LR PS roundtrip keeping layers

[davidstegmann]

Dear all,

• I use "edit in Photoshop"
• Add layers in PS and safe
• Back in LR i see the TIF file, all ok
• When I open again the TIF file in PS, the layers are gone 

How can i retain the layers? 

[davidstegmann]

I use lightroom NOT Lightroom Classic.

[Rob_Cullen]

I see the same problem!

I note that the menu is not "Edit in..." but rather "Export to...", so there must be a subtle difference.

I can find no way in Lightroom to re-open the TIF with layers.

OTOH- I can open Lightroom-Classic (on my PC) and (when the file is synced down) select the TIF and [Edit -in] 'Edit Original'- layers are preserved.

[davidstegmann]

Contacted ADOBE. They said to reste both cprograms: 

To reset preferences for Photoshop

1. Quit PS from the activity monitor

2. Click on the GO option on the top of your homescreen and press and hold ALT key on your keyboard it will highlight a Library

3. Select that library the go to Preferences > Adobe Photoshop 2020 settings folder.

4. Select the settings folder and rename it as adobe photoshop 2020 settings.old

5. Relaunch PS and check

Same with 2021 folders .

To reset preferences for Lightroom

To reset the preferences , save your work and quit LR CC 4.0 Then open creative cloud desktop app and press and hold Command + Option + Shift keys on your keyboard and click on Open next to the Lr icon while pressing those keys simultaneously . It will ask you to delete current settings/preferences . Click on Yes and then let Lr open on its own.

I did that but no change. Still no layers visible when reopening in PS. 

[davidstegmann]

Ok, after 2 hours wit hthe tech here is the problem: LR4. In LR 3.2 all is working. 

[OleCrowPhotography]

I am having the same issue, as soon as I go back to 3.4, the layers are preserved fine. I have installed/unistalled 3 times now and 4.0 just wont work for me.  So was the tech conclusion that there was a problem with 4.0 or did you find a fix?

[Kevin Renard]

I've done the following testing:

- With LR 4.0, open a previously edited picture with LR 3.4 and PS: flat TIFF

- With LR 4.0, edit new picture with LR 4.0 and PS, save it, reopen it in PS through the right clic menu option in LR 4.0: flat TIFF

- Uninstall LR 4.0 and install LR 3.4.

- Open both pictures in PS through the right clic menu option in LR 3.4: TIFF with layers

- Install LR 3.4 and PS on a second computer.

- Open both pictures in PS through the right clic menu option in LR 3.4 on this second computer: TIFF with layers

So the good news is that this LR 4.0 bug is not destructive and that the tiff files saved on the cloud prior 4.0 have not been corrupted neither the ones edited with 4.0. It is "just" a bug when editing again the pictures in PS through LR.

I hope that they will fix this quickly because it is very annoying and very stressfull when you notice that the first time and you think you've lost all capability to edit again all your previously saved pictures in the Cloud.

[OleCrowPhotography]

I've run the same tests and yes the layers are still there but LR 4.0 simply won't move them back to PS. Revert to 3.4 and works smoothly.

you can also open PS and then open from LR catalog from the PS interface and the layers will also show. But then you lose the ability to re-save further work back into the LR catalog because the open did not originate from LR. So not an practical work around either.

[Kevin Renard]

Finally! I'm not the only one having this issue. Posted few days ago about this but nobody answered except one guy that tried to help me but was thinking I was using LR Classic.

Is Adobe recognizing this as a bug?

[OleCrowPhotography]

That is a good question. How do we get adobes attention to address this? I spent 2.5 hours online with a tech who decided that keeping layers in tact wasn't possible in CC and tried to tell me to learn classic.... it was a frustrating day. 

[email@prhawk.es]

Surely a bug but nothing from Adobe. The layers are still there so if Export as Original + Settings from Lr CC and then open in Photoshop they are all there!! Just Lr that does not work as expected.

[moritzs31013913]

This Adobe stuff is really frustrating. Always uploading/syncing, god knows what its doing most of the time. My understanding is that from Lightroom (Desktop! always have to explain this - such confusing naming!) one can Edit a photo in Photoshop, create layers whatever, save and the file is preserved in Lightroom (w layers). I have just been doing this, closed my computer and the following day tried to open the file, only to find it was a flattened Tiff file. No use whatsoever. Am I missing something?

[wmvphoto]

Check out my post and SamNYC's post below - the TIF file still has layers, but when you try to open the layered TIF via the "Edit in Photoshop" menu option it sends a flattened TIF to Photoshop. If you open the TIF directly in photoshop by downloading the original to your hard drive, the layers show up. Not ideal, but at least your work isn't lost. Just make sure you don't do any edits to the TIF in Lightroom or else it'll flatten the file for good.

[SamNYC]

I'm glad that I found another post about this isssue. I posted a question about this as soon as 4.0 came out and didn't get any response. I did the same testing and have determined, as did others that 3.4 does the edit in PS roundtrip correctly and that 4.0, 4.1 do not. But that 4.0, 4.1 are not destructive. In my search I found that 4.0, 4.1 does save the layered file in a cache/edit folder in the user profile on your OS (I'm not completely certain of the name as I've reverted to 3.4) But, Lightroom doesn't seem to access that file when you go to re-edit and you get a flatten file. I had hoped that 4.1 would have fixed this issue, but still no. I would really like to use the new color grading and some of the new file support, but stuck in 3.4 until this issue is resolved. 

I think if this forum works the way other stuff does that we need to get this post to rise to the top. Do so, we need people to like it. I see 116 views, but only one like (mine).

I'll keep watching this thread hopefully an adobe employee will take notice.

[wmvphoto]

Glad to hear that I'm not the only one having this problem in Lightroom 4.1. When I open the TIF directly through Photoshop (navigating into the locally-stored files directory), layers are preserved, but using the "edit in Photoshop" menu item within LR gives me a flattened TIF. It's good to know that the issue is non-destructive, but it really throws a wrench into file management.

[OleCrowPhotography]

Did anyone come up with a solution for this? I cant imagine that there are only a handful of us complaining about the issue..... This surely cant be effecting everyone...?????

[SamNYC]

The only solution I was able to find was to downgrade to the last 3.xx
version. This fixes the issues and layered tiff files you creat in the 4.x
version will have their layers show when you choose edit in photoshop. You
won't be able to use the color grading, but I find not having my layered
edits open as flattened is more important to me.

I'm sure this has something to do with the addition of version tracking
and saving work files to the cloud that cake with the 4.xx versions.
Hopefully they'll fix it soon, but who knows if they're even aware of the
issue?

[OleCrowPhotography]

Well I Did get a reply from Adobe and it IS a known issue. I sent him the link to this thread as he requested so hopefully he will chime in here soon.

I have been doing the same thing using 3.x as not having the layers just does not work for my workflow.

Getting basic functionality back up to speed should not be taking months to get done.

Here is the email they sent

On Jan 29, 2021, at 6:16 PM, Benjamin Warde wrote:

Hi Darren,

Thanks for taking the time to provide your feedback on Lightroom:

Apologies for the inconvenience!  This is a bug which we expect to have fixed in our next release.  If you’d like to send me a link to the online discussion which has received no reply from Adobe, I would be happy to reply there as well.

Thanks,

Ben

Benjamin Warde | Lightroom Product Manager | Adobe

[Benjamin Warde]

Hello everyone, and apologies for this bug.  It was not an intentional change, and we expect to have this issue fixed in our next update.

-Ben

Benjamin Warde | Lightroom Product Manager | Adobe

[RowanTrollope1]

Hello,

I just spent several hours tracking down this bug only to find this thread! At least I'm not going crazy.  Its been 2 months since you suggested this would be fixed.

Could you tell us what the timeframe is to get this resolved? Its forced me to go back to LR Classic

Thanks!

[Rob_Cullen]

"Timeframe"? Only Adobe knows!  We, Community users like you, are not privy to that information.

[JohanElzenga]

A new version of Lightroom was released just now. Doesn't that fix it?

[Benjamin Warde · Accepted solution]

Updates to the Lightroom Ecosystem products for Desktop, Mobile and Web were released today and contain a fix for this issue.

Please refresh your Creative Cloud application and install your update when it becomes available. Thank you for your patience.

-Ben

[RowanTrollope1]

Thank you Ben! That's terrific news.  I'll update today and test it.

I'm never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, however in this case I'm genuinly curious: How did this defect make it into the software release in the first place? 

I am a software developer and understand that all software has bugs, and there are almost infinite variations and edge cases to account for.  However this doesn't seem like a corner case, but rather a primary use case: Wouldn't this be one of the primary workflows for Lightroom and PS: Open a photo you've taken, make a change in PS, save the change?

Was this was only happening to a subset of users or certain environments? It seems from the message board that many others had the same problem.

Thanks!

[RowanTrollope1]

Hi Ben,

Still no update and the defect is still there.

In fact, I can reproduce this use case reliably: 

1) Edit a raw file from LR by selecting "Edit in photoshop"

2) Make changes in photoshop, save and exit.  Changes are in the Temporary Edits under xxx-Edit.tiff

3) Edits DO NOT show up in LR

4) Select "Edit in Photoshop" on the same image again from LR.

5) A new TIF is created overwriting the original edits.  All PS edits are lost at this point.

This workflow works just fine in LrC

Can you let us know where the new release is?