P: Smart Preview workflow with Spot Tool creates artifacts

Report · Feb 03, 2022

When working with smart preview catalogs, the spot removal tool displays black or green squares at the site of use after a while. Not in every case, but randomly. Most often, I work with smart preview catalogs, but perhaps this does not affect in any way. These artifacts remain after export. I work on an old macbook pro with core i7 and Intel Iris Pro.

Report · Feb 03, 2022

Initial troubleshooting steps:

1. Try setting Preferences > Performance > Use Graphics Processor to Off. Does that fix the problem?

2. Copy and paste here the first ten lines from the menu command Help > System Info. That will tell us the exact version of LR and Mac OS.

Report · Feb 03, 2022

This morning I returned to work on the catalog and noticed that the artifacts were gone. I disabled the GPU in the Lightroom settings before I came here for advice and it did not help. It seems to me that the macbook overheated due to long work yesterday, since the coolers were noisy enough.

As for information about the system, here it is:
Lightroom Classic version: 11.0.1 [ 202111111509-eae8952e ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en
Operating system: Mac OS 11
Version: 11.1.0 [20C69]
Application architecture: x64
Logical processor count: 8
Processor speed: 2,0GHz
SqLite Version: 3.36.0
Built-in memory: 16 384,0 MB

Report · Feb 04, 2022

I suggest you update to the latest LR (from 11.0.1 to 11.1) and the latest version of Mac OS 11 (from 11.1 to 11.6.3) or better, to Mac OS 12.2. The only way to get updated Mac graphics drivers is by updating to the latest version of Mac OS, and Adobe is constantly fixing bugs in LR's graphics.

Report · Feb 13, 2022

I have updated Lightroom to the latest version. As for Mac OS, only version 11.16.3 is available for my laptop because the laptop is too old and does not support the latest version. However, the problem has not gone away. Moreover, when I open the catalog, I may notice how some photos with the spot removal tool used become dark. It's better to watch the video.

The effect can be seen simply by following the steps in the history. When adding the spot removal tool, the image becomes very dark at some point. And of course, the place where the spot removal tool works becomes a green square.

This is terribly annoying as it can be a nasty surprise when exporting. Large catalogs require rechecking several times, which takes a very long time.

Report · Feb 13, 2022

Sorry, Mac OS was updated to 11.6.3.

Report · Nov 07, 2022

Hi Adobe,
I’m a professional photo editor who works with wedding & portrait photographers and edit thousands of images every month; we exchange Lightroom Catalogs with Smart Previews and I edit just Smart Previews.

I’ve been experiencing this issue with Spot Removal Tool for quite some time:
- green or black squares appear on a place where the Spot Removal tool was applied,
- sometimes this bug messes up the overall exposure making it much darker,
- sometimes this bug also messes up the exposure of applied local masking, making local brushes look much darker or lighter.

It happens very randomly, and not with every image, you never know when it’s gonna happen next.
If I press ‘Reset Healing’, it brings back the normal exposure - but then all my work on healing is gone.
Or, if I press on every single healed spot and slightly move it, it brings desired exposure back - but I have to do it with every spot and sometimes I have dozens of them on one image.

I'm including 2 videos as an example of this bug.

I’m using MacBook Air M1, OS Ventura 13.0, and Lightroom 12.
Until recently, I had a previous version of Mac OS 12 and Lightroom 11, and the problem was there, too.

It’s very frustrating to check a 1000 images wedding, and even if exposure isn’t messed up, there might be some green squares - and a lot of weddings & portraits are shot in the greenery, so it takes a loooot of time to double-check everything.
It’s frustrating because I can miss a green box, it can be exported and delivered to a photographer’s clients with these squares, which is unacceptable.

As for the photographers I work with - some of them don’t see the squares on their end, some say that see them, and these squares disappear after some time.

Anyway, it’s very frustrating when it comes to checking catalogs with hundreds of images, and it feels very uncomfortable because photographers might think that these are just poorly edited images.

To us, ‘photographer & photo editor’ teams working with Lightroom Catalogs with Smart Previews is a game changer, but it doesn’t work properly since I can’t do retouching in Lightroom without worrying it will mess up my edits.

Please, help us with this issue!
I see there was already a thread about it in February 2022, and it wasn’t solved.
https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/spot-removal-tool-makes-black-squares/t...

https://youtu.be/iwjxTvR37JE

https://youtu.be/JmkCjw455mE

Report · Nov 10, 2022

I understand you very well! This problem has been around for a long time, but since the last update it has only gotten worse and more often. It is very frustrating.

Adobe, please let us know how to solve this problem, it is very important for professional work.

Report · Nov 10, 2022

Thank you for your support, Kate!
I hope Adobe will pay attention to this bug and will fix it soon.

Report · Feb 23, 2023

We have been having the same issue, also wedding photographers, it's causing a lot of extra work, I hope Adobe address it asap. It renders their healing tool worse than useless!

Report · Feb 23, 2023

Which version of LrC are you using. There were issues like this with older versions of LrC but they were supposed to be fixed. If you are using an older version it will not be addressed as bug fixes are ONLY for the newest versions.

Report · Apr 23, 2024

This!!! This is still a huge issue when editing with smart previews. Not only the squares when using the healing tool but the exposures changning when going over the catalog before sending. I have been troubleshooting with Adobe for weeks now trying to fix this. They have no idea and I am being passed around from one agent to another with no real answers. @Adobe Please fix this!!!