P: AI Masks Require updating and/or disappear

[Shelemiah]

Hello,

I recently had a call with Adobe support with no luck. I have found some threads on this but nothing presents a solution and it seems hard to find what the actual issue is.

If I edit a client gallery and use any healing brush tool or AI masking tool, the mask or healing brush/generative AI will get a red dot underneath after going back to the start of the gallery, my AI edits are gone....

I also noticed this happens 100% of the time when I quite and reopen lightroom, I can fix the mask, update ai settings but it just resets each time I open lightroom.

We tested a new catalogue, we tested a bunch of things with no luck. 

We really need a fix on this Adobe it is killing workflow, not sure what broke this setting. I can't revert to an old version because I have lots of photos (I do 1 catalogue per year) and can't go back weeks of client work.

Also this catalogue was started at the begining of 2025 so there is no version 13 of this catalogue to revert to and test.

PLEASE HELP ADOBE!

[Noel Orridge]

Hi @nanou1207! Thanks for reaching out! I'm sorry you're running into this issue.

Could you share more information, like your system configuration? From Help> System info> Copy and paste it into a text file and attach it to your response? To be clear, are the AI edits disappearing after you remove objects with the removal tool? When did you start noticing this issue? Maybe after an update to the OS, the application, or any hardware change in the setup? 

Meanwhile, you can try these fixes and see if they resolve the issue.

Rebuild the AI Edit Data File: From Edit > Catalog Settings, find the location for your catalog file. Find the .lrcat-data file: In the same folder as your main catalog file (which ends in .lrcat), you will find a file named [Your Catalog Name].lrcat-data. 

Relaunch Lightroom Classic. Lightroom will automatically create a new, fresh—lrcat-data file.

Update AI Settings one last time: You may need to go through your images and click "Update AI Settings" one final time.

Apply Generative Remove first: Next time, try performing any generative AI edits, such as removing objects, before making other significant changes like cropping or applying lens corrections.

Let us know how it goes!

Cheers!

[Aleke]

Hi @nanou1207! Welcome to the community and sorry to hear you're having this issue as well.

The .lrcat-data file in Lightroom Classic is usually located in the same folder as your catalog file (.lrcat). You’ll typically find this folder inside the "Lightroom" folder, which is located in your "Pictures" folder on both Windows and macOS.

Do you see it there?

Thanks so much!
Alek

[johnrellis]

@nanou1207: "When I'm in Lightroom, the edits appear fine in grid view, but a red dot appears under the deletion tool and I have to click "update all" for each photo and then export it immediately, otherwise the edits disappear again."

Dozens of people have reported this problem:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-ai-masks-require-updating-and-or-disa...

There's no reliable workaround, though this one helps some people:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-ai-masks-require-updating-and-or-disa... 

Some have reported that building a brand new catalog also helps (which obviously could be a very painful for many users).

Adobe support has been gathering information from users in that thread, though to date, Adobe has not yet acknowledged the issue as a "bug".

[johnrellis]

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography, please merge with this discussion:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-ai-masks-require-updating-and-or-disa...

[JNY35164117bg30]

Hei liebe Britta, hast Du eine Lösung finden können? Ich habe leider genau das selbe Problem und weiß nicht weiter 😞 

[JNY35164117bg30]

Hei liebe Caro, hast Du eine Lösung finden können? Ich habe genau das selbe Problem 😞 

[johnrellis]

@JNY35164117bg30, 

Dozens of people have reported this problem:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-ai-masks-require-updating-and-or-disa...

There's no reliable workaround, though this one helps some people:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-ai-masks-require-updating-and-or-disa... 

Some have reported that building a brand new catalog also helps (which obviously could be a very painful for many users).

Adobe support has been gathering information from users in that thread, though to date, Adobe has not yet acknowledged the issue as a "bug".

[johnrellis]

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography, please merge with this discussion:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-ai-masks-require-updating-and-or-disa...

[sarahb53645011]

@johnrellis Have you found/heard any info on why the .lrcat-data file is corrupted or can't be written to anymore? I've had this issue pop up now multiple times in the past 3 months or so, but I think I've gone at least a month without any issues after the last time I cleared and re-built the data file until it happened again today. It just takes so much time to figure out which galleries/photos have been affected so I can fix them, and it would be amazing if I didn't have to keep going through this process. Thanks for any advice/tips!

[johnrellis]

@sarahb53645011: "Have you found/heard any info on why the .lrcat-data file is corrupted or can't be written to anymore?"

Unfortunately not.

LR 14.0.1 fixed a bug with similar symptoms:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-subject-mask-from-previous-versions-are-requ... 

though it may have had a completely different underlying cause than what people have been reporting here the last many months.

The .lrcat-data file uses the open-source Rocksdb embedded database. Given how widely used Rocksdb is, including by web-scale services including Facebook, Yahoo, and Linkedin, it's more likely that the bug resides in LR proper rather than Rocksdb.

[Clairesrt]

Bonjour,

Je recontre exactement le même problème depuis plusieurs semaines, j'ai tout essayé rien n'y fait. 
Adobe on a besoin d'une solution ! C'est absolument ingérable  !!

[Johann251191710l77]

Alle KI Anpassungen lassen sich nicht aktualisieren. Weder die Masken, noch die Bearbeitung mit dem Entfernen Tool. Ich muss einige Stempel manuell aktualisieren und die Masken löschen und danach wieder neu hinzufügen. Wenn ich Lightroom schließe und neu öffne, geht das ganz Spiel wieder von vorne los. Alle Aktualisierungen sich verloren und müssen wieder neu angepasst werden. So zieht sich das durch die komplette Hochzeitsreportage! 

[Hans Malestein]

Hi all,

Today it's 29 July,  and the issue is still there. I encounter same issue, AI Generative deleting, are gone when I move back to a phote. Also after export, returnign back to my photo's the AI deletions are gone.

ADOBE PLEASE HELP. I cannot deliver my photoshoot to my clients!

[Jennifer38207472m62e]

Agree this is incredibly frustrating. I just hit delete masks because I couldn't get it to actually identify correctly and now all the AI is gone so it won't identify objects anymore. Either my reset of a photo has red flecks all over the daisies, which was not there to begin with. I need to know how to reset my masking to coincide with AI to actually detect the colors correctly on this photo so I can finish it

[Andy_Barker9716]

I am having exactly the same issues currently on my third all nigh edit trying to get images over to the client , Ai edits vanish randomly wont batch update , have tried prefecrence reset , movig  Icat and folders etc currently having to update every image one at a time and processing a huge job one at atime in desperate need of a fix and some sleep , any thoughts would be gratefully received ! 

[Andy_Barker9716]

sorry exactly the same issues as the thread  above , I have never been frustrated enough to come on here before!\

[Andy_Barker9716]

Adobe Please help with this on any thread i have read them all

[hollye49293157]

This exact issue has also been a nightmare for me. 

The AI revert back/disappear within mere minutes. I have to do the edit and then immediately export the image to the final folder if I have any hope of having that ai remove saved. 

This is a nightmare for me as a wedding photographer having to deliver hundreds and hundreds of photos and the thick of wedding season approaching.

ADOBE PLEASE FIX THIS!!! 

[Andy_Barker9716]

Hello All , now this is more in case I am doing something wrong,  but the only new things I have done is add plug ins , I am hoping this hasn't caused  this issue it so the two I have looked at lately are Topaz  for noise and Imagen it couldnt be anything to do with these could it , it anyone else ? just desperate to get Lightroom back up and running x

[johnrellis]

[Updated 8/2/2025: Link to Imagen AI Facebook thread where Imagen unconvincingly points the finger at Adobe.]

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@Andy_Barker9716: "Imagen"

I just tried Imagen AI on a test catalog, and this bad behavior started immediately (see below for details), and repeated Update AI Settings didn't fix it.

Imagen AI modifies the LR catalog directly, which isn't documented by Adobe, and it appears that in recent LR versions, it's not modifying the catalog correctly. Five people in this thread have reported they use Imagen AI. Does anyone else here use it?

In the Imagen AI Facebook group, Imagen claimed there's an Adobe bug that they worked around a month ago:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/imagenai/posts/964879265690700/ 

(The group is private and you need to request to join -- annoying when companies use Facebook's crippled groups.)  As my test yesterday demonstrates, the problem is still very much present.

If you're using Imagen AI, you should report this very bad bug to them. Meanwhile, these two workarounds worked for me:

- In my tests, the workaround of deleting the <catalog>.lrcat-data corrected the problem, at least for now.

- A safer workaround is to use Imagen AI's Bridge workflow rather than the Lightroom Classic workflow. You select one or more folders of photos to upload and then you download .xmp sidecars containing Imagen AI's edits. You can then import those photos into the LR catalog, or if they're already in the catalog, do Metadata > Read Metadata From File to read the edits in the sidecars into LR.

As a longtime plugin developer, I was quite surprised to discover Imagen AI modifying my catalog. The catalog schema isn't documented by Adobe, and the schema often changes from release to release. This Imagen AI problem is likely a direct result of the schema changing recently, and it's typical of the problems with reverse engineering.  It may well be that the catalog is not behaving internally the way Imagen believes it should, but Adobe's only obligation is to make the catalog work properly with Lightroom itself, not third-party tools that reverse engineer it.

DETAILS

Here are the users in this thread reporting their use of Imagen AI:

@erik_2636: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-ai-masks-require-updating-and-or-disa...

@britta_2105: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-ai-masks-require-updating-and-or-disa... 

@alma_mogli: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-ai-masks-require-updating-and-or-disa... 

@Andy_Barker9716: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-ai-masks-require-updating-and-or-disa... 

@Hans Malestein: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-ai-masks-require-updating-and-or-disa...

In my initial test, I used Imagen AI's Lightroom Classic workflow, in which the Imagen AI app downloads its edits directly into the LR catalog. 

On photos where Imagen AI added LR AI masks, the AI Edit Status button was yellow. But clicking it and doing Update didn't have any effect, and neither did Settings > Update AI Settings.  If I applied Remove on top of an AI mask added by Imagen, did Update AI Settings, left the photo, and came back, it needed updating again, and the effect of the Remove was gone, even after doing Update AI Settings again.

Similarly, if I added an AI mask to a photo to which Image AI hadn't added one, and then did Remove on top of that followed by Update AI Status, it wasn't permanent. Leaving the photo and coming back to it, the effect of the Remove wouldn't reappear even after doing Update AI Status.

[Hans Malestein]

Yes I also started using Imagan AI last week, and as of that moment I had the issue!  So that's the root cause?! 

Thanks for investigating and hopefully Imagen AI is going to solve it ASAP!

Meantime, all new photoshoot thereafter (and not using Imagen AI) have the issue, so looks like Lightroom is now infacted for all new editted shoots as well...

[johnrellis]

@Hans Malestein: "all new photoshoot thereafter (and not using Imagen AI) have the issue, so looks like Lightroom is now infacted for all new editted shoots as well..."

I also observed that photos not modified by Imagen AI were also affected.  But the first workaround I described, deleting the <catalog>.lrcat-data file, corrected the issue for me.  Did it work for you?  

[Hans Malestein]

Hi @johnrellis I just did your workaroudn and it solved the issues!! Many thanks. I moved the Lightroom Catalog-2-v13-3.lrcat-data file to a backup folder and started LR again, creating a new x.lrcat.data file and there after Executed Automated AI updates in Development, for last 3 fotoshoots. And thereafter all AI deletions stay remained!  

Many thank for your advice!

Fot the comming period I will stay away frm Imagine AI! I was just trying if it could help and improve my workfolow ann save time, but for teh comign period I will NOT use Image AI anymore!!

Now delivered my last shoot and time for holiday!

[Jason297497261vo4]

 Your change to AI Denoising has decimated my workflow. It often takes two-three passes of updating AI Denoise settings...and even then, when I export my photos I still have no idea if they'll export with the most up-to-date settings! It takes me roughly three times as long to output photos now. I'm really unhappy with this.

[BAP__]

Lately when using the mask feature in lighroom classic it wont save my edit. So, when I click to another part of my gallery and then back to my recent edit, it seems to remove the mask. I will then use the Ai suggestions and it fixes it but then again when i click back to the photo it removes it - is this happening to anyone elses? does anyone have tips on how to troubleshoot or get this bug to stop? Ive waisted a ton of time editing bc ive had to reedit the same photo multiple times because of this and still its not working - anything helps.