P: Lightroom Classic: Panel Scroll Bar / Close annoyance

Report · Aug 17, 2015

The panel scroll bar and close panel bar arrow section are annoyingly close together. On a 4K monitor (and possibly lower resolutions) the panel scroll bar is so thin that it's easy to press the close button instead. This is frustrating when trying to select the appropriate tool and you just keep closing/unclosing the panels. Is it possible to either increase the size of the scroll bar, be able to lock the panel in place or a mix of the two. Cheers,

Report · Aug 17, 2015

If you are at the current level it should automatically correct, if you are pre-LR6 I don't think it can be resolved

Report · Aug 08, 2016

I have the current version and I keep encountering this problem. Over and Over I go to scroll down and instead close the tools tab. I would love to lock it to on. I have a crappy mouse and the wheel doesn't work, otherwise that would be a better option, but for now I have to do the old click and drag on the scroll bar and it's frustrating.

Report · Sep 17, 2016

I wholeheartedly agree - it would be great to be able to lock the side panels, so that they become inoperative.

Surely, a minor update could be made to achieve this. A simple 'Lock panels' toggle setting in Preferences would do the job.

Report · Nov 15, 2016

Any news on this? It is a major irritation in an otherwise superb piece of software.

Just something to lock the panels in place... perhaps an extra menu item named 'Lock Panels' in the right-click menu which currently contains:-

Auto Hide & Show
Auto Hide
Manual
Sync with Opposite Panel

This would make Lightroom much more user-friendly.

Report · Sep 26, 2017

I have asked for this feature improvement for years. How hard would it bee to provide a way to lock down the panels. Yes, it is too easy to cause the entire panel to disappear when trying to move the slider just to the left of the "minimize carrot?" When I am rapidly editing images, using my Wacom tablet, I spend more time bringing back the entire adjustment panel when it disappears. After all, you can choose which segments of the panel are minimized or not, why not enable the ability to lock the panel from disappearing accidentally. This should be so easy. Again, as others have stated, why hasn't this been corrected?

Report · Aug 19, 2018

Hello,

Lightroom Classic CC 7.4.

I use a Wacom tablet, and 50% - 60% of the time I go to use the scroll slider on the right side panel I accidentally hit the button that hides the panel. After doing this a few times per photo, the blood pressure starts to rise.

I have never had a need to hide the right or left panels, even when I had a smaller monitor.

I'm not a software engineer, but it seems that all Adobe would need to do is put one more item in the right-click menu to "Lock The Panel". And/or, allow the scroll bar to be widened so I don't need to have the accuracy of a Marine sniper to edit a photo.

My frustration is heavily masked by the tone of this post.

Any help by anyone who uses LR, or by Adobe would be kindly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dennis

Report · Aug 20, 2018

Hi dennisw,

We're really sorry for all the frustration. Please refer the following link and check the "Manage panels and the screen view" section. Workspace basics in Lightroom Classic CC

If the above article doesn't help then, you may raise a feature request on our feedback site: Lightroom Classic CC | Photoshop Family Customer Community so that other people can also vote for the same.

Regards,

Mohit

Report · Aug 20, 2018

Hi Dennis,

Others have complained about this for a number of years. Please add your constructive opinion to this feature request: Lightroom: Panel Scroll Bar / Close annoyance | Photoshop Family Customer Community . Be sure to click Vote and Follow in the upper-right corner. This will make it more likely Adobe might address this.

Report · Aug 21, 2018

This is a huge frustration for me, and is the only real issue I have with Lightroom. The only substantive selling point they had to assuage my concern for paying $10 a month for CC was that I would always have the most up-to-date product, and they would always be improving it. However I am not seeing much value for my $120 a year. There are other programs out there for significantly less that do just about the same thing. I know I'm nothing to Adobe, but this issue is enough of an irritation that I am looking at alternatives to CC.

Report · Sep 01, 2018

Yes, this is probably the most annoying issue with Lightroom I experience on a very frequent basis. It slows my workflow down and there's an obvious user interface design flaw in having these so close together. Please fabulous Adobe dev team - give some love to this and fix 😉

Report · Feb 21, 2019

Even if there isn't a "lock panel" feature, moving the close arrow to the left side of the editing panel would make it so they are never in conflict with each other. If anyone here has ever used Bluebeam Revu, the side panel gets minimized by pressing on the left side of the panel.

Either way, this issue has been bugging me a lot lately, especially when I'm running a fair bit of software and Lightroom runs slow - it takes a while (30 seconds or more) to reopen the side panel.

Report · Mar 06, 2019

How about moving the scroll bar on the panel to the left side of the panel? It is soooooo damned irritating and requires time and more time and more time to pull up the panel again. URGH!! Fix it, PLEASE!

Report · Jun 09, 2019

There is one aspect of the user interface that has always slowed my productivity in LR. The scroll bars located on the far left and right of the side panels and below the filmstrip are thinner than standard scroll panels in Windows programs. When I work with the interface at my normal operating speed, I usually miss the scroll bar 50% of the time when I try and click and drag them. I thought over time this issue would go away as I got use to this irregular aspect of the LR interface, but it has not during the years I have used LR starting with version one.

Since many people have wide screen displays, it seems like having a normal width scroll bar would not sacrifice that much screen real estate and would benefit those of us with hand eye coordination that falls outside what was envisioned by the LR user interface developers. Of all of the user interface improvements possible in LR, this one simple change would be of the greatest benefit to my productivity, allowing me to "spend less time in front of the computer and more time behind the lens".

Thank you for considering it

Report · Jun 09, 2019

Maybe I'm missing a way to do this, but it's driving me insane! I'm in the develop module, and want to move to a lower section on the right-hand side panel to change options there. If I 'miss' the slider - which, on my screen is about 2mm wide) it's too easy to hit the arrow that hides the whole side panel.

When this happens, my computer throws a wobbly for about 30 seconds whilst hiding the panel and resizing the image. Once it's done this, I then have to hit the arrow again to re-show the panel - and lose another 30 seconds.

Please - is there a way of locking the left and right side panels so they don't disappear?

If not, PLEASE can we have this option as it's driving me nuts!

Report · Jul 07, 2019

When trying to scroll the develop-mode pane up-and-down, I frequently "miss" and hit the arrow which hides the pane by mistake. This is frustrating, forcing another click on the arrow to show the pane, then another to initiate the scroll. This problem could be fixed by allowing the scroll wheel to scroll the pane, or by providing perhaps 4 pixels of dead space between the two UI elements (scrollbar and arrow).

Report · Jul 07, 2019

You can scroll the pane with the mouse wheel.

Report · Jul 07, 2019

I also have reduced the pane when trying to grab that scroll bar, but rather than insert an unusable gap, please increase the scroll bar width so it is easier to grab. Make it the same size as the one on the main grid view. Rolling the mouse is a rough workaround that does not allow moving the pane a small or precise amount.

Report · Jul 07, 2019

Use the solo-mode... it's easy on un smal screen !

Yves Crausaz, Suisse, retraité actif dans le monde de la photo et des arts graphiques.

Report · Jul 09, 2019

Yes, I have also learned that scrolling problems of the tools panel can be avoided by using solo mode. It works quite well, and it's my preferred way to work in LR. However, it is still unfortunate that Adobe cannot address a problem for many that has such a simple fix.

Report · Dec 06, 2019

what is solo mode and where do I find it?

Report · Dec 07, 2019

Right Click on any panel heading and select 'Solo Mode'

Report · Jan 19, 2020

Solo mode does not solve this

Report · Feb 22, 2020

Not sure if this is the right thread, but I would also appreciate being able to lock panels in place.
Since I switched back to Windows from Mac latey, it happens very frequently that I accidentely hide a panel instead of scrolling. The reason may be, that I use the scroll bars more frequently now because of the the inacceptable (!!!) mouse scrolling behavour of the panel contents on Windows. (May be caused by Windows?) Please provide a way to make it impossible to accidentely hide panels when you want to scroll.

Report · Feb 22, 2020

There is no way to lock the panels. But, read the comments about "solo" mode above. That doesn't fix the actual problem, but it did alleviate my aggravation quite a bit.

While I haven't worked on a Mac in years, so I cannot compare mouse use on a PC versus a Mac. But, I have had no problems with my mouse's scrolling behavior on the several Windows boxes I have used. It may be a function of the particular mouse you are using, though. I doubt it is inherent in Windows. How old is your mouse. I assume it's optical, but does it use lasers for tracking? In 2009, Logitech came out with "darkfield" technology" which uses lasers for tracking. They work on virtually any surface, even glass, and are extremely accurate.

Report · Feb 23, 2020

My mouse is quite new (half a year or so), I just have come accustomed to the consistently smooth mouse wheel scroll behaviour in Mac while on Window some programs try to make it smooth while others still have the jumpy behavior (just like the Lightroom panels). The jumpy thing irritates me now and I use the scrollbar more often rather than the scroll wheel. So I have more changes to miss the scroll bar and click the thing that "unsticks" the panel.