P: 5.4 is exporting out of the expected order when using the context menu (Right Click)

[incognitolady]

hello,

for some reason, lightroom is not exporting in the order shown in the catalogue.

can anyone help please?

thanks 🙂

[scottyoda]

I am a wedding photographer and use two different cameras. I know I can easily sort by capture date within Lightroom. I know that I can also change the naming sequence on export, so theoretically, I should be able to export based on the capture date. For example, if I have 500 pics that I have in an album and sort by capture date and then I'm exporting and I change the naming sequence to "a-001", it should be filed as follows:

a-001 - the very first pic I took

a-500 - the very last pic I took

However, Lightroom is exporting them all in a completely random order. So a-001 will be a pic from the reception or something and a-500 will be a pic from the bride getting ready. 

It makes no sense. I have tried a thousand different things. Tried seeing if it was just one particular album. Tried searching everywhere for a solution, but everyone just says you should be able to export and get the order you desire by changing the sort order and then the export naming sequence. It doesn't work and it's driving me crazy! It's not even sorting by name! It's just completely random!! Please help!!!

[scottyoda]

I've just figured out what the issue seems to be. After posting this, the "suggested articles" took me to a similar issue posted a couple months ago. One of the support team said that it seems to be a bug when right clicking and selecting export instead of going to file>export. When I do the second, the order is correct!!

[Rob_Cullen]

I find that renaming with a sequence that prefixes the filename my sort order is always correct.

So  001-ac  will always sort before 002-z, 500-ab, etc.

A sequence suffix (as you seem to be using) would sort:  ab-500, ac-001, z-002  ("ab" sorts before "ac" before "z")

[Rahul RM]

In Macbook After editing the pics, when export is selected the pictures export order is completely messed up.

The export sequence is not in the order in which the pics were added.

[Jim Wilde]

Could you provide some details please.

Are you exporting using a custom name with sequence number for the exported files, or retaining the original filenames? What order are you viewing the originals in the Lightroom grid? What app are you using to view the exported images, if you are using Finder what list order have you selected? 

A couple of screenshots showing the problem would be helpful.

[Jim Wilde]

Could you provide some details please.

What app are you using on your Windows system, Lightroom or Lightroom Classic?

Are you exporting using a custom name with sequence number for the exported files, or retaining the original filenames? What order are you viewing the originals in the Lightroom/Lightroom Classic grid? What app are you using to view the exported images, if you are using File Explorer what list order have you selected? 

A couple of screenshots showing the problem would be helpful.

[colinm75667114]

I am trying to export all my edits from a recent session just like I always do, and suddenly Lightroom is exporting them all out of order. I want them exporting in the order they appear in Lightroom filmstrip, like they previously always have. I cannot figure out if I somehow toggled or untoggled a setting or what. I can’t find help for this issue online. Thanks for any help!

[Rahul RM]

Hi Jim,

Here is the detailed explaination of the issue.

Lets assume I have added 5 pictures to the lightroom with file names sony_1.ARW, sony_2.ARW, sony_3.ARW, sony_4.ARW, sony_5.ARW .

Now after editing them, I have selected all the pics and exported. During export process I have given a custom name "GZ_" starting with 1. Usually with version 5.3 the pics used to get exported sequentially, according to the order added to the film strip. In this example sony_1.ARW file name changes to GZ_1.jpg , sony_2.ARW file name changes to GZ_2.jpg , sony_3.ARW file name changes to GZ_3.jpg,  sony_4.ARW file name changes to GZ_4.jpg and sony_5.ARW file name changes to GZ_5.jpg.

But with version 5.4 the order is messed up, like sony_1.ARW file name changes to GZ_3.jpg , sony_2.ARW file name changes to GZ_5.jpg and so on. The file names are exporting in random order.

Hope this explaination helps. 🙂

[Jim Wilde]

Yes, the explanation helps, but it's something that I cannot reproduce on my Mac system (12.3.1). I took an album with 21 images, shuffled them around into a new Custom Order (working in the Grid, not the Filmstrip) then exported using a custom sequence number. When examining the exported files, listed in file name order, the order matched the custom order in the grid exactly.

You mention "the order added to the film strip", does that mean you are selecting in the Filmstrip, not in one of the two Grids? If so, can you try selecting them in the Square Grid then exporting again to see if the order is still different. To get an numerical match (file #1 to exported file #1 etc.) the order in the grid would need to be in file name order ascending, can you confirm that is the case?

[Rahul RM]

Jim,

I tried exporting from film strip as well as from square grid. The issue is same the order is getting messed up. The numerical match is not happening.

Also I tried in ascending order too but no luck, issue exists.

BTW My Mac version is 12.4

[Jim Wilde]

OK, but as I said I'm not able to reproduce that. Can you confirm the sort order that you are using in the album prior to the export?

[Rahul RM]

Ascending order (smaller number comes first)

[Jim Wilde]

Yes, but what sort order are you using (Capture Date, Import Date, File Name, Custom Order, etc.)? 

[Rahul RM]

Ascending order (first capture date comes first )

[Jao vdL]

This might be caused by a recent (year ago or so) change in the way export works. It is now multithreaded (meaning it exporrts multiple images at once) and this can result in exports happening out-of-order especially if the images have strongly varying filesizes. However when I test it, I can see that the exports happen out of order (i.e. test-05.jpg happens before test-03.jpg) but the file numbering is exactly as they are shown in Lightroom. Here is an example. I messed up the order in the album on purpose and exported. I can see the files come out in random order (so sorting for creation date in finder/explorer would show random order) but the ordinal numbers in the filename or exactly like shown in the album. 

[Jim Wilde]

That's exactly what I did in my test, Jao....with the same result. 

[incognitolady]

thanks jim 🙂

windows 11, and lightroom

i am using a custom name, and i rearranged the files for this lot, but on friday i left them in order of capture date, and it still messed up the export order.

here's a screenshot of the first 8 photos in lightroom grid and first 8 photos exported.  as you can see it's not even a close miss.

[KitsterM]

I'm having the same issue. I've tried ordering by capture date, custom order, and by name. Each time in the export process, the entire album is significantly reordered and upon actual export- remains so.  Only started having this issue after the most recent update. 

[ScoutMasterB]

POSSIBLE SOLUTION 

(using Lightroom 5.4 on macOS 12.4)

Hello everyone, I was encountering this problem when trying to export as well. However I only experienced it when doing a right click on a selection of photos and selecting "Export" from the right click menu. I discovered that if I instead would export via the "Share" button up top or by simply using the "Shift+E" shortcut on my keyboard the photos would then export in the correct/intended order"

See attached images for an illustration.

If your photos are still exporting in the wrong order using the share button or keyboard shortcut I don't know what to tell you. As I said I was only encountering this error when exporting via a right click on a selection of photos.

[KitsterM]

LIFESAVER! Thank you

[Jim Wilde]

Nice catch! All my testing was using the share icon, but as soon as I used the right-click option I do indeed see the images out of the expected order. That should now give the Adobe engineers something to look at.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Thank you for the additional steps to repeat the bug. We've got it logged for the team to fix. 

Workaround: Note the failure only occurs when using the Context Menu (Right-Click). Correct exporting is observed when using the KBSC or the Share Icon. 

[Rahul RM]

Thank you for your time and sharing the info.

this is truly a life saver 👍🏻

[Jao vdL]

Wow that explains why we couldn't reproduce it. Would never have expected that the different ways to invoke this would lead to different results.

[Theresa24716169rm8o]

Hello all!
I suddenly have a problem exporting photos that I have never encountered before.
As soon as I export photos, they are in a completely messed up order and no longer in the order I edited them in Lightroom.

Can anyone help me with this?