P: Folder Favorite Setting Cannot Be Changed

[Joe Hohner]

After installing the latest release of Lightroom Classic 7.4 I'm unable to unmark my favorite folders.  In other words, folders that were marked as favorites before the latest release can no longer be unmarked.  I can, however, select a folder that was not a favorite before release 7.4 and mark it and also unmark it as a favorite.  I use this feature a fair amount so I'm pretty sure this issue started after the latest release but I cannot be sure.  Thoughts?  Seems like one of those pesky software bugs to me. I'm an experienced user so I do not think this is some type of user error.  The catalog is my master catalog and has about 600,000 images.  I did not have any favorites marked in my sub catalogs before the release.  They work fine but, again, the problem seems limited to the folders that were marked as favorites before the release.

[Update: All of the reports here except one can be explained by the confusing design of LR's "favorite groups".  See Robert Somrak's post and John Ellis' post. Thus, this topic is marked as an Idea, rather than Not A Problem, to capture the concept that the UI design is very confusing.

Patrick Philippot identified a bug where right-clicking an unselected folder creates two folder groups. It has been forked into this bug report.

There's another topic expressing similar confusion. I'm not going to merge the two, since that will hide all the useful replies.

- John Ellis, 3/10/20]

[rmoorlag]

I was not able to reproduce this on Mac (10.13.5) and LR 7.4
I had one marked folders from the previous LR version but could unmark it now without any problem. What system do you have?

[Joe Hohner]

2017 MacBook Pro with the most current OS

[Joe Hohner]

I will send more details later today when I get back. Thanks for taking a look at this!

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

Perhaps the folder is currently marked as missing? That would do it.

[Joe Hohner]

I have attached a Lightroom screen shot that shows the folder marked as a favorite and the menu offering to mark it as a favorite.  The menu should be offering  to unmark it.  I can mark it and unmark it and nothing changes.  It always shows as a favorite.  I also included a screen shot of my system configuration.   Victoria, the folder is not missing but thanks to the thought.

[Bob Somrak]

This was originally posted on the U2U forum and I could duplicate the problem BUT only the first time.  I right clicked a previous version Favorite folder and the dropdown menu said MARK FAVORITE instead of UNMARK FAVORITE even though it was already a Favorite.  I didn't try to mark it again and then unmark.  I went to another folder and marked it as a favorite and then unmarked it.  This seemed to rebuild the database of the favorite folders because when I went back to the original folder I could now unmark it.  Odd glitch/bug.

[Joe Hohner]

Robert, I tried on another folder and I could mark and mark it.  It did not help with the folders that I'm having the issue with, however.

[Bob Somrak]

Hi Joe
Sorry, I had replied to you on the U2U forum and you indicated there that my solution didn't work for you.  I was actually giving Victoria a bit more info and your reply got in between.

Have you tried REMARKING the folder as a favorite and then unmarking it?   

[Joe Hohner]

Yes, I have tried remarking.  Thanks for the thought.

[Sunil_Bhaskaran]

Joe,
I was not able to reproduce this issue.
If the problem persists, could you please select the folder text displayed over the film strip and see if the specific folders are marked favorite as a group?
If yes, you should be able to clear it from there.

Thanks,
Sunil

[Joe Hohner]

Sunil, your suggestion worked.  I was able to unmark the favorites.  Hip, Hip, Hurray!!!!!!   Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!!!   Joe

[Sunil_Bhaskaran]

🙂
Glad to know that it worked.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Well, I'm having the same problem, but Sunil's suggestion did not work for me, unfortunately.

Suggestions?

[Samoreen]

[Using Windows 10 - LR 7.4]

Hi,

It seems that there's actually something wrong with the favorites marking/unmarking. I recently marked a folder as a favorite. It was tagged with a small star in the Folders panel of the Library module. It also appeared as a favorite in the "drop up" list that is available under the Grid view (I'm using a dual monitor configuration, so I usually have the grid view on the second monitor). I unmarked that folder from that drop up list. The folder was actually removed from the drop up list but was still tagged as a favorite (with the star) in the Folders panel of the Library module. When I right-clicked it there, the Mark Favorite command was available, not the Unmark command. Gasp !

The bug is easy to reproduce (and obviously, this feature was not very well tested - I would say, not tested at all ) : assuming you have selected folder A and now right-click another folder B and mark it as a favorite, both folders A and B get the favorite star. If you right-click A in the Folders panel, the Mark Favorite command is available while the folder is already marked as favorite with the star. So it's not a favorite on this side of the UI. If you open the drop up list under the Grid view, A appears in the Favorites section but at the bottom of the drop up list you get the Add Favorites command although that folder is currently selected and already marked as a favorite. So, on this side of the UI, A is a favorite but you can't unmark it.

Yet another inconsistency problem in the Lightroom UI. If someone had spent just a few minutes checking this code, the bug would have been detected immediately.

That's the problem since a while at Adobe : design flaws letting inconsistency problems appear in the UI and non-existent QA dpt. This bug belongs to the same category as these ones (which are still not fixed):

https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/lightroom-selected-published-folder-or-collec...

https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/-7-3-new-bug-with-smart-collections

https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/wrong-timestamp-stored-in-lightroom-catalog-c...

Obvious coding mistakes and lack of testing. Back to the base problem here :

https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/lightroom-quality-assurance-dpt-please-tell-u...

The problem is not that such bugs appear. The problem is that they go undetected to public releases. They are so obvious that they should be immediately spotted by the developer himself before the QA dpt. have a look at the new code. Adobe, are you subcontracting coding to students or offshore developers ?

[Samoreen]

When following the steps described above, note that if you unmark folder B by right-clicking it in the Folders panel (B not being selected), both A and B are unmarked. If you do the same while B is selected, neither A nor B are unmarked.

[Samoreen]

Another remark :

This bug and the 2 bugs that I mentioned above

(https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/lightroom-selected-published-folder-or-collec...

https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/-7-3-new-bug-with-smart-collections)

seem to point to the same design issue. Somewhere in the UI code, there's a confusion between currently selected folder and right-clicked folder. This now appears rather obvious.

[Samoreen]

Hi Sunil,

Please unmark this as "not a problem". It's a reproducible bug.

[DuanePDX]

Lightroom Classic:  Unmark Favorite worked in earlier versions but not with the latest.

[JohanElzenga]

Favorite what? Folder? Preset? Profile? Which version of Lightroom? Windows or Mac?

[tomjhun]

Duane, I'm assuming you are talking about flagging (either flagged or rejected). If I am wrong ignore the rest of this comment. I am using LR Classic version: 7.4 [1176617] and I flag or reject in either the Library or Develop module by either using the keyboard "P" for pick or "X" for reject. To unflag either of these I use the keyboard "U". Right clicking and selection from the Set Flag menu item or using the Set Flag menu item from the photo menu work as well. I haven't seen any change in the way this works (unless you count the keyboard change in Lightroom CC). Let me know if I missed the point and like Johan suggests, give specific details on what you are using and how you mark your favorites.

[DuanePDX]

Sorry, I wasn't specific.  Favorite Folder.  Lightroom Classic CC 7.4 release on Windows.

I'm referring to setting a favorite folder in the Folders panel.  Before I could right-click on a folder and select "Mark Favorite", and a tiny star would be attached to the folder icon.  If I then right-clicked on it and picked "Unmark Favorite" the star would disappear.  Now Unmark Favorite doesn't work.  The star remains.

[JohanElzenga]

Seems this has been reported before:  https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/folder-favorite-setting-cannot-be-changed

[DuanePDX]

Same here.  Using Classic 7.4 release on Windows 7.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

I am not able to duplicate what you are seeing Duane. Verify in Help>System Info... that you are using version 7.4. 

What OS are you using?

[Bob Somrak]

Rikk
I have similar issues with favorites selection/unselection in the Folders Panel.   It seems to work ok from the dropdown above the filmstrip.  In the folders panel it quits working on a random basis with various issues

1. sometimes the right click menu will not show unmark favorite if the folder is already marked or will not show mark favorite if the folder in unmarked.

2.  marking/unmarking a parent will sometimes mark/unmark a child and sometimes it doesn't.   Totally random.

The above seems to work ok in the dropdown.