Multiple photo change on 2nd monitor applies only to 1st photo selected.

[nu-b]

My apologies if this has been asked and answered already; I couldn't find anything.

I saw a helpful Adobe video on using two monitors.  If you hit Shift+G it opens library grid mode on the second monitor and the 1st monitor goes to loupe display.  However, if you then select multiple photos in the grid and make a change (e.g., add keyword, delete photos) it applies only to the first one you selected.  You have to make such changes one at a time, or move the grid display back to the primary monitor.

[Hal P Anderson]

This is the way LR has always behaved. The Grid View on the second monitor works like the film strip does. It's evidently working "as designed," but it leads to a lot of confusion.

Hal

[nu-b]

I have trouble believing that it was designed this way.  With over 40 years in the IT industry, I've never seen a UI that allows multiple selection but operates on only the first item selected.  The film strip in Bridge handles multiple selection properly.

[johnrellis]

I have trouble believing that it was designed this way.  With over 40 years in the IT industry, I've never seen a UI that allows multiple selection but operates on only the first item selected.  The film strip in Bridge handles multiple selection properly.

The behavior depends on whether you're in Develop mode or not.  In Library, commands apply to all selected photos, while in Develop they apply only to the most-selected photo (unless Auto Sync is on).  Victoria Bampton (Lightroom Queen) explains the rationale:

If you're looking at a single photo on screen (maybe even with the filmstrip hidden), you may not realise that you have additional photos selected and can overwrite metadata accidentally. You could destroy hours of work! In the other modules you mention, that's not an issue.

Many people have complained about this deliberate design:

Lightroom: Selecting photos is confusing | Photoshop Family Customer Community

Lightroom: Selected in filmstrip are not keyworded; only most selected is. | Photoshop Family Custom...

LIGHTROOM - Tag multiple photos from filmstip | Photoshop Family Customer Community

[nu-b · Accepted solution]

Thank-you for your reply.  It certainly makes perfect sense to operate on only the target photo if the selection is not visible.

However, the situation here is somewhat different.  If in (library) grid mode on the PRIMARY monitor, changes apply to all selected photos.  If in (library) grid mode on the SECONDARY monitor, changes apply only to the "most selected" photo.  In both cases the entire selection is visible (unless it scrolls off the screen).

This may be as designed if you look at it this way:  Because the LR two-screen implementation is a bit of a hack (i.e., not fully implemented), moving grid mode to the secondary screen does not move the controls (menus, panels) to that screen.  It also puts the primary screen in (library) loupe mode.  In loupe mode, changes apply only to the single target photo.  In other words, what's visible on the secondary screen is immaterial to changes made on the primary one.

I'm not going to pursue this further based on the above understanding.  Nonetheless, I still find this behaviour extremely confusing.

[johnrellis]

Adobe product developers don't actively participate in this forum and won't see your feedback.  I suggest you post it directly in one of the topics in the official Adobe feedback forum (which I included above).  Product developers do read every post there, and they do have some influence on Adobe. Unfortunately, Adobe has clearly indicated that going forward, they are focusing their efforts on LR Classic on performance and Develop tools. Whatever effort they were putting into other parts of LR Classic are now further reduced.