Legend

Question

P: Alt-Tab once keeps me in Lightroom Classic

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
May 14, 2023
23 replies
11895 views

Lightroom Classic 12.3 (and all previous versions of LrC while running Windows 11, as far as I can remember)
Windows 11 (can't remember if it did this in Windows 10)

Let's suppose I have only two applications open, Microsoft Word and my web browser. In windows, when I press Alt-Tab, I switch from one application to the other. If have three applications open, such as Word, Web Browser and E-mail program, Alt-Tab lets me move to the 2nd app and Alt-Tab twice lets me move to the 3rd app. All as expected.

But if one of those applications open is Lightroom Classic, then Alt-Tab once keeps me in Lightroom Classic. Not expected. I have to Alt-Tab twice to move to the next application that is open. Not expected, and annoying.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Is there a way to fix this so Alt-Tab when I am in Lightroom Classic works as with any other application? Is this a bug?

Windows

Show previous replies

Rikk Flohr_Photography

Community Manager

Update: I retested today on Win 10 and WIN 11 with LrC 13.2. I am still unable to reproduce this failure.
I don't see where anyone has provided different reproduction instructions. Without those - no bug can be filed with the team.

Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org

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RafalN

Participating Frequently

Hi Rikki, I understand that reproducing this issue can be difficult, and I agree that it seems to be specific to certain combinations of hardware and software on affected PCs. Personally, I use LrC on two Win11PRO machines: a stand-alone PC where everything works fine without any Alt-Tab issue, and a quite powerful laptop where the problem is particularly bothersome.

I can't agree that this isn't an issue just because it can't be reproduced. I know Adobe likely has various testing environments where software is evaluated, so I believe your development and support teams should be able to simulate this behavior eventually. I'd be more than happy to arrange a remote session to demonstrate what I'm experiencing.

By the way, the most challenging and frustrating scenario is when I'm exporting multiple images (sometimes hundreds of them). In such situations, switching between applications using Alt-Tab is nearly impossible; whenever I press Alt-Tab, it always brings me back to LR.

Let me know if you need any further clarification or if you're available for a remote session.

GdzieJestStach

Inspiring

Adobe is unbelievable. There are few so annoying bugs in LRC, just like this one, for years. And nothing gets fixed.

And this is professional product. Or is supposed to be.

I think I'll start advertising for competition, as I've just started using other product and it just works as it should.

hirciklemen

Inspiring

Yeah, the latest version of Lightroom Classic still NOT fixed regarding critical annoying Alt+Tab glitch.😠🙎😤

GdzieJestStach

Inspiring

100% reproducible

Alt-tabbing from LRC doesn't work on first try.

I need to press Alt-Tab twice to get out of the app.

On the first Alt-Tab press it just comes back to LRC.

Very annoying.

Rikk Flohr_Photography

Community Manager

Based upon the scant information here, I've tested, and [ALT]+[TAB] functions correctly in Win 10 and Win 11. You likely have a system-specific issue causing your unanticipated behavior.
Moving from Bugs to Discussions

Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org

sergeyf74884498

Participant

"Well it works on my machine, so it must not be a real bug. Ignoring!"

Phenomenal engineering mindset. It's no wonder that Adobe is so on-the-ball about fixing minor annoyances. Could you imagine if they just let them persist for years and decades?

It's no wonder that Adobe is such a widely beloved powerhouse today, and absolutely not used grudgingly by millions of people aching to drop them the very nanosecond a viable competitor shows up. Cough Davinci Resolve Cough.

Keep up the great work!

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Apriansyah

Participant

yeah man, I experienced it too.
When I'm exporting a lot of photos then pressing Alt + Tab there will be a tendency to make Windows Explorer (file manager) crash. very annoying, I'm surprised Adobe hasn't tried to fix it.

Lr v13.1 on Windows 11

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dj_paigeAuthor

Legend

I'm surprised Adobe hasn't tried to fix it.

Adobe never said "we're not going to fix it". What one of their employees said is that they cannot duplicate the problem, so until they can duplicate the problem, they have nothing to fix.

Michael J. Hoffman

Community Expert

For me, this has been an annoyance for years across many versions.

As of today, with Lr 13.0.1 on W11 Home 22H2, it seems to be working normally (I cannot reproduce this issue any longer).

R

RafalN

Participating Frequently

Unfortunately for me on W11Pro, Lr 13.0.1 the issue persists.

From my observation, the issue becomes visible in a situation when Lr processes some photos (e.g., exporting multiple snaps). In such a situation, Alt-Tab just jumps to the next app and instantly goes back to Lr. There is no chance to change applications using Alt-Tab.

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DS256

Inspiring

I'm wondering if you have somehow inadvertently picked up a short-cut definition of ALT-TAB within LrC. It looks like both finding and changing short cuts is non trivial. However, if you have any plug-ins I wonder if they could have introduced one. See https://www.lightroomqueen.com/any-shortcut/ for some tips/links.

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dj_paigeAuthor

Legend

Not fixed in LrC 13 (Windows 11).

B

barneydesmond

Participant

I observe this issue, and as far as I can recall it's been around for a while. Win11, Lightroom Class Build 202306052221-b70c0975 (thanks Adobe, I can't copy that text from the About box either, good job!)

I run into this issue pretty much every single time I use LRC, because I frequently switch between Lightroom, explorer.exe, and Chrome web browser. I would specifically characterise it as happening when you quickly Alt-Tab to switch back to your previous application, because you don't need to wait for the on-screen previews to appear.

Yes this is maybe a bit of a power user issue, but LRC is the only app I have this problem with! Holding down Alt after hitting Alt-Tab is a workaround, but it's a terrible one because it's inconsistent. It now means you need to hold down Alt and wait every single time you want to switch away from LRC.

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richardplondon

Community Expert

Another option is to maintain these apps or these classes of task, in separate Windows (virtual) desktops. This might or might not work more smoothly for you - depending on memory / resources. Once in place, Win key + Ctrl + left or right arrow key instantly swaps whole screen setups without AFAICT affecting the app window management of the software running in each one. For example, you can have LrClassic set up how you want in one, and your file explorer and browser windows set up how you want in the other.

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dj_paigeAuthor

Legend

Richard, thank you for the suggestion. It could be a useful workaround, although the better solution to me would be for an actual fix to this problem, so that LrC works the same as every other Windows program in this matter. I have never really found any usefulness to the separate desktops that you can set up in Windows, and in particular, if I am working in LrC and checking my web browser at the same time (for example to find out background information of the item in the photograph so I can add it to the caption), it seems like an abomination to me to have the information I want and the place I want to copy and paste the information into in different desktops, and I have to learn different keystrokes rather than the one that has worked for probably two decades in every program in Windows. So I still prefer to have the problem fixed.