P: Export with Previous: remember "previous folder" on a Mac

[dw24154351]

If you are dumping out a series of images, you may not do that in a block. You'll work in sections Exporting out with identical settings. 

Why then does Export with Previous (on Mac) to Hard Disk keep asking for a folder and not actually remembering where you just saved the files 30 seconds ago? It defaults to a folder I saved to probably about 5 years ago.

I can understand Export... asking you for a different folder each time. But Export with Previous when it follows shortly after the last Export.  Previous implies the settings and the folder I just used....

12.3 macOS Monterery and Ventura.

[SeanMcCormack]

I don't mind if it asks for a folder, I just want the most recent export folder selected, not that one from 10 years ago. 

[TheDigitalDog]

Maybe I'm missing something, but for me, Export with Previous selects the folder from the previous export. I'm on the latest version of Ventura. 

It seems the 'previous' export plays a role, depending on the setting for a folder. How can it not do so? 

[dw24154351]

Maybe something is stuck on the Mac that I use for photos. Just tried on a different machine and it might be working as one would expect - perhaps as Mac that has updated many Lightroom versions exhibits this behaviour. 

Sean's comment seems to suggest he too is seeing the same issue. So there might be a preferences issue. (and I really don't like it when I'm asked to wipe my all preferences...just for one settings issue - it's not just for Lightroom, it's every app that a support person might request you to do. Camera firmware updates can do this too!).

To clarify the steps:

1. Export
2. Export To: Hard Drive
3. Export Location > Export To: Choose folder later (useful for presets)
4. Configure what you need in terms of File Naming
5. Export
6. Find some other images and select
7. Select Export with Previous
8. A modal appears - this is where I keep seeing the default folder opening to something from several years ago and it isn't the last folder I exported to. However on a fresher installation, this seems to be working as one expects - but that's about 3 minutes of testing.

Thinking through the whole workflow and user experience there are a couple of other things I now notice. 😉

Normally, menus that trigger the opening of a dialog should be followed with ellipsis (…) in the menu title. So the Context menu should have the title Export with Previous…  when in Choose folder mode. If a specific folder was chosen in the Export settings then the ellipsis shouldn't be presented. There's a bit more for the developer to consder here because there's now some state to manage in order to make the menu title work (the way a user might expect).

The workflow that I'm really experiencing is that I need to choose a folder on the first Export and then for subsequent Exports with Previous not encounter a continual repeat of the same question - where do you want to save these to again? A power user design would be to use the option+click feature available for menus. So pressing the option key when you click Export for Previous would definitely know to use the previous and not open the Save Panel again. (You could have it so option triggered the Export for Previous... with ellipsis which would allow you to specify a different folder, but the default knows and stays silent).

There is a UI change for the Save Panel when you navigate to the folder you wish to save into. The default button says "Open". Sure you are navigating to a folder and wanting to open it in order to save but you are really wanting to save into that folder so the button should describe the intention which could be either to Save or Choose (the folder). You might have multiple images selected, so Choose (this folder0 for the button label makes more sense.

[SeanMcCormack]

Yep, seeing this behaviour for years and years, through many many preference resets and for that matter, different computers. 

[dw24154351]

And if you go back and change the pop to Specific Folder, the old folder is defined there too? (That's what I'm seeing on mine).