Participant

Answered

Batch Auto-straightening isn't working

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
June 4, 2022
4 replies
35171 views

Good morning! I'm trying to auto straighten a bunch of photos, something I haven't had issues with in the past. I select my images, select 'auto sync', go to the crop tool and hit Auto to straighten. All of my images look like they've had an adjustment made (or LR thinks they have) but if I go back into the image and hit the auto straighten, more adjustments are made. This is frustrating as this used to work, so I don't think it's my technique. Any ideas on how I can make this functional again? Anyone else having this issue? TIA.

Windows

Correct answer johnrellis

[This post contains formatting and embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser.]

When you click the crop tool's Auto button, Auto Sync copies the computed crop angle from the current photo to all the other selected photos, so they all end up with the same angle. It does not recompute the straighten angle for each selected photo. I verified this behavior in LR 11.3.1 and 10.4.

To batch-straighten all the selected photos, computing the correct angle for each photo separately, do this instead:

1. Select all the photos and go to Develop.

2. In the Transform panel, select Level and Constrain Crop.

3. Click the Sync button and select Upright Mode only:

And yes, you could also use Auto Sync, but it's dangerous, and for too many people, using it eventually ends in tears.

C

craig.carmean

Participant

2024. Still paying a premium subscription price and Adobe can't give us the ability to batch correct.

johnrellis

Legend

@craig.carmean, see this post for how to automatically level a batch of photos:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/batch-auto-straightening-isn-t-working/m-p/13315154#M296862

J

JLavii

Participant

Good day! I found this solution earlier this year and it had been working great for months. but then recently after these new updates, it hasnt been working right for each image any more. Is there a new solution or something I should be doing now?

johnrellis

Legend

Hmm, I just retested my steps above, and they worked in my test catalog with LR 13.0.1. Do Help > System Info -- which exact version of LR are you running?

Nicolas Gop

Participant

Hi John!
there is not Shortcut for Crop - Auto. isn´t ?

roc97007

Known Participant

I'd like to suggest an enhancement request. There's currently no way to auto-straighten a batch of photos. Auto-straighten sometimes gets it wrong, but it would still be a net timesaver. I deal with thousands of photos over multiple days, and the single most common buttons I press in Develop is "r" followed by clicking on the "Auto" button. There doesn't even seem to be a keyboard shortcut for auto straighten, which although not ideal might be faster.

Ideally, I would Select a bunch of photos, click "Auto" once, and have them all auto straighten, NOT to the same tilt as the first photo, but each straightened as if I did it individually.

Ron

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

There already is a way to do this, even more than one way. The first way is to select the photos, go to the develop module, toggle the little switch of the 'Synchronize' button so it changes to 'Auto Sync' and then click that 'Auto' button to straighten. The second way is to save auto straighten in a preset. Save only the Transformation mode, nothing else. The third way is copy/paste, where again you should only select the mode.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

johnrellis

Legend

Hi all,
I’m trying to batch straighten multiple photos in Lightroom Classic 14.4 (June 2025) using Upright – Level + Constrain Crop.

I’ve tried all usual methods:

Syncing from a reference photo
Auto Sync in Develop
Creating & applying a preset with "Upright Mode: Level"
Quick Develop (but "Upright – Level" is often missing)

In every case, Lightroom sets the Upright mode to “Level” but does NOT analyze the photo — each image still requires manually clicking “Update” in the Transform panel. That defeats the entire point of batch processing.

This exact issue was mentioned recently by @juliaanastazja on June 26, 2025:

“When selecting several pictures and applying Auto Align photo (Crop Overlay menu), all photos will get the same Autolevel settings as the first picture rather than every individual photo getting their own auto level.”

@johnrellis responded with a link to the original 2022 thread, but unfortunately that method (using Quick Develop > Saved Preset > Upright – Level) still doesn’t work in LrC 14.4 — the option is often missing entirely, or when applied, it just marks the image with "Level" mode but leaves it in the "Update" pending state.

So the core issue remains:
🔴 There is still no reliable way to auto-level a batch of images with individual image analysis — unless you manually click "Update" for each one.

Is there any confirmed method or plugin that actually works in current Lightroom Classic?

Thanks in advance!

[This post contains formatting and embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser.]

@Melda: "@johnrellis responded with a link to the original 2022 thread, but unfortunately that method (using Quick Develop > Saved Preset > Upright – Level) still doesn’t work in LrC 14.4"

Hmm, I don't see any recommendation from me to do Quick Develop > Saved Preset > Upright - Level, and I don't recall writing that. I followed the link you posted, which comes back to this thread. That method would only work if you created your own preset of that name with Transform > Upright Mode selected but not Upright Transforms.

"Is there any confirmed method or plugin that actually works in current Lightroom Classic?"

I just verified that the well-known method, posted at the top of this thread, still works:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/batch-auto-straightening-isn-t-working/m-p/12985214#M277012

In the Synchronize Settings dialog, you must select Transform > Upright Mode but not Transform > Upright Transforms. The "mode" is one of the buttons at the top of the Transform panel (Off, Auto, Guided, Level, Vertical, Full):

The Upright Transforms are the actual transformations computed for the source photo of the sync. So when you sync Upright Transforms, all the target photos will be transformed identically to the source photo.

* * *

" it just marks the image with "Level" mode but leaves it in the "Update" pending state."

It sounds like you may have tripped over a longstanding bug that Adobe still hasn't fixed. Once you've synced Upright Transforms to a photo, perhaps by accident, when you subsequently try to sync one of the auto modes (Auto, Level, Vertical, Full), then the mode won't be recomputed automatically on the target photos -- you have to click Update on each one individually.

You can verify that the method above normally works: Import three photos that have never been imported before. Apply Transform > Upright > Level to the first one, then sync just Transform > Upright Mode to the other two. Different levelings should be computed for each of those target photos.

Once you've "poisoned" a photo by syncing Transform > Upright Transforms to it, there are two workarounds:

- In Develop, click Reset to reset all the settings. That of course will discard all your other edits to the photo.

- Run the script I posted that will clear the "poisoned" upright mode from the photos without losing your other edits:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-syncing-transform-gt-auto-w-just-upright-mode-checked-sometimes-won-t-automatically-recompute-auto/idc-p/15387332#M61783

I've tested this a fair bit, but the other person to whom I provided it hasn't responded on whether it worked for him. Make a catalog backup right before you run the script just in case.

johnrellisCorrect answer

Legend

[This post contains formatting and embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser.]

When you click the crop tool's Auto button, Auto Sync copies the computed crop angle from the current photo to all the other selected photos, so they all end up with the same angle. It does not recompute the straighten angle for each selected photo. I verified this behavior in LR 11.3.1 and 10.4.

To batch-straighten all the selected photos, computing the correct angle for each photo separately, do this instead:

1. Select all the photos and go to Develop.

2. In the Transform panel, select Level and Constrain Crop.

3. Click the Sync button and select Upright Mode only:

And yes, you could also use Auto Sync, but it's dangerous, and for too many people, using it eventually ends in tears.

heatherc15475534Author

Participant

Thanks so much, I'll try this!

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded