LR Not Sorting by Capture Time After Photoshop Edit

[FSchleyhahn]

For quite sometime now, I have been experiencing an issue with Photoshop edited images going to the beginning of a collection after being edited in Photoshop.  Here's a description of my work-flow:  

1. From LR, I select highlight the image and then select <Edit in Adobe Photoshop 2022>.  NOTE:  The image is in the correct sort order (Capture time) at this time.

2. PS opens and I do my editing.  I then save the image and the edited image (along with the original DNG file) now appear at the very beginning of my collection.  If I go to the Library Module and change the sort by to anything else (i.e. Added Order) then change it back to Capture Time, it then organizes both the PS edited image and the original RAW image in the correct order.

While on a call yesterday with LR Support for a completely unrelated issue, I mentioned this issue to the support rep and he saw it and advised that I update the C++ packages and if that didn't work, to completely re-install LR.  I did both, yet the problem persists.  I am experiencing this on two desktops, so it's not isolated to one machine.

Do any of you have suggestions?  Many thanks for your assistance.

[AxelMatt]

Please try resetting the preferences of Lightroom Classic:   https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/setting-preferences-lightroom.html

It's recommended to backup your preferences before you reset the preferences to the default settings: 

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/preference-file-and-other-file-locations.html

[FSchleyhahn]

Thank you for the reply!  Unfortunately, that didn't work.  I even renamed my preferences file (appdata\roaming\adobe\lightroom) and tried it and still, the same thing is happening.  Very strange!

[John R Ellis]

Please do the menu command Help > System Info and copy/paste the first ten lines here.

[FSchleyhahn]

[John R Ellis]

Windows 10 or 11?

[FSchleyhahn]

10. And the problem occurs on 2 different Windows 10 desktops.

[John R Ellis]

I tried reproducing the steps you described but didn't observe the problem. 

Perhaps make a full-resolution screen recording showing all the steps of the problem.  Upload the video to Dropbox, Google Drive, or similar and post the sharing link here. The video might make it clearer how to reproduce the problem.

Unless Adobe can easily reproduce the problem, they're unlikely to look at it.

[FSchleyhahn]

Thanks for all your help with this.  It's very strange.  It happens on 2 different desktops.  Here is the link to a video I made showing the issue.  

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AnhOSgoeuTYjgco07SiQaIlE78oHfg?e=mf22UF

[Jeff2D2]

I have my photos sorted by capture date with the newest picture at the top. I have a very similar issue when editing in Photoshop as you demonstrate in this video, with my edited photo then appearing at the very bottom of the library (as if it's the "oldest" picture). 
Closing and opening the app does resolve the issue, but I have also noticed that it resolves itself after some amount of time (usually 2-5 minutes). In my mind, it's like the library needs to fully rescan itself to determine exactly where this "new" photo fits chronologically. Maybe not what's actually happening, but it does eventually find it's way back to the proper spot in the library. 
Have you ever waited 10-15 minutes and continue to work in the app to see if it moves to the correct order, rather than just restarting the app right away?

Not ideal, but at least it's not "permanently" broken. 

[FSchleyhahn]

Unfortunately, that didn't work.  I did a quick edit in PS and saved it and both the edited TIFF and the original DNG appeared at the beginning of the collection.  I left and it's 2 hours later and both are still in the same spot.  If I change the sort order to anything else (i.e. Added Order) then change it back to Capture Time, both the original DNG and the edited TIFF appear in the right spot.  It's very odd.  Again, the same thing happens on another desktop that I use.  Thanks for your help.

[Jeff2D2]

Interesting that the original file also gets put out of order. Not something I have experienced. Definitely some sort of bug. Hopefully Adobe can address. Is there some way to bring this to their attention? I use a Mac and could upload a similar video if that would help. 

[John R Ellis]

I tried replicating all the details shown in your video -- editing in a large collection, filters turned off, using smart previews (with and without the option Use Smart Previews Instead Of Originals For Image Editing) -- and unfortunately couldn't replicate the problem.

One other thought: In Photoshop, do the menu command Help > System Info and verify you're on version 23.4.1.  Sometimes LR or PS can behave oddly when they're not both on the latest version.

[FSchleyhahn]

Yeah, it's 23.4.1.  Thanks for your help.  Not for sure what else to do at this point.

[John R Ellis]

I don't have any further ideas either.

[FSchleyhahn]

An update on this issue.  I am now working in a different collection than the last two I had been experiencing this issue in and I am no longer having the problem.  It's my assessment that this problem occurs with collections that are rather large.  When I travel, I create a collection per country.  The last two collections I had been working with contained around 8,000 images and 4,000 images, respectively.  It appears that when the number of images is below those numbers, this sorting problem is not occurring.  

[RP23]

Thanks for your info. I have this problem also and it is very frustrating. It happens in collections as small as 500 images. It wastes a lot of time if I can't see my edits right next to the originals. Each file clearly lists the correct

1. Date Time Original, 2. Date Time Digitized and 3. Date Time (which is when I edited and saved). It is clearly sorting by Date Time not Date Time Original when we choose Sort by Capture. I bet Adobe needs to update the programming since "capture" isn't listed on files anymore and instead Date Time Original is.

[John R Ellis]

"Each file clearly lists the correct 1. Date Time Original, 2. Date Time Digitized and 3. Date Time (which is when I edited and saved). It is clearly sorting by Date Time not Date Time Original when we choose Sort by Capture. I bet Adobe needs to update the programming since "capture" isn't listed on files anymore and instead Date Time Original is."

LR maintains its own notion of capture date in the catalog. It sets capture date to EXIF:DateTimeOriginal if it exists, but if not, it uses the last-modified date of the file, which is often but not always EXIF:DateTime. When LR thinks EXIF:DateTimeOriginal is missing, it behaves very inconsistently:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-still-inconsistent-capture-date-time-for-pho...

Your issue may be caused by LR not completely reading the metadata from the file created by Photoshop, with some parts of LR thinking EXIF:DateTimeOriginal is missing. There have been sporadic issues with this over the years, most recently with this bug acknowledged by Adobe:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-files-edited-in-photoshop-are-returned-to-lr...

In this incarnation, LR often correctly reads the capture date from the PS TIFF but sometimes doesn't . The correct value appears in the Metadata panel and under the thumbnail but not in the Library Filter bar's Metadata browser's Date column.  The workaround for that bug is to select the TIFF and do Metadata > Read Metadata From File.

The same workaround might help with your issue.  When you see one or more files not correctly sorting by capture date, select them and do Metadata > Read Metadata From File. 

[richardplondon]

Important to be aware Read Metadata from File will replace your current Develop edits wholesale, with [whatever] edit state might be present externally. IF you have been writing your edits out to file as you worked, (automatically or manually) the internal and external edit states will be identical so this will not matter.

Reading in metadata happens as a new History step so I suppose one could roll that back if needed - and if one was aware that this was needed.

IF you can't be certain the external metadata will be up to date, it is quick and safe to ensure latest edit state is first written out (Ctrl+S / Cmd+S) - before Reading this straight back in.

[Fremen9]

Its March 2024 and this issue is still present in lightroom classic. 
I have found a work-around which is to go into grid mode and sort by something else, and then sort back to capture time.  That places the edited image in the right position in the grid.  Very annoying and I can't believe they haven't fixed this bug after years.