P: 3rd Party Plugin Support for Lightroom Desktop (External Editors)

[chris5C76]

Please add Plugin support for Lightroom CC! Ability to seamlessly use plugins like Topaz Denoise or Aurora HDR are the only thing missing for me in lightroom CC. Exporting, editing in other app, exporting again and importing back to lightroom is a huge pain.

[thatsmauri]

You're right. Lightroom Classic supports plugins, while Lightroom (Cloud) does not.

[BigMtB]

hmm... why not one program that is backwards compatable and/or allows changing of visuals/features to preference ? I must be missing something huge.

[theotherlinh]

Definitely would love to see this with a proper SDK. Though it does feel like we'll forever be split with LR Classic and LR?  Or is this a limitation because the codebase is tied to mobile as well in some way?

[Loic39063917o0i2]

Totally agree. Lightroom CC with cloud storage in principle is a killer app for (semi-)professional photopraphers because you can immediately process your photos on the go, but if things like plugins are not supported then it ruins the workflow.

Technically you can of course device-dependently show/allow a plugin feature based on the device the app is running on and I agree that this really would not ruin the user experience to have some differences in the same app depending on which device it is run from.

Also, if Adobe absolutely wanted to make "Plugins" consistently available in LR CC on all device platforms, then a modern version of a "Plugin" could be a published web service API that would allow other third party providers to connect LR CC with their own "Plugin" web services. That way everything (also the Plugin) would be a service / cloud. Even if such service offerings don't exist today, they will never if Adobe doesn't start to offer a corresponding API.

[Loic39063917o0i2]

I mean, especially as this thread is called "Lightroom ECOSYSTEM (Cloud)". Third Party webservice "Plugin" = allowing for an ecosystem...

[sanaaarao_3727]

Lightroom CC focuses on consistency across devices and doesn't support plugins, unlike Lightroom Classic, which allows for additional functionality through plugins.

[Mrl0]

Please update Lightroom so we have just one app. Having two applications is absurd. 

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Greetings all,

Updates for Adobe Photography products are released.   The October (Max)updates have implemented this feature request.

If you do not see the update in your Creative Cloud Application, you can refresh it by hitting [Ctrl/Cmd]+[Alt/Opt]+[ R ].

Note: It may take up to 24 hours for your update to be available in your Creative Cloud app.

Thank you for being so patient.

[theotherlinh]

LR Desktop just implemented a round trip edit feature, not an actual plugin feature?

[pjglad]

I tried it with Luminar Neo and ON1 Effects and it did not work. Perhaps I do not know how to use it.

[pjglad]

OK, I figured it out. Must save/export as Tiff to source folder.

[scot.hacker]

I've read the v8.0 update notes in detail but don't see any mention of plugin support. Is the support currently undocumented? Or is there any documentation you can point us to?

[theotherlinh]

The new feature is roundtrip editing, first bullet point here: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/using/whats-new/2025.html#other-enhancements

It's not the plug-in system Classic has.  I think  this thread may be a combination of the two things as the  OP says plugin, but they talk about export/reimport editing.

[theotherlinh]

for anyone that still is interested in trying to get support for actual plugins, I made a new thread here that could use support https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-ecosystem-cloud-based-ideas/p-plugin-support-for-lightroom/...