Issue Loading Previous Edits

Report · May 17, 2024

Hey y'all,

For the last few months I've been encountering an irritating bug that I would love some help solving.

I have a catalog of around 90,000 images--a mix of digital camera files as well as film scans. Running Mac OSX Sonoma 14.4.1 with Lightroom Classic 13.2 (CC, updating automatically).

The issue: In Library grid view, I see my edited images, but when I select an image, after a few seconds of "thinking", the edit dissapears and the image shows as if it just came straight from camera (unedited). This remains the same when I move into the Develop module. The edit history is still intact, so I simply have to navigate to the most recent (top line) of the edit history and select it to reload the edit. Almost like I'm reminding it that it's been edited.

This bug only affects images from before a certain date. So if I import new images and edit them, they hold their edits just fine. But the majority of my libary is affected by this issue. It's not the end of the world because as I mentioned, the edit history is there. It's just an irritating step that I need to take. Going through and selecting the latest history for 90,000 images would take me forever.

Is there a way of forcing Lightroom to apply the edit history as it does for my recently imported images?

I have alreay tried building standerd previews for affected folders as well as reinstalling Lightroom. Neither have fixed the issue.

I have also tried importing affected folders into a new catalog and some work but other folders trigger this message: "Lightroom couold not import this catalog because of and unknown error."

Corrupred catalog maybe? What can I do about this?

Thanks!

Report · Jun 13, 2025

Hello again @drtonyb

Actually, you've helped me discover another problem. The photos with this issue are not showing when I filter for images with edit status. They have been edited, but because the edits are being ignored, I can't filter on this basis. Therefore, the 4,900 might only be counting the ones that are not impacted by this issue.

Any suggestions???

Report · Oct 23, 2025

This problem might be due to plugin. Is this problem present in catalogs where Negative Lab Pro plugin was used?

Report · Nov 17, 2025

I am also seeing this same problem. I have a library with tens thousands of photos with edits. The photos are set to save sidecar files. If I click the top item in the history I get back my edits. But I can go through my entire library and do that. Really hoping adobe is aware of this problem and working on a solution. This is very discouraging to feeling like my photos and my work editing them is secure with lightroom.

Report · Nov 17, 2025

Sorry a mistype - "But I can<'t> go through my entire library and do that"

Report · Nov 18, 2025

@briank68294080 I am sorry to hear that you are having this issue too. As you can see from my replies earlier in this post, and the various links given in those replies, I also had this problem back at the end of 2024 and spent several frustrating weeks trying to solve it.

The very helpful people here, to whom I was very grateful, suggested a corrupt catalog, but my bigger question to Adobe was why was the same thing happening to different users, using different systems. Why were the catalogs becoming corrupt in the first place - or is it indeed a bug? See especially my reply here on 22 Jan 2025.

@Aleke , @Rikk Florr, @Shrishti Bali, @Sameer K, and any other Adobe employees - I notice that Adobe employees are more active on this forum than in the past, so could you please look into this issue? The Lightroom Queen, Victoria Brampton, has at least acknowledged that some users are having this problem (top edit history step not highlighted and all of its ramifications)!

Report · Nov 20, 2025

I've been having this same issue and it's so frustrating while editing and trying to get through the busy season with my photo business. Has anyone from Adobe been able to help you find the solution to the problem? I'm desperate, I feel like this along with the price hike this past year are almost enough for me to be willing to try out other softwares.

Report · Nov 20, 2025

@KylaStearns, and @briank68294080

Unfortunately I didn't get help from Adobe, and the issue has never been acknowledged by them. I sent them my catalog to be repaired, which they did but it didn't make any difference. I had three calls from support but they just started at the beginning again each time, with no progress. I pushed to have it escalated to senior technicians which they said that they did, but I never heard anything from these senior technicians. There were many suggestions made by the wonderful people on this forum but unfortunately none of them worked for me.

After weeks of frustration, and hours and hours of my time, I finally solved it myself by going back to a v12 backup (all v13 versions had the same issue) and rebuilding my catalog. I thought it was something to do with various changes made during v13, so I have no idea why it is still happening.

This might help - to contact Adobe support go to https://helpx.adobe.com/au/contact.html?rghtup=autoOpen

At the bottom right of the screen is a circle with a message icon in it, click on that and where it says "Type your message here" type "Agent" and this might bypass the chatbot and get you to a human faster!

Also, if you haven't done it already, click on "Follow" on the very first entry for this post (or possibly on any of the replies) and you will get email notifications of any replies. Good luck and I do hope Adobe can solve it.

Report · Nov 20, 2025

Bummer 😞 I might just try switching back to one of the older versions then to see if that helps I guess

Report · Nov 20, 2025

If it doesn't, keep asking for help on here and hope that an Adobe Employee will respond. Not sure whether @briank68294080 solved his issues?

Report · Dec 04, 2025

I recently ran into a problem when Lightroom Classic said my catalog was corrupted. It managed to fix the file, but all my previews showed the unedited versions. I was frustrated clicking through the history tab for hundreds of photos, until I tried loading the metadata from the file in the library tab—and voila! My edits came back, saving me hours of work.