P: Alt-Tab once keeps me in Lightroom Classic

[dj_paige]

• 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?

[keylightdigital]

Happens in Windows 11, not in Windows 10.  Holding down Alt and continuing to press Tab does NOT really solve the problem.  When you do that, you have to hit Tab TWICE before it will switch to the next application.

[NotDrJekyll]

Just installed lightroom classic for the first time and instantly have this problem.  Even if I hold alt I can tab through various windows but if I select one by releasing tab it just opens LrC again. This is so incredibly frustrating, alt+tab is something I do constantly, this is basically an unusable program if this persists.

[walkographer]

Yes, it's extremely annoying and absolutely embarassing for a company like Adobe.

[walkographer]

+r

[defaulthhdfbuc8va13]

I have the same issue. I thought it was a fault with my old laptop but have just upgraded and the same issue has followed me. It's very annoying. Surprising that this has been happening for so long and still no fix.

Currently running LrC 2024-v13-3 on Windows 11 Pro 10.0.22631 on new Asus ProArt Studiobook.

[TwistedPixelsPhotoStudio]

Happening to me as well, if Lr is exporting files, Alt+Tab is nearly unusable.

[RafalN]

Adobe Moderator or Admin, is it possible to move an entire thread back from the Discussion section to the Bugs? This issue has persisted for a long time without a fix, and it is a bug. The unusual Alt-Tab behavior occurs exclusively when Lightroom Classic is open and actively processing images (e.g., during export, preview building, etc.).

[dj_paige]

The unusual Alt-Tab behavior occurs exclusively when Lightroom Classic is open and actively processing images (e.g., during export, preview building, etc.).

By @RafalN

This is not my experience. The Alt-Tab problem affects me if LrC is just sitting there doing nothing for an hour. It affects me whenever LrC is the application I am trying to leave with Alt-Tab, not just when it is actively processing image.

[RafalN]

You are absolutely right; I wasn’t precise enough.

The issue with Alt-Tab consistently happens when LR is open. If nothing is being processed, I can switch between applications by pressing Alt-Tab multiple times. However, when LR is processing photos, I can’t switch applications using Alt-Tab at all. The only way to do it is with the mouse cursor.

Sorry for confusion.

[michaelh86291959]

I finally upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11 and immediately had this problem. Very annoying and disruptive to my engrained workflow.

[michaelh86291959]

And to elaborate, if I Alt-tab with Lightroom Classic open and in "Develop" mode, I see the problem, no matter where LR Classic is in my "stack" of windows.

If Lightroom Classic is in Library view, I only see the problem if I am Alt-tab'ing away from LR Classic as the main window.

[hirciklemen]

It's been two years and still NOT being fixed Alt+Tab glitching on LRC (Adobe Lightroom Classic)!

[johnrellis]

@hirciklemen: "It's been two years and still NOT being fixed Alt+Tab glitching on LRC (Adobe Lightroom Classic)!"

Adobe has been unable to reproduce this problem, and until they can, it won't get filed as an internal bug report:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/minor-but-annoying-problem-using-alt-ta...

There's clearly some Windows/LR configuration issue that causes the bug to occur on some machines but not others. I provided a Windows 11 virtual machine image in which the problem occurs, which would allow Adobe to reproduce the issue without remoting into customer computers, but I don't think Adobe has examined it.

[walkographer]

It's absolutely ridiculous that they are unwilling to fix such an embarassing bug in the most basic UI functionality. To add insult to injury, they even shift the responsibility to their users, instead of bending over backwards in order to pin down and fix this disgrace, as any development team worth their salt would do – not to speak of a global top vendor in their field only offering expensive subscriptions with the promise of regular updates and bugfixes. Laughable. Nothing but greed and incompetence from their side.

[dj_paige]

It's absolutely ridiculous that they are unwilling to fix such an embarassing bug ...

By @walkographer

Adobe never said they are UNWILLING ... they said (repeatedly) that they can't reproduce it. Please get your facts straight. There's a difference between Adobe saying they are unwilling (which they did not say) and a user saying he sent in the information and he doesn't think they looked at it.

[walkographer]

Which amounts to them either being unwilling or incompetent. Pick your poison.

That this issue has been reported years ago by now and the only thing they did was moving it to a discussion section is fact enough for me to support my assumption that they just don't care. It's a disgrace for them to expect their users to deliver their pristine reproducible testing conditions for them. (Which they even did by providing an image which they presumably didn't even bother to look at.) It's their job to look for what has ben reported to them such a long time ago.

They obviously just don't care.

[walkographer]

And by the way – giving them the benefit of the doubt that it's not unwillingness but incompetence in this case would itself amount to unwillingness for such a big company. They could easily throw 10 developers at this or hire a contractor if they don't get it done themselves.

They don't care. ∎

[RafalN]

I've been dealing with this issue for a few years now. Recently, after setting up Lightroom Classic on a new laptop and creating a fresh catalog, everything worked fine. I imported a few hundred photos without any problems. However, after some time, I migrated another catalog from a standalone PC (which was affected by this issue), and suddenly the same problem began to appear on the new laptop. This suggests that the issue isn't just tied to a specific Win/Lightroom/hardware/software configuration — there’s likely something within the catalog preferences causing it as well.

[Bizz_Guy]

Hi folks,

I've been experiencing this issue and think I've been able to isolate the problem (at least for myself).

Symptom: When pressing Alt+Tab to change to another open window, the first press of TAB does not move to the next available program, instead keeping focus on Lightroom as the first program in the list.

Situation: On the right side panel, KEYWORDING > KEYWORD SET, if open/expanded and I hold ALT, Lighroom will display the numbers 1-9 next to the available keyword spaces.

If the KEYWORD SET is collapsed, pressing ALT doesnot display the numbers in the keyword set fields, and pressing TAB once will focus to the next available program.

Solution: Close the KEYWORD SET and Alt+Tab will behave normally and as expected.

System: Windows 11, Lightroom Classic build 202506051112-5918896a

[johnrellis]

Unfortunately, that doesn't work in my LR 14.4 / Windows 11 :-<   

Does it work for others here?

[Rob_Cullen]

I can have the Keyword Set panel open,  hold down [Alt], press [TAB], and then successfully use [TAB] to cycle through all running apps. So I don't see a problem with [ALT+TAB] under any circumstance.

I do see  [ALT+TAB]  move me to the next available program (without a second press of [TAB] )

[RafalN]

Hi, no, it doesn't work for me. BTW, the keywords are accessible from Library tab, when the issue demonstrate on all of them, specially on Develop when export of multiple pictures is in progress. 

R. 

[keylightdigital]

The problem happens in every module, so closing keywording doesn't solve the problem.

BUT.....

It seems like Adobe may have been working on this problem because it now happens only when I do a slow ALT-TAB.  When doing a very fast ALT-TAB (hitting ALT and then immediately hitting TAB, as in just milliseconds after hitting ALT) then LRC will switch to another Windows program successfully.  But when I hold down the Alt key and then wait a moment before hitting Tab (even just a quarter or half of a second) then it fails to successfully switch.

Furthermore, in the Library or Develop modules specifically, when you press the ALT key you'll notice that some of the settings change.

For example, in the Library Module....

And in the Develop Module....

While other modules do NOT have settings that change, I think Lightroom is looking for an ALT key press universally (everywhere in the program) so it can trigger the display of alternate options/settings/functions if a particular module has any.

It is this "watch for an ALT key press so Lightroom can change an option" that is getting in the way of successful ALT-TAB presses to switch to other Windows apps.

I think this could help explain why some people have the problem and others don't - some people are very fast to press TAB after pressing ALT, and some people are slower.

I hope others will give this a try to see if it helps to further isolate the problem.

For me, an extremely fast ALT-TAB seems to work every time.  This is better than before, though still not ideal.  

[erichschlaikjer]

I have had the Alt+Tab problem on Windows for years. Finally my simmering anger sent me here to see if Adobe had made any effort at all to fix it. Apparently not. BUT Bizz_Guy's comment on the "Keywording" panel was interesting, so I collapsed it. That made the bug disappear! I redisplayed the panel, and the bug did not reappear. Now I have spent half an hour trying to get the bug to come back, but so far I cannot. I guess that's a win, for now.

[dj_paige]

@erichschlaikjer 

That's a very interesting find, however for me it doesn't seem to help.