Removing Develop presets from Existing images

[KostFan2]

What is the most efficient way to remove develop presets that were already applied to JPG images during the import process?
Select the images and then do what?

Thank you

[dj_paige]

Has there been other editing of the photos after applying the presets?

[KostFan2]

No

[dj_paige]

1. Select the desired photos in the grid (not the filmstrip)
2. Press D to go to the Develop Module
3. Click on the Sync button slider to make it say "Auto-Sync"
4. Click on Reset
5. Turn off Auto-Sync

[KostFan2]

Thanks for your quick reply.  Please give me some time to try it

[KostFan2]

dj_paige
The workflow you recommended worked for the first batch of images I selected. However, when I selected a different batch of images and pressed “D” the “Sync” button was replaced with the “Previous” button.
What did I do wrong?
I closed and reopened Lightroom Classic.

[richardplondon]

Once you have multiple images successfully selected, the Previous button should switch to Sync. Perhaps the other images had been de-selected somehow.

[KostFan2]

Richard:

Thank you.  I am still studying your screen shot below and combining it with Johan's answer

[richardplondon]

three possibilities:

[1] this was not a preset, but some processing carried out prior to your import, which had been saved in XMP to the image. The adjustments in that  XMP would have been automatically adopted. Reset (in Develop, bottom of right side panels) will re-impose LrC's default processing for the camera / filetype in question, as a new History step.

[2] a particular develop preset was chosen by name in the "Apply during import" panel of the import dialog. Reset will impose default processing without this, as a new History step.

[3] whatever this preset is doing IS your currently-set default processing. So if you clicked "Reset" nothing would visibly change; since Reset's job is merely to reimpose whatever that is set to. For example, a given user profile might have been selected in LrC Preferences as the initial processing at import (when [1] above does not apply). To remove that, one could instead choose say Adobe Default. then exit the dialog, then click Reset for the image.

[KostFan2]

Richard:

Can you clear an older step in the history panel? or are you limited to only clearing the steps ABOVE that step?

[richardplondon]

Clearing history has two different senses - keeping the image as it is but foregoing any ability to return to its earlier states; or, returning to an earlier state of the image and deleting all subsequent editing as if that had never happened.

I think it is more useful to concentrate on the effects of history steps, and on how they relate to what you want now, rather than on the steps themselves. On that understanding, yes there are techniques that make use of the History panel. Say you want to bring some particular earlier adjustments back to the fore (you now regret having altered them further in the meanwhile) - but you don't want to eliminate other work you have also done since. So you won't want to fully roll back the image. 

When you click back to an earlier history state you can still return to the latest state again, provided you haven't made any fresh adjustments while this earlier state is showing. But you can Copy Settings from that earlier state - selectively, putting a checkmark against just the particular kinds of adjustment you want to retrieve. Then click in History to return to your latest editing. Then Paste Settings. This adds a fresh history state applying those checkmarked adjustments anew. And only those.

This is not a matter of airbrushing the past. It is about negating the bad results from an event, by making things right 'in the present'. These new actions call on, and reinstate, how things were in the relevant aspect(s) prior to that unwanted event. So indirectly,effectively, things HAVE been made "as if" that one unwanted event had never happened - but, no time machine is required. Just a knowledge of History.

[KostFan2]

Thank you for the detailed explanation.  Please allow me time to practice with this.  I may post a question tomorrow.

[JohanElzenga]

Create a "Zero all sliders" preset. Then removing edits is a matter of applying that preset.