Panels in the develope mode are turned off or locked out.

If you turn on AutoSync in the Develop module, hold Alt and click to toggle a given panel so it's active, that happens for all other currently highlighted images too. So you won't have to do this photo by photo.

 

I can't explain how all these panels may have now got toggled off, if that's not something the OP had done previously. Maybe 'optimize' the Catalog, can't do any harm, also close and reopen to give LrC a chance to do an integrity check.

 

Just to be clear on the new 'eye' icons - a greyed-out 'eye' just means that the adjustments within that panel happen to still be zeroed, not that the panel itself is turned off. It is specifically the crossed-out 'eye' that denotes a turned-off panel. 

 

IIRC a turned-off panel used not to affect output, nor what showed in Library - only the interface and preview within Develop module. That behaviour seems to have changed meanwhile: I've just tested output from 12.4 Windows, and that failed to include the adjustments of a panel that was disabled (alt+click on eye, toggle switch). The new eye-icon method isn't a switch, it just gives a momentary 'peek'. One may have done the same with the old toggle switch but not have turned it back on for whatever reason. So I am a bit puzzled at what Adobe may have in mind, if I am right that the practical action of these legacy panel-switches is different than before.

Thank you for responding. You have given me by far the most complete information.

Several years ago after Adobe went to the subscription model, I decided to try ON1. Importing my Lightroom 6 catalog to ON1 seems to have been the culprit in turning off most of the panels of the photos I had in Lightroom at the time. Photos that I have added since that time are fine. If I go to a group of previous photos, lets say 500 photos from a trip, all those photos will have their panels turned off. That means I have to go to each individual photo and turn each panel back on. Every panel except the “Basic" panel would be turned off and any adjustments made in those panels will not show up. I have to go through each photo and click the switch up and then the adjustments will show in the photo. With the recent update I now see that if I just click anywhere in the panel it turns it on.

ON1 made copies of the photos and stacked them next to the Lightroom. It didn’t change the Lightroom photo adjustments, but it turned the panels off. ON1 was touted as being able to import Lightroom photos with the Lightroom adjustments intact which it did seem to do. I finally decided to bite the bullet and sign up for the subscription, and to only use ON1 as a separate editor. I removed ON1’s versions of the photos from my Lightroom catalog. Of course I still have thousands of older photos with the panels turned off.

I have asked this question before and no one, except you, seemed to understand what I was talking about. I realize the idea behind turning an individual panel on or off it to allows you to see how the changes you’ve made affect the photos. What I have been looking for is a universal method to turn on all panels in all my photos. I give your suggestions a shot.

Thank you,

Gary Phelps