How to find all the photos where AI masks need to be updated?

[Soji_Okita]

Hi,

When I changed my computer I forgot to copy the .lrcat-data file on the new one.
This file contains all the AI masks...

I still have it but now that I have processed a lot of new files so I can't go back (if there is a way to merge them that would be nice).

When I develop such a file, there is a little warning near the histogram and the update is really quick, however I don't know how to spot them from the library module.

Is there a way to find all files where an AI mask update is needed?

[Bob Somrak]

Not with just LrC but you can use @johnrellis 's Anyfilter Plugin to do this.  John created the following code to do this in his plugin that I use.  He may have a new method since then.

Plugin is here

anyfilter.htm

[johnrellis · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately, the Any Filter query posted by Bob won't work in this case.  That query finds all photos that have an AI mask but never had the mask actually computed.  That situation would arise with the original versions of LR providing AI masking when you copied masks from one photo to another -- LR would copy the type of the mask (e.g. Sky or Subject) but not actually compute it until you edited the target photo and opened the Masking panel and clicked Update.  With newer versions of LR, when you copy an AI mask, LR usually recomputes it as well.

Your situation is different: the AI masks have been computed but you accidentally deleted the .lrcat-data file containing the actual computed masks. The photo metadata (which Any Filter can search) contains references to those masks (the Mask Digest), but the actual contents of the masks in the .lrcat-data file are missing. Any Filter isn't able to detect that situation.

However, you can do the following:

1. Go to All Photographs and select all photos.

2. Do the menu command Photo > Develop Settings > Update AI Settings. For photos that don't have AI masks, it goes about 100 photos/sec.

This isn't super speedy but it's fast enough to start it running and then go get lunch or go to bed.  You could use Any Filter to find all photos that have an AI mask, but that would take longer to set up than simply running Update AI Settings.

[Soji_Okita]

Thanks to you both.

The command (Photo / Develop Settings / Update AI Settings) is exactly what I was looking for, I searched the menus without finding it.

I'll probably launch the command on my entire catalog just to be sure.

The plugin actually seems to work in this case (search + sky/subject mask needs updating find the correct photos - I didn't find any corresponding filter).

By the way the plugin is great and there are many other cases where I'd need, it so I'll probably buy a licence.

It fills some frustrating omissions in Lightroom search/filter criteria.

[johnrellis]

"The plugin actually seems to work in this case (search + sky/subject mask needs updating find the correct photos - I didn't find any corresponding filter)."

Very curious.  I tested it by deleting the .lrcat-data file, and the Mask Digest field remained non-empty.  So there's obviously something going on with AI masking that I'm not completely understanding.

[Soji_Okita]

There are maybe several ways to lose the AI mask data.

The photos that were found were already processed (and exported) in the past so it was not a copy/paste without update.

To be honest I don't know when the masks were lost, I switched from on old PC to a mac studio, then transfered the data to another studio, then switched back to the old PC and now I transferred to a mac mini.

For instance, it's possible than when re-switching to PC I just used the old .lrdata file without the masks created on the mac studio.

I launched the AI update on the whole catalog anyway, I didn't want to miss any file.