Known Participant

P: AI Masks Require updating and/or disappear

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
June 21, 2024
63 replies
49274 views

Hello,

I recently had a call with Adobe support with no luck. I have found some threads on this but nothing presents a solution and it seems hard to find what the actual issue is.

If I edit a client gallery and use any healing brush tool or AI masking tool, the mask or healing brush/generative AI will get a red dot underneath after going back to the start of the gallery, my AI edits are gone....

I also noticed this happens 100% of the time when I quite and reopen lightroom, I can fix the mask, update ai settings but it just resets each time I open lightroom.

We tested a new catalogue, we tested a bunch of things with no luck.

We really need a fix on this Adobe it is killing workflow, not sure what broke this setting. I can't revert to an old version because I have lots of photos (I do 1 catalogue per year) and can't go back weeks of client work.

Also this catalogue was started at the begining of 2025 so there is no version 13 of this catalogue to revert to and test.

PLEASE HELP ADOBE!

macOS

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J

julianri

Participant

When I use AI tools like removing an item / person or creating a lens blur and moving on to next image, 90% of the time (since the upgrade, when sync was introduced), when I return to that image I see yellow sync button and the edits are reset. When I sync it, it is very rare that the changes come back and even if it does it most exported images don't have the AI changes in them.

So now I need to export the image the moment I did the change, which obviously is FAR from productive.

Help? 🙂

johnrellis

Legend

A fair number of people have reported this issue. These symptoms can occur when LR can't write the catalog's .lrcat-data file for some reason, either because LR has corrupted it or there is a permissions issue. The .lrcat-data file stores AI settings computed for masks, remove, denoise, raw details, super resolution, and lens blur. (The main catalog database is in a different file, the .lrcat file.)

Also, some previous versions of the Imagen AI service permanently corrupted the .lrcat-data file (this has apparently been fixed). Have you used Imagen AI?

Try these steps for rebuilding the .lrcat-data file without losing your edits; these steps have helped many but not all:

1. Do the menu command Help > System Info. If you're not on the latest version (currently 14.4), do Help > Updates.

2. Post the entire contents of Help > System Info here, to help narrow down possible causes.

3. In LR, do Catalog Settings > General > Show. That will open Windows File Explorer / Mac Finder on the current catalog folder.

4. Exit LR.

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

6. Start LR.

7. In Library Grid view (not Loupe view), select all photos and do Photo > Develop Settings > Update AI Settings. That will recompute all the AI settings, which could take a while.

Important to note: Recomputing AI settings for Generatived AI Remove will generate new variations for removes, which you may need to then adjust to your satisfaction.

M

MaloFX

Participant

All AI edits are removed almost instantly after moving on to the next image.

Mac OS Sonoma 14.7.8 — LRc 14.5.1 Camera Raw 17.5

Two LRc updates have come and gone but error still happening, this has been going on for at least 5 months.

This has been difficult as a wedding photographer.

Please help, I edited a whole wedding just to find out that all ai changes did not stick.

It is also important to mention that this happened after I installed ImagenAI who claimed that the issue isn't with them, after searching the web I found others with the same issue.

AxelMatt

Community Expert

...

It is also important to mention that this happened after I installed ImagenAI who claimed that the issue isn't with them, after searching the web I found others with the same issue.

By @MaloFX

If the problem only occurs when ImagenAI is installed, it's highly likely that ImagenAI is the cause of the problem.

I would definitely contact the manufacturer again.

My System: Intel i7-8700K - 64GB RAM - NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 - Windows 11 Pro 25H2 -- LR-Classic 15 - Photoshop 27 - Nik Collection 8 - PureRAW 5 - Topaz Photo

tonyhartphoto

Participating Frequently

Has this bug been addressed in the latest version (14.5)? The changelog does not explicitly mention bug fixes.

johnrellis

Legend

@tonyhartphoto: "Has this bug been addressed in the latest version (14.5)? The changelog does not explicitly mention bug fixes."

Adobe employee @Rikk Flohr: Photography posted in a pinned reply at the top of this thread: "The August update contains an update regarding this issue."

While this thread is not mentioned in the Adobe LR 14.5 release notes for bug fixes:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/fixed-issues.html?trackingid=M7K4SJ69&mv=in-product

(perhaps because Adobe never publicly acknowledged this as a bug), the Lightroom Queen's release notes, which are more comprehensive and thorough, does list this thread as a fixed bug:

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/whats-new-in-lightroom-2025-08/

I believe she gets her list of fixed bugs directly from Adobe's internal tracking system.

Given the ambiguity here and lack of detailed information from Adobe, I think it's important that people who experienced this prior to LR 14.5 post updates about whether or not they're continuing to see issues, including whether or not they use Imagen AI.

tonyhartphoto

Participating Frequently

Thanks for the post. I have now updated to Lightroom 14.5 and have done some testing.

The AI Denoise bug that resulted in an error message appears to be resolved. However the AI removes being 'forgotten' bug seems to remain. I am an ImagenAI user but the bug seems to rear it's head whether an image has been touched by ImagenAI or not. At this stage I guess that I will have to take a swing at allowing Lightroom to build a new <catalog>.LRCAT-data file. I am however extremely concered about what this will do to historic images though.

I am also encountering a seperate issue whereby backups do not complete. Which is worrying.

Needless to say Lightroom is not in a terribly healthy spot at present.

J

johnfmichel

Participant

Deleting the <catalog>.LRCAT-data file worked for me. Indeed I have been using Imagen AI and on a M4 Mac laptop.

Rikk Flohr_Photography

Community Manager

It has been reported that one cause of this issue is the use of the Imagen AI Plugin.

@johnrellis has provided two workarounds in his post in this thread.

Deleting the <catalog>.LRCAT-data file, or
Using Imagen AI's Bridge workflow, which downloads .xmp sidecars rather than writing into the catalog.

You can find additional details in the thread.

Update 8/12/2025

Greetings all,

A new update for the Adobe Photography products has been released. The August update contains an update regarding this issue.

If you do not see the update in your Creative Cloud Application, you can refresh it by pressing [Ctrl/Cmd]+[Alt/Opt]+[ R ].

Note: It may take up to 24 hours for your update to be available in your Creative Cloud app.

Thank you for being so patient.

Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org

A

anne_guillard

Participant

I have the same problem but I don't use Imagen.
'what else you recommanded ???

johnrellis

Legend

@anne_guillard: "I have the same problem but I don't use Imagen."

1. Have you updated to LR 14.5?

2. Have you tried this workaround:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-ai-masks-require-updating-and-or-disappear/m-p/15404966#M408852

J

Jason297497261vo4

Participant

Your change to AI Denoising has decimated my workflow. It often takes two-three passes of updating AI Denoise settings...and even then, when I export my photos I still have no idea if they'll export with the most up-to-date settings! It takes me roughly three times as long to output photos now. I'm really unhappy with this.

S

skmaithreya

Participant

This discussion forum is on Lightroom Classic (LrC), but the screenshot shared should be from Lightroom Desktop ( LrD ).

Anyways, please do try out the latest update of LrD and check whether the issue is still seen.

H

hollye49293157

Participant

This exact issue has also been a nightmare for me.

The AI revert back/disappear within mere minutes. I have to do the edit and then immediately export the image to the final folder if I have any hope of having that ai remove saved.

This is a nightmare for me as a wedding photographer having to deliver hundreds and hundreds of photos and the thick of wedding season approaching.

ADOBE PLEASE FIX THIS!!!

A

Andy_Barker9716

Participant

Hello All , now this is more in case I am doing something wrong, but the only new things I have done is add plug ins , I am hoping this hasn't caused this issue it so the two I have looked at lately are Topaz for noise and Imagen it couldnt be anything to do with these could it , it anyone else ? just desperate to get Lightroom back up and running x

S

Sophiesticated Photography

Participating Frequently

[Updated 8/2/2025: Link to Imagen AI Facebook thread where Imagen unconvincingly points the finger at Adobe.]

[This post contains formatting and embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser.]

@Andy_Barker9716: "Imagen"

I just tried Imagen AI on a test catalog, and this bad behavior started immediately (see below for details), and repeated Update AI Settings didn't fix it.

Imagen AI modifies the LR catalog directly, which isn't documented by Adobe, and it appears that in recent LR versions, it's not modifying the catalog correctly. Five people in this thread have reported they use Imagen AI. Does anyone else here use it?

In the Imagen AI Facebook group, Imagen claimed there's an Adobe bug that they worked around a month ago:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/imagenai/posts/964879265690700/

(The group is private and you need to request to join -- annoying when companies use Facebook's crippled groups.) As my test yesterday demonstrates, the problem is still very much present.

If you're using Imagen AI, you should report this very bad bug to them. Meanwhile, these two workarounds worked for me:

- In my tests, the workaround of deleting the <catalog>.lrcat-data corrected the problem, at least for now.

- A safer workaround is to use Imagen AI's Bridge workflow rather than the Lightroom Classic workflow. You select one or more folders of photos to upload and then you download .xmp sidecars containing Imagen AI's edits. You can then import those photos into the LR catalog, or if they're already in the catalog, do Metadata > Read Metadata From File to read the edits in the sidecars into LR.

As a longtime plugin developer, I was quite surprised to discover Imagen AI modifying my catalog. The catalog schema isn't documented by Adobe, and the schema often changes from release to release. This Imagen AI problem is likely a direct result of the schema changing recently, and it's typical of the problems with reverse engineering. It may well be that the catalog is not behaving internally the way Imagen believes it should, but Adobe's only obligation is to make the catalog work properly with Lightroom itself, not third-party tools that reverse engineer it.

DETAILS

Here are the users in this thread reporting their use of Imagen AI:

@erik_2636: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-ai-masks-require-updating-and-or-disappear/m-p/15348302#M410145

@britta_2105: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-ai-masks-require-updating-and-or-disappear/m-p/15373815#M410151

@alma_mogli: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-ai-masks-require-updating-and-or-disappear/m-p/15397576#M408265

@Andy_Barker9716: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-ai-masks-require-updating-and-or-disappear/m-p/15438170#M410471

@Hans Malestein: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-ai-masks-require-updating-and-or-disappear/m-p/15440597#M410578

In my initial test, I used Imagen AI's Lightroom Classic workflow, in which the Imagen AI app downloads its edits directly into the LR catalog.

On photos where Imagen AI added LR AI masks, the AI Edit Status button was yellow. But clicking it and doing Update didn't have any effect, and neither did Settings > Update AI Settings. If I applied Remove on top of an AI mask added by Imagen, did Update AI Settings, left the photo, and came back, it needed updating again, and the effect of the Remove was gone, even after doing Update AI Settings again.

Similarly, if I added an AI mask to a photo to which Image AI hadn't added one, and then did Remove on top of that followed by Update AI Status, it wasn't permanent. Leaving the photo and coming back to it, the effect of the Remove wouldn't reappear even after doing Update AI Status.

I've searched the community but can't seem to find a topic similar to mine. I'm sorry if there is.

If I remove something with the AI tool it works, if I export the file immediatly the adjustments are saved but if I don't after a couple of minutes adjustments are lost. (Lr is saying to "update AI settings" and "Delete settings need to be updated".

It's a bit annoying...

I'm also using Imagen AI, maybe there's something there?

Anyone has an idea?

THANK YOU!

J

Jennifer38207472m62e

Participant

Agree this is incredibly frustrating. I just hit delete masks because I couldn't get it to actually identify correctly and now all the AI is gone so it won't identify objects anymore. Either my reset of a photo has red flecks all over the daisies, which was not there to begin with. I need to know how to reset my masking to coincide with AI to actually detect the colors correctly on this photo so I can finish it

A

Andy_Barker9716

Participant

I am having exactly the same issues currently on my third all nigh edit trying to get images over to the client , Ai edits vanish randomly wont batch update , have tried prefecrence reset , movig Icat and folders etc currently having to update every image one at a time and processing a huge job one at atime in desperate need of a fix and some sleep , any thoughts would be gratefully received !

A

Andy_Barker9716

Participant

sorry exactly the same issues as the thread above , I have never been frustrated enough to come on here before!\

H

Hans Malestein

Participant

Hi all,

Today it's 29 July, and the issue is still there. I encounter same issue, AI Generative deleting, are gone when I move back to a phote. Also after export, returnign back to my photo's the AI deletions are gone.

ADOBE PLEASE HELP. I cannot deliver my photoshoot to my clients!

J

Johann251191710l77

Participant

Alle KI Anpassungen lassen sich nicht aktualisieren. Weder die Masken, noch die Bearbeitung mit dem Entfernen Tool. Ich muss einige Stempel manuell aktualisieren und die Masken löschen und danach wieder neu hinzufügen. Wenn ich Lightroom schließe und neu öffne, geht das ganz Spiel wieder von vorne los. Alle Aktualisierungen sich verloren und müssen wieder neu angepasst werden. So zieht sich das durch die komplette Hochzeitsreportage!

Ligthroom.zip

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