Should I convert all these Previous process photos to current process?

[Gixxxa75]

So out of 215,000 photos 175,000 are listed as previous process version, is there any performance penalty for not updating these ?.

[Per Berntsen · Accepted solution]

There is no performance penalty for not updating.

My suggestion would be to only update photos that you see can benefit from a newer process version – or if you specifically want to use features from the latest process version.

[Gixxxa75]

Thanks Per. I'll leave them as they are then.

[richardplondon]

You should be aware, updating an image to a slightly newer process version can make a subtle difference, and updating to a much newer process version can make a very noticeable difference, to its appearance.

Further corrective editing is often required to become (at worst) equally happy / (at best) more happy with the results. If you made very strong and specific reliance on some much older process adjustments, such as Fill Light, it may be that exactly the same character of editing cannot now be duplicated. But in my experience something at least as nice can always be achieved quite rap[idly. It's just a matter of whether the effort of doing that at all, is justified.

[Conrad C]

I agree that there’s no reason to update them all right now. I tend to update the Process Version only for old photos I want to re-edit and improve using newer features.

And that leads to something you might keep in mind. The Develop panel had different, fewer features in old Process Versions, so a question that gets posted here sometimes is “How come Lightroom Classic isn’t showing me the [some cool feature they read about]?” The answer often is “Check the Process Version of the image and update it if necessary.”

So if one day in the future you’re puzzled because you want to use an option and it’s missing, see if that image’s Process Version needs to be updated.