Lightroom will not create Virtual Copies

[heathers46977296]

Issue: Lightroom Classic will not create virtual copies for any images

Provide Lightroom Classic version: 12.5 [ 202308091523-68a7abd6 ]
Provide OS and version: 12.5 (21G72)

Step 1 Open Lightroom Library Module or Develop Module (both do the same thing)
Step 2 Select one or multiple images
Step 3 Right click, create virtual copies

Expected result: Lightroom Classic should create virtual copies
Actual result: Lightroom Classic does not, it deselects your selection and does nothing. Occurs in both Library and Develop Module. 

[moved from bugs to discussions - Mod.]

[John R Ellis]

First, restart your computer. If the problem persists, try resetting LR's preferences:
https://www.lightroomqueen.com/articles-page/how-do-i-reset-lightrooms-preferences/

LR sometimes soils its preferences file, and resetting it can fix all sorts of wonky behavior. That article explains how to restore the old preferences if resetting doesn't help.

[GoldingD]

Were you selecting from a folder or a collection?

[heathers46977296]

Collection. Oddly enough, when I leave that collection and I go to "All Photographs" in the Library module it shows the virtual copies. It isn't adding them to the existing collection. So it looks like a glitch of some sort. 

I restarted the computer, tried upgrading my OS (which didn't take which is odd, and another issue altogether), reopened LR and they still don't show in the collection but they are showing in the entire catalog of photos. 

[heathers46977296]

Update - the photos are creating virtual copies, however they aren't showing up in the Collection I am working within. They go to the general "All Photographs in Catalog" area. 

[GoldingD]

/edit/That is normal. You will also see it in the folder that the original photo is in.

[heathers46977296]

Is this a change? I have been working with the same workflow for 5 years and never had this occur. To clarify, I am in the collection when I am creating the copies, and it usually creates them within the collection (And All Photographs), but they are in the collection to edit and use alongside the others. They are no longer showing in the collection. They also will not add to any collection now that I have found them. So I have to edit them all within that All Photographs area vs alongside the photos in the collection. They also seem to disappear when I use any filters, such as colour label. Despite being "Yellow" for example, and filtering yellow, they don't show up. 

[GoldingD]

Normal or Smart Collection?

[John R Ellis]

When you create a virtual copy from a photo, it always appears in the folder containing the photo and in All Photographs. 

If you're in a collection when you create the VC, it will also be placed in that collection.

If you're in a smart collection when you create the VC, it will also appear in the smart collection provided it matches the smart collection's rules. Usually it will match, though it's possible to make rules that would cause the VC to not match.

So if the issue is happening when you're in a smart collection, post a full-resolution screenshot (not a phone pic) of the smart collection's rules.

If the issue is happening when you're in a regular collection, then restart your computer and reset your preferences as described above.

[heathers46977296 · Accepted solution]

I ended up figuring it out. There was a filter toggled that I did not know existed (it has never gotten turned on before) - Original Photo. This was filtering out the virtual copies. 

Solved! Thanks for all your quick replies. 

[John R Ellis · Accepted solution]

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

Glad you got it resolved. For reference by others, the Kind: Original Photos button was enabled in the Library Filter bar, which filtered out virtual copies and videos:

Note that resetting preferences would have reset that setting as well (though at the expense of having to re-apply all your settings).

[Ric G]

I discovered that this not only occurrs when trying to create a virtual copy in a Smart Collection, it happens when you try it in a Collection Set. It interesdting to note that Lightroom will happily undo the creation of this nonexistent virtual copy and report that it has done so. If this isn't an actual bug, it is a "feature" that should be documented. Better still, Lightroom should put up an error message when you attempt to do it. 

Background: My longtime asset managment policy has been to keep each day of a multiday shoot in a separate collection and to then put the entire assignment and other collections that may be related into a Collection Set. There are times when I am going through the flagged photos in the collection set that I may want to create a slightly different version of an image (black and white, for example) and want to do that as a virtual copy. With this feature/bug that means I have to go back and find it in the original collection it was in.

[John R Ellis]

@Ric G: "I discovered that this not only occurrs when trying to create a virtual copy in a Smart Collection, it happens when you try it in a Collection Set. It interesdting to note that Lightroom will happily undo the creation of this nonexistent virtual copy and report that it has done so."

When you make a virtual copy, it always appears in the same folder as the original.

When you have a smart collection selected as the current source, select a photo in that smart collection, and create a virtual copy, the virtual copy also appears in the smart collection, since it will have all the same metadata and attributes as the original. The one exception is if the smart-collection rules specifically exclude virtual copies.

When you have a collection set selected as the current source, select a photo, and make a virtual copy, the copy will appear in the folder only, not any of the collections contained in the collection set. This is because in general, LR doesn't know in which contained collection it should place the virtual copy (if the photo is in more than one collection).

If you're not observing this, then please post details about exactly what you're doing, including full-resolution screenshots (not phone pics) of the entire LR window.

[Ric G]

John,

That makes sense, but the logic of it escaped me. Thanks for the explanation. I'll need to keep that in mind when I do a workflow like this again.

Ric