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ianwhiting
Participating Frequently
October 31, 2017
Open for Voting

P: Disable smart collection

  • October 31, 2017
  • 26 replies
  • 1161 views

Large or multiple smart collections can seriously impact performance.

It would be useful to disable a smart collection or, even better, disable a set of smart collections, so they are no longer processed until re-enabled.

As it is we can only delete the smart collections and recreate them when we need them again next month.

A selective export and import option of smart collections would serve a similar purpose and would add functionality to LR but would not be as simple to use just for this disable/enable purpose.

Whilst here I would also like to add my vote to the many people who have asked for a smart collection A only to select images from within smart collection B. Though I can see some concerns: how many levels down does it allow should B only select from smart collection C, etc. That is maybe why they have not implemented it. Also there would be a possibility of creating an infinite loop should smart collection A only select from B but B is set up to only select from A. Perhaps it could be limited to only allow selection from smart collection B provided that B does not have use any sub-selection of its own.

    26 replies

    Califdan2
    Califdan2
    Inspiring
    August 4, 2019
    I think I'll try that.  But would still like a toggle
    johnrellis
    johnrellis
    Legend
    August 4, 2019
    As a less-convenient workaround, try Sreenivas' tip: 

    "Create a Collection set called "Disabled smart collections" or any name you like. Move all the smart collections you want disabled into it. Collapse the collection set and restart Lightroom. As long as this collection set remains collapsed they won't be evaluated. One drawback of this approach is that users need to remember to keep the collection set collapsed. If they open it they need to remember to close it and restart Lightroom to get the benefit."
    Califdan2
    Califdan2
    Inspiring
    August 4, 2019


    I have over 50 smart collections, maybe closer to 75 but I don't need them all to be active all the time.  Some I only use infrequently. But I don't want to delete them as they are at times quite complex.  I still want to see them in the "collections" panel so I don't want to Export the Smart Collection to a file (for future use) and delete them from LR.  I also don't need LR to continuously keep their content current which sucks up a fair amount of processing resources. 

    My request is to add a "Status" toggle on the Smart Collection Edit screen and/or in the Collections Panel that will allow me to enable or disable (activate or deactivate) individual smart collections.  When "enabled they would behave as they do now.  When disabled LR would gray them out in the Collections Panel, and would not keep their image content up to date.

    Shouldn't be that hard to implement.

    Thanks -- Dan 
    axmelissarios1
    axmelissarios1
    Legend
    February 13, 2018
    Hi all,

    This feature should be present in today's Lightroom Classic CC 7.2 version. Please update your application and let us know what you think!

    Lightroom Classic CC 7.2 is now available!

    Thanks,
    Melissa
    Melissa Rios, Product Manager, Community Experiences & Platforms | Adobe
    I
    ianwhitingAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    November 9, 2017
    Many thanks, that is good to know
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMember
    Inspiring
    November 9, 2017
    Thank you for confirming this. Yes, I've done just that – I keep my Smart Collections for recent work (by dates) separate from many other Smart Collections in separate Collection Sets.
    S
    Adobe Employee
    Sreenivas R
    Adobe Employee
    November 9, 2017
    Yes. It can be any collection set. But if you know some of the smart collections take a long time to update leading to problems and you don't plan to use them for sometime it is always better to collect them in a separate collection set so that they don't come in the way of your day to day work.
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMember
    Inspiring
    November 9, 2017
    ...and it's enough to collapse any Collection Sets containing Smart Collections, for the same effect, right? (SC don't actually have to be in just one Collection Set)
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMember
    Inspiring
    November 9, 2017
    When you export a catalog this way and you want to keep using sync to LR Mobile and Web, I guess you need to re-sync everything when taking that exported new catalog as the primary catalog used for syncing? And then LR Mobile and Web will have to re-sync everything for the "new" catalog, even though nothing has changed with the photos?

    Just speculation, but will be useful if I need to do this to my own catalog sometime. I have >18.000 photos synced in LR CC 2015.
    johnrellis
    johnrellis
    Legend
    November 9, 2017
    That's a good tip, thanks!
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