P: Tethering

[scottawoodward]

I am a professional photographer who relies heavily on LR for my digital workflow. I tether my Nikon D3 and D3x to LR frequently. I've never had an issue with tethering my cameras to LR until this past week. And, after much frustration and processes-of-elimination and testing the issue across multiple machines, I BELIEVE that the problem has to do with the latest OSX 10.6.8 update when running LR 3.4.1.

You can read my initial post about this problem on Adobe forums here http://forums.adobe.com/message/37883... when I was stumped about why it was happening.

Then you can see my follow-up post about this problem today here http://forums.adobe.com/message/37894... and why I think it has to do with the recent 10.6.8 update.

Please feel free to contact me for anymore information. I really hope you can look into this issue.

Thank you,

Scott Woodward

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I too have had this same problem since updating both LR 3.4.1 and OS 10.6.8. I shoot with a D3x. I certainly hope there will be a fix for this. I am using a workaround now, but would like to shoot tethered through LR

[ben anders]

Thought I'd follow up with my progress with this.
I was advised to delete the adobe lr plist in library.
Completely solved the issue and lr is also now much faster and responsive.

[Butch_M]

I concur with ben ... deleting the preference file and re-starting Lr did the trick ... tested a D200 and D300 connected to a Macbook Pro running Lion and Lr 3.4.1 for several hours ... no issues whatsoever ....

[scottawoodward]

Do you mean Library > Preferences > com.adobe.Lightroom3?

[Geoff the kiwi]

That would be it!!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

If the fix stated above came from Adobe... could we get an official confirmation on it? I dont mind deleting files... I would just like to feel comfortable doing it. :)

Also... I would love to see some clear direction on exactly what file to delete and exactly how to get there. When I go to the Finder, I see two Library structures. One under Mac HD and one under Users. I dont know if it makes a difference or if they are the same Library folder.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Still no problems with LR tether with Lion or the last version of Snow Leopard? As I had said above I downloaded a different application, which works flawlessly, but it is expensive and adds a step to my workflow because I'm still using lightroom to catalog. I'm going to be against the wall in less than 20 days when my free trial is over so I'm curious if deleting this plist file has indeed done the trick and you haven't had any problems with lightroom tether disconnecting for any unknown reason or suddenly fail to import images and/or see camera settings in the tether window. Thanks!

[scottawoodward]

I agree with Jeff on this. I am a little reluctant to delete anything. It would be nice to hear from an Adobe employee directly on this specific fix suggestion and/or any update on the progress of implementing a solution to this problem from their side. I have also held-off on upgrading to Lion for fear of compounding problems with LR3 even further. Frustrating all around.

[Geoff the kiwi]

To find the preference file for your computer look here: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/843/cpsid_84...

With Lightroom CLOSED remove any "com.adobe.Lightroom3.plist" and Lightroom 2 plist files to your desktop and restart Lightroom which will generate new preferences.
If your problem is not solved you can simply replace the new preferences with the old.

[Geoff the kiwi]

To find the preference file for your computer look here: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/843/cpsid_84...

With Lightroom CLOSED remove any "com.adobe.Lightroom3.plist" and Lightroom 2 plist files to your desktop and restart Lightroom which will generate new preferences.
If your problem is not solved you can simply replace the new preferences with the old.

[Lee_Jay]

Don't be reluctant about deleting the preferences. If you're scared for some reason, just change the file names (add the word "save" in there and you can always get them back). Corruption in the preferences file has caused many people headaches and moving it aside is a simple, painless and low-risk thing to try.

For an official Adobe source, see this technote:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/405/kb405365...

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Ok... a few questions...
What settings or preferences are actually stored in this .plist?
Will I need to reset anything?

[Lee_Jay]

All your preferences are stored in there, view options, which panels are open, etc. Nothing about the images or their organization as all of that is in the catalog.

[Benjamin Warde]

The info from Geoff and Lee Jay is correct. You won't hurt anything by removing your preference files. You don't have to throw it away, you could just move it to the desktop, for example. Then, if nothing was fixed, you could move it back and everything would be as it was before. As Lee Jay says, anything you did to change the default behavior or appearance of Lightroom is stored in this file. Nothing regarding your images or what you've done with your images is stored in this file. Also, as explained in the article that Geoff provided a link to, you want to go into the Library folder that's in your User folder.

As to whether or not throwing out the preferences will help in this particular case, I can't say. It hasn't made any difference in my testing, but your milage may vary.

-Ben

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Deleting or removing the preferences did not work for me in my testing either. I thought that shooting tethered and having the files go to a server may be causing the problem, with further testing proved wrong. I am hoping that Adobe resolves this problem. I have read that reverting to LR Version 3.3 may solve the problem.

[scottawoodward]

Ben, can you shed any light on Adobe's progress with this matter? Is it something you are working on or is it not a priority? An update would be appreciated, just to understand (roughly) when we might be able to expect a fix for this issue... Clearly, many people rely on the tethering function for their workflows (and in my case -- and others' cases -- it's not a "nice-to-have" but a necessity for our livelihoods). It would just be nice to have some information, please. Thank you.

[Boptissa]

From my opinion, I think there is an issue with Nikon SDK.

I tried today, to shoot from Nikon Camera Control Pro 2.9.0 , and LR 3.4.1 set up in "hot folder" mode with auto import.

Everything is running fine but sometimes, connection is lost between camera and computer.

I have noticed, a few times ago, that Nikon CCP prevents Mac OS screensaver from launching (or disable it). Turning off the camera (breaking USB connection by consequence) solves the problem.

Maybe USB connection from Nikon's gear is not stable as it should be....

My two cents...

[scottawoodward]

Hi David,

Are you suggesting the issue is with Nikon SDK and OSX 10.6.8?

Personally, I've been shooting tethered with 3 different MBP's (running various versions of OSX 10.4 through to the latest version of OSX 10.6.7) and various versions of LR for 3+ years: (A) LR2 with both CCP and Sofortbild and a "watched" folder and (B) the past year or so with LR3 and camera tethered directly. I personally have never experienced the tethering disconnection issue that I described initially -- and many people are also experiencing -- UNTIL THE DAY I upgraded to OSX 10.6.8.

Scott

[Boptissa]

Yes, Scott, you're right... I think both issues are effectively differents.

I was only wondering if they could have the same reason...

Anyway, problems appeared since we upgraded to 10.6.8 (confirmed on two workstations)

That would be interesting ton know if Apple changed something, in 10.6.8, about the way that USB communication is handled ;-)

David

[Benjamin Warde]

Yes, we are actively working on this issue. Unfortunately, I can't give an ETA, but we fully understand that sooner would be better than later.

-Ben

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Hello all.

Just adding that I'm experiencing the same problem and wanted in on the thread. I'm shooting with a d7000 and the latest version of LR 3.4.1. I've not yet tried deleting the plist file(s) but will try tomorrow. Meanwhile, does anyone know if this problem still exists with Lion?

[Lee_Jay]

Just a few threads down from this one:

http://feedback.photoshop.com/photosh...

[scottawoodward]

Per Lee Jay's note above, I followed the link to http://feedback.photoshop.com/photosh... -- which seems to deal with the same tethering problem with OSX Lion and Canon users -- and see that Kevin Tieskoetter (a LR Engineer) says "We've found a solution to the tethering issue on 10.6.8 / 10.7 and the fix will be included in the next dot update. There were apparently changes in the USB drivers starting in 10.6.8, and, as best I can tell, the OS puts the connection to sleep after a certain period of inactivity. I'm not sure if they're doing that to reduce power consumption or some other reason, but it caused LR to lose the connection with the camera."

I am wondering if Kevin is suggesting that Adobe's "found a solution to the tethering issue" for just Canon OR whether it is for Nikon as well? Any insight, Ben or Jeffrey?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Wow. That does sound promising. And it makes sense. I'm new to tethering in Lightroom and I'm glad there's a solution. I just feel bad that you've all been dealing with this for a month (or longer). I'm about a week or so into my 30 day trial of Lightroom and I've been trying to decide if it's worth the $$ to invest in the software. If it isn't fixed soon I doubt that I'll actually make the purchase. I read in an earlier thread that people are tethering in Aperture 3 but I've not really looked into it. And it's only $79. Though it bothers me that when it first came out it was aimed at pro/semi-pro photogs and now it seems like it's aimed at enthusiasts who want an iPhoto on steroids.

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

Kevin has confirmed on the other thread that the fix is for both Canon and Nikon. The fact that they've found the fix hopefully means that you won't have a long wait now.

Christopher, when the update comes out, I believe the trial should be reset, unless they've changed something while I wasn't looking, so you'll be able to try it out properly. Well worth the investment!