P: Ability to lock photos to prevent further editing

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I'm a relatively newbie to Lightroom and I think it is fantastic.

It does occur to me that pros who have been using Lightroom for a while understand all the issues about selections, settings, copying, pasting, synchronising etc etc.

Like many things in life the people who do things almost as second nature forget what it was like to be a beginner.

The one thing that has surprised me about lightroom is that I cannot find a way of indicating "I am happy with this - I just want to lock it to ensure I don't damage, amend or delete it" through my own incompetence.

[koudis]

Since the beginning of time, I've used a red color label named MASTER or FINAL MASTER to mark all images that are finals. The label keeps me away from them insofar as editing goes, but it's also a great way to indicate which one to use when submitting finals to clients or galleries. I also add a keyword "MASTER", but if you name your color labels, they show up in metadata searches and smart collections. 

[Tanja2014]

i use all my color labels for other thing already.. and its not fool proof.

[Tanja2014]

i use all my color labels for other thing already.. and its not fool proof.

[koudis]

Oh, I didn't mean to imply that LR doesn't need locking.  It definitely does. 
I was just sharing my workaround. 

[dajon0510]

A  revisit to this post  I did like the idea of a badge or locked ...something to identify final image..... thanks

[Steve Gandy]

An idea for a Lightroom feature would be a switch that would lock an image from further editing in the Develop Module. I have PSDs and some TIFs that are archival. It would be nice to protect them from myself from further editing. 

[michele stapleton]

Another vote for locking an image to protect it from deletion.  Sometimes I will provide a sneak peek to a client immediately after the shoot or maybe the client will look at the laptop and pick some favorites during the shoot and it's absolutely imperative that these shots don't get somehow edited out.  I would absolutely love some sort of tool that would prevent locked images from being moved and/or altered. This would be fabulous. As it is I do all sorts of things like apply colors and stars, but when I'm editing a job with thousands of images it's so easy to miss a label and delete something by mistake.

[michele stapleton]

Often clients want a few low res images immediately after the shoot (for social media, etc.) and I'll deliver these immediately. Then, later that week I will edit the whole job for final delivery as carefully culled and edited high res files. I live in fear that when I come back and edit I will cull from the final edit an image I've already shown to the client as a low res file. I would love a feature that allows me to lock an image from being deleted from the catalog (or marked x) or in any way changed. Something to make sure that image is protected in the exact state the client has already seen. Yes I could give it five stars or mark it a particular color, but ratings and colors are something that I could easily change during the culling process. I want something like a LOCK where you have to go and affirmatively UNLOCK before further changing anything about or moving the image.

[johnrellis]

As a workaround, consider the PhotoSafe plugin.

[Knipperdolling]

i am just another person, looking for an option to filter for unlocked pictures...

[dj_paige]

You should make a feature request to Adobe (which can't be done in this forum).

Photoshop Family Customer Community

[John Christian Caldwell]

The proposed LR feature is to allow us to Lock Image Sates to prevent unintended edits, and to allow Deliberate Unlocking of images to permit edits.

LR offers keystroke shortcuts to do complicated things, as most of us now enjoy, thereby risking that a few keystrokes can exert unintended, and unnoticed, edits on huge numbers of files. Aside from Shortcuts, even a delete key could wipe out, for example, Keyword fields that required great effort to create. Unintended edits can escape notice for prolonged periods, so simply reverting to a Catalog Backup is not a good solution. I speak from experience of noting my own errors, only months afterwards.

While it's natural that each of us is zealous about a feature that we most want, I'll argue that the ability to Lock Images represents an overdue Catalog safety feature.

John Caldwell

[johnrellis]

See here for a plugin solution:
 https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/locking_photos_please_protect_me_from_myself?...

[johnrellis]

See here for a plugin solution:
 https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/locking_photos_please_protect_me_from_myself?...

[johnrellis]

Oops, that plugin only protects against deletion, not the other kinds of changes you described.

[johnrellis]

Oops, that plugin only protects against deletion, not the other kinds of changes you described.

[John Christian Caldwell]

Thanks, John. Do you agree that protecting against unintended edits, deletion or otherwise, is of value?

[John Christian Caldwell]

Thanks, John. Do you agree that protecting against unintended edits, deletion or otherwise, is of value?

[johnrellis]

Yes, as do a number of others in this topic.

[johnrellis]

Yes, as do a number of others in this topic.

[Lumigraphics]

The selection UI blows. If you select a set of images, deselecting the rest when you click one depends on WHERE you click which is stupid and contrary to every UI rule. A click on one should ALWAYS deselect the rest.

With the entire interface being grey, it can be very hard to tell. Add in the different modes (Library vs Develop is the second-stupidest design choice in the program) and its easy to not realize what images I'm actually working on.

I'm a developer, longtime IT guy, photographer for 35 years, former Mac Genius, used Adobe software since 1995, and Lightroom is one of the most painful and poorly-designed programs I've ever run across.

[Bob Somrak]

Considering this thread is 7 years old and I have seen requests for locking files on the U2U forum for longer than that if I remember than it must be VERY LOW oe not on Adobes list of Lightroom improvements. Adobe has been adding some long requested improvements lately so it may get implemented some day. I for one would really like a feature like this.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Hello,

I still consider a lock feature would be of great help to users.

The process I follow when using Lightroom Classic is to import, star rate, develop and, finally, when I'm done I use a color flag to mark the photo as "do not touch, I finished with this".

However, it has happened more than once that I'm on the library module, using the grid view and more than one photo selected and, accidentally, I press a shortcut like "2" or "6" and then, accidentally, I mark many photos with a different color flag or a different star classification.

If I realize the mistake I can press ctrl-Z and undo the change but if not... you can loose a lot of work by mistake and be aware of that a week afterwards!. Well, I have to admit I use lightroom as a hobby (I mean it is not my job) and my children have access to my computer and like to see photos, but even in that case, imagine the waste of time if someone selects the whole library and press any shortcut... !!!!!!! 

What I mean is that we are all 3 clicks away to waste a lot of work because, to my understanding, there is not any way to "lock a photo".

I'm aware there are a lot of things I can do:

1) To backup regularly -> right, but a mistake like described above would lead me to hours and hours of work to recover partials from a backup

2) To take snapshots -> good, but a mistake like described above would lead me to even more hours if I have to go photo by photo recovering from snapshot. Moreover, I would still loose star classification and color flags

3) To use some plugin for that -> well, the only one found is http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/photosafe but only prevents from undesired removal and nothing about keywords, color labels, stars and so on

4) Someone appointed me "not to select multiple photos" -> ... yes, you can also not use Lightroom and problem solved, don't you? 

I have always been told that Lightroom is a non destructive software that leaves pohotos untouched and only modify a record in a database associated with that photo. My guess is that a lock field on that record should not be a madness. 

This feature has been requested by many users since 9 years now. I think it shouldn't be so difficult to implement and many many users would appreciate a lot!

[dzigakaiser]

Hey Bryan,

I am also working without this preview for the past months or maybe even a year already. I noticed this happening when you update PS and copy paste your previous PS settings to the new version (since it sometimes does not ask to migrate the settings...).

So, one thing you can try is to move your Photoshop settings somewhere safe (or rename the folder) and see if you get the function back when PS launches with all default settings.
I haven't tried this myself yet since I rather have my settings.

You find the PS settings folder here (on Windows):

C:\Users\dzisign\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2020\Adobe Photoshop 2020 Settings

You can rename "Adobe Photoshop 2020 Settings" and then launch PS.

If it doesn't help, just delete the newly created settings and rename your folder back to its original name to revert back to your preferences.

I am curious if this will work. Please let me know 😉

Good luck!
Dziga

[Yves-CH]

Everything will depend on the brush selected!
There is article already of in this Forum on this subject!