P: Enabling Address Lookup doesn't affect existing photos App is restarted

[johnrellis]

Enabling Address Lookup doesn't affect existing photos in the catalog until LR is restarted, leading people to think it isn't working.

To reproduce on LR 14.2 / Mac OS:

1. Download and open this catalog:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/iqbgdcbyfg39cy66b8pf2/address-lookup-bug.2025-02-15.zip?rlkey=iqduqfe...

2. In the Metadata panel, choose the Location tagset.

3. In the identify plate, start Address Lookup.

4. Wait a couple minutes (or longer) and observe that both a.jpg and b.jpg have GPS coordinates but never get suggested address fields in Metadata > Location.

4. Restart LR, and observe that the photos get suggested address fields in Metadata > Location with 15 seconds.

[drtonyb]

@johnrellis 

I can reproduce on my Windows 11 PC together with the very old outstanding bug, where the Altitude doesn't load until you click the small "Fetch Altitude for coordinates" icon.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Thanks for the report, @johnrellis  I've asked the team to review this observation. 

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Kicking this back to discussions as the behavior is expected. 

From the engineers: 
"In the session where Address Lookup has been enabled, it would work for only images imported or updated with GPS post that. For images already in catalog with GPS, the Address Lookup happens only after restart."

[johnrellis]

I find it very hard to believe that the original product manager would have considered this behavior "as designed".

When you first open a new catalog and import a photo, you'll be asked, "Enable address lookup? ... Note: this operation can be paused/resumed at any time." The user's initial choice takes effect immediately.  But all subsequent changes don't take effect until after a restart, and the user isn't informed of that.  That's not really fulfilling the promise to the user that the operation can be paused/resumed any time. It's confused a number of users posting here.

If a product manager had designed the option to require a restart, surely she would have required the user to be informed. There is only one other option that requires a restart, Preferences > Interface > Font Size, and the user is warned, "Changes take effect after a restart".  Changes to all the other background processing options -- face indexing, automatically writing changes to xmp, replacing emedded previews -- take effect immediately. It's very straightforward engineering to implement immediate changes to address lookup, just as it was implemented for the other three background options. It's trivial to pop a warning when she changes the option that a restart is required.

Responses like this from the engineering team led me long ago to conclude they're more interested in keeping their bug count low.

[drtonyb]

Bug count low! We only wish.