Grant_Fergeson wrote: “I cleared my history panel for an image which also cleared the import version at the bottom…Is there a way to restore the original imort to the bottom line of the History panel while retaining the rest of the subsequent changes? Does my original import still exist? Also can I restore the import version and retain my edits?”
First of all, the first Import step really means: An initial History step based on the raw file plus the default Develop settings, which could be the Lightroom Classic defaults, or your own defaults if you changed them, or the defaults set to the Import preset that was selected when you imported it (if you did that). So the original raw data is always there in the file, you never lose that unless you delete the file itself.
If you haven’t changed any Lightroom Classic defaults for the Develop module, then getting back the first step is easy. You can just click the Reset button at the bottom right corner of the right panel. You’ll see a new History step that says Reset Settings, and that will equal the Import settings. And if you click Reset without clearing History, then you get that new Reset Settings step in addition to the existing history, so you get to roll back without losing any previous steps!
Or, another way is to right-click the Import step in History, and choose Clear History Above This Step. They just added this recently, and it means you don’t have to erase the entire history.
Also, on the same menu, notice the command Copy History Step Settings to Before. That lets you set any History step as the “Before” view for Before and After. So if you re-create the Import step, you can use this command to set it as the Before state.
Again, you never lost anything except edit steps, since the initial Import state is based on defaults of one kind or another that you can usually re-apply.
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