LRC --> PS --> LRC import ISSUES

[Jamie@FTP]

During my workflow with LRC and PS, sometimes PS just will not save back to LRC no matter how many times I try. It says saving at the bottom of PS but never shows back up in LRC. I've tried restarting both programs and my desktop, I've updated both apps. This happens frequently and really disrupts the workflow so I'm hoping someone here can help me! I'm at a loss. I use Windows on Desktop with Lightroom Classic and Photoshop for reference. 

[dj_paige]

What steps do you follow to go from LrC to PS? Please be specific and detailed, leaving nothing out.

What steps do you follow to go from PS to LrC? Please be specific and detailed, leaving nothing out.

[Jamie@FTP]

From LrC to PS --> right click, edit in, edit in Adobe Photoshop 2024

From PS to LrC --> command "s" which saves it as a .TIFF 

*90% of the time, my new photo is saved as a copy right next to my original in LrC but when I have problems saving it, I cannot for the life of me figure out HOW to fix it. Usually I get frustrated and give up and when I try again later it works but I've done nothing differently. 

[dj_paige]

When it doesn't work, make sure the sort order of your photos is capture date.

File->View->Sort

[Jamie@FTP]

The sort order in PS or LrC? I don't see "view" under file in either program? 

[Jamie@FTP]

I found in LrC under view --> sort --> mine says capture time (there is no capture date option available). Files are still currently not saving from PS to LrC though.

[dj_paige]

My mistake, it is just View->Sort, but obviously that's not the solution

[Jamie@FTP]

Any other ideas? I'm desperate. 

[dj_paige]

Sorry, I don't have any other thoughts, it has never happened to me.

[JohanElzenga]

Go to 'All Photographs', make sure you do not have an active filter, and check again. Usually when people report that the saved Photoshop image does not come back to Lightroom, it only looks like it does not. For example because you have an active filter that filters on raw files, and so it filters out the returning TIFF. Or because you are in a smart collection doing the same. There is also a rare problem called 'the capitalization error', where the image is saved in a different folder (but is added to the catalog correctly).

[GoldingD]

Are you looking for the images when you are in a collection?

[richardplondon]

Besides making sure that you check alongside the starting image in its Folder view - and with any filtering disabled, for example if you are viewing only Raw format images - there are a couple of technical matters at the Photoshop end.

Firstly to exclude this: once you have initially saved the image from PS, further saves of variations under a different name will not be automatically seen by the Catalog. 

Next, PS has a setting to 'Include Compatibility Preview'. This applies for PSD - since TIFF includes one regardless. Un-checking this option means a PSD will save slightly smaller when it has got layers - but the consequence is, any PSD which is layered will then become unreadable by Lightroom / LrClassic (though a flat file - only a Background layer - would be readable). So this option needs its checkmark.

Next: LrC is looking for a standard RGB format file, or else can interpret (and internally convert to RGB for its own operations) a CMYK format file. But setting any other colour-model options such as Duotone, will IIRC make that file a mystery to Lightroom. 

Configuring LrC's external editing to happen in TIFF file format is perfectly fine, and supports everything (such as Smart Object workflow) that PSD would otherwise support. But at the PS end, I would not set the compression options for TIFF to anything unusual in case LrC might then have difficulty unpacking that.

Also - depending on operating system - both PS and LrC may need to be granted full modification rights to the file system.

Also: if your file system is being synced to cloud - for example, if OneDrive is backing up Pictures and this is where the image file is being made - there may be a temporary lock while the newly made file is being synced online, getting in the way of LrC's import of that as a new image. This could be sporadic and accidental. Personally I am not a fan of continually syncing, live, any area of the file system that the Catalog is also constantly managing, in potential competition with the syncing operations. 

I am sure there are further considerations but - those are the ones that occur to me right now.