ACR “originally” or to begin with.

Next I need to examine the XML files of images where the problem shows up again, and try and find an error in the code. If the code is corrupted when written by ACR, it doesn’t explain why Lightroom can read the XML code fine. That would suggest that ACR is not “reading” some of the XML code successfully.

Also is there an extra process where the masks is originally created that ACR is not always doing? Or does ACR re-write ALL code everytime a file is saved?

So - ACR is maybe not "Writing" a piece of code correctly. Or maybe it is not "Reading" a piece of code correctly.

Sorry if I have over complicated things, but this may be useful for someone at Adobe in future if others have the same issue.

[Vernes5DE8]

We have the same issue in our office. We work on 20+ PC's and ever since we updated to Adobe 2021 we have this issue. The problem is that most PC's have literally the same configuration, the same work is done on them, but the issue is not consistent. Sometimes we will edit 100's of files without problems, yet on some days literally half the masks will be gone. 

[SPL22]

100% CORRECT. Camera Raw allows us to mask, and it has awesome masking tools.PS has the same but not as good in my opion. Anyway, yes when creating a mask in Camera Raw 15, there is ZERO way to SAVE it. ITs unbelieveable Adobe would fail to see this. Why cant I open a .dng for example, Raw opens up, then I make a nice mask and press, open. Then in PS, the mask is GONE. Its a F***N joke to be honest. Why have maksing in RAW in the first place?