Masks in LrC need constant updating

[Sky Photography]

Is anyone else having Ai mask issues in LrC? Generative ai - for example, I remove, come back to photo and says "Some Remove settings need to be updated". Update All button, but, I come back and still need to update again. I've searched the web, but very little, but recent which makes me think it's a new problem.

Ai Masks are the same.

I'm all up to date on Mac and LrC updates.

Read/write on Cat locations.

It's stopping me from delivering weddings

Is anyone else getting super frustrated out there?

[john beardsworth]

The lack of other reports is an indication that it's not a common problem, and I don't think I've seen anything like you describe.

Are these photos synced?

[Sky Photography]

Hi John,

Thanks for your reply.

It's only been in the last week and 4 complete weddings edited!

I'm in a Photographers Facebook group, and others are reporting the same issue.

I'm not using syncing.

[Joel32689053anap]

If they are synced is that what could be causing the ai masks to have to be updated all the time?

[GoldingD]

Not on a MAC, but is something going wrong with the access rights to the file .lrcat-data  ??

[John R Ellis]

These symptoms can occur when LR can't write the .lrcat-data file for some reason, either because LR has corrupted it or there is a permissions issue. LR stores computed masks in that file. Try these steps:

1. In LR, do Edit > Catalog Settings > General > Show. That will open Windows File Explorer on the current catalog folder.

2. Exit LR.

3. Move the file <catalog>.lrcat-data to the Desktop.

4. Start LR.

5. In Library, select all photos and do Photo > Develop Settings > Update AI Settings. That will recompute all the AI masks, which could take a while. But it won't update Generative Removes, so you'll have to go to each photo with Remove, click on Remove, and then Update.

[Jhp2012]

This does not work at all for me.  Absurd I need to update a single photo at a time.  This problem is enough to make me want to leave the Adobe platform after being a customer for 12 years.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

@Jhp2012  Please see: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-subject-mask-from-previous-versions-a... 

[LFBoudoir]

#5 of this worked for me! I export my catalog to my editor and when they sent it back, all the AI filters didn't translate and also they only showed up as smart previews without the needed data. So what I did was export the edited catalog as a new catalog, opened the new catalog and followed #5 above:  In Library, select all photos and do Photo > Develop Settings > Update AI Settings. That will recompute all the AI masks. Success! 

[Jb _estudio]

Hi, I've also been experiencing the same issue for the past two weeks, and it's quite frustrating. I tried everything. I contacted Adobe support, but they couldn't access my machine. I installed updates, uninstalled and reinstalled, restarted, and even restored a backup of my computer—I tried everything, and nothing worked. When I reopened LR, it asked me to update the last catalog I was using, and the same problem occurred.

Solution? I just created a new catalog since someone mentioned that the previous one might be corrupted, and voilà—it seems to be working fine now. This is something that tech support could have told me. As mentioned earlier, it's disappointing to pay for a subscription and not have effective solutions.

[Moved to Lightroom Classic forum by moderator]

[kglad]

assuming a lr question.

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.

<"moved from cc desktop"> 

[John R Ellis]

These symptoms can occur when LR can't write the .lrcat-data file for some reason, either because LR has corrupted it or there is a permissions issue. LR stores computed masks in that file. Creating a new catalog would have created a new .lrcat-data file. 

For reference by future readers, it isn't necessary to create a new catalog. Instead, do these steps:

1. In LR, do Edit > Catalog Settings > General > Show. That will open Windows File Explorer on the current catalog folder.

2. Exit LR.

3. Move the file <catalog>.lrcat-data to the Desktop.

4. Start LR.

5. In Library, select all photos and do Photo > Develop Settings > Update AI Settings. That will recompute all the AI masks, which could take a while. But it won't update Generative Removes, so you'll have to go to each photo with Remove, click on Remove, and then Update.

[samixolydian]

I'm having the same issue. It's a MAJOR workflow problem, come on Adobe... what are we paying all this money for? The solution on this thread doesn't fix it. 

[JohanElzenga]

@samixolydian I'm trying to identify this problem, because the fix does indeed not work for everybody. I have several images that also have this issue, and letting Lightroom Classic rebuild the .lrcat-data did not solve it for me either. And most of my images do not have this issue, so there is no general write or permissions problem with the lrcat-data.

So far I have found that I get this problem if the image has multiple Generative Remove patches, and at least one AI mask (sky mask, object mask). An object-detected Generated Remove and an AI mask might also do it. Can you confirm (or deny) that this is the case with your problem images too?

[samixolydian]

Yes, confirmed - that’s exactly right


~Sam

SAM NUTTMANN
MOTION STATE, LLC
Filmmaker | Co-Founder
ICG Local 600
FAA Part 107
---------------------------------
sam@motionstate.com
(310) 963-3704
www.MotionState.com

[Tricia5DE5]

I'm also having the same issue. Finally finished a gallery and was in awe of the technology...only to find out that it didn't save and now I have to go back and remember which ones I used regenerative AI on. Super helpful.

Following in hopes of figuring this out before editing the next gallery...

[John R Ellis]

LR 14.0 introduced a bug that caused it to think that previously applied masks need updating. Adobe just released LR 14.0.1 to fix that issue.  See in particular Rikk Flohr's second reply at the top of the thread:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-subject-mask-from-previous-versions-are-requ...

[JohanElzenga]

I find Rikk's second reply not very helpful, to be honest. It is advised to upgrade again, but "If you did a lot of work in 14.0, it isn't recommended to restore from the 13.x backup." So what is it? Is it really necessary to re-upgrade your catalog? In that case you'll need to find a way to not have to do all the work in version 14 again. Saving metadata to files (in the current catalog) and reimport the images that you imported after the re-upgrade would save most of that work. Exporting the work as a new catalog, and importing that catalog into the re-upgraded catalog is another option. Or is it 'kind of necessary' as long as it does not require too much re-work? What does that mean? What are the disadvantages of not re-upgrading?

[Jhp2012]

Agree, this is absurd.  I'm already looking into new photo editing options.  

[Sky Photography]

So originally, I got nowhere with this online or in this forum. I eventually got a solution (for the most part) with a support engineer remotely connected to my machine.

Here's what solved the issue I had with ai not 'saving' and got me working again. It's a corrupt .lr-cat-data file that holds all the ai edits. seems like it corrupts after major LrC updates!!!!

Before taking the following steps, read through them as it's not a complete fix, but it will get it all working again.

1. Close Lightroom

2. Go to the folder that contains your LR catalogue.
3. Rename .Ircat-data file OLD.Ircat-data.

4. reopen Lightroom, lightroom will create a new lrcat-data file. 

5. Ai etc will now work. However there is a big but (excuse me). All the previous ai edits you had made will all need updating. Personally, this wasn't a biggie for me as customer delivery was important. Old delivered files I can update when & if required.

NOTE

I had the issue reoccur this week when updating to LrC 14, and it seems Adobe hasn't fixed this issue.  

[kristie71]

Thank you for this, I will give it a shot, this has been very frustrating. I wanted to deliver a gallery tonight and I'm not able to because I have to keep going back through the images and re-updating the masks and remove tool! Then when I do update it and it seems like everything is OK with that image, there's still a red dot underneath the mask icon even though they have been updated and there is no pop-up that saying I need to update...but the little red dot is still there, but only on some of the images, I'm so confused! I will try this trick tomorrow 

[goodomenphoto]

Thanks for your suggestion. I will give this a try. Adobe customer support is absolutely terrible. Many replies said the 14.0.1 update fixed this. It did not. I had a deadline yesterday and this issue has complicated things so much, it's taken me twice as long to finish a gallery. I'm going to look into CaptureOne. Getting real tired of Adobe. I already dropped Premiere. What a nightmare that app is.

[SCR76]

I gave this a try, and unfortunately the red dots persist. Some under the mask tool, others under the erase tool, or both.  I seem to be able to update individual photos. But when I try several in a batch, it gets about 5% of the way through then either hangs the program or says that AI updates could not be completed for (#) images. Ugh. What a mess this update has been. 

[JohanElzenga]

I did a lot of testing on this issue, and I have found two things:

1: The red dots signal the need for an update, but if you do update a photo then you'll see that there almost always is no visual change. So for now, just ignore these dots.

2: If you already have updated many photos, then uncheck the 'Optimize catalog' checkbox when you make a catalog backup. Optimizing the catalog will make the dots return.

[SCR76]

Good advice! Additionally I found:

1. when using generative remove, if you see ghosting where the removal looks semi-transparent, updating your masks fixes that.  
2. For the issue above, where the AI masks never errs to update, I found that creating a new catalog, then importing your old catalog into it solves that issue! This seems to implement the 14.0.1 fix better than a catalog update.