I just recently starting synching collections in early December after buying a new iPad Air. Right off, I encountered the problem being discussed here, which occurred whenever I hadn't used Lightroom Classic for a few hours (sounds weird, I know); and whenever I launched LRC after restarting the computer. The circumventions worked fine, and I usually used Pause/Start to get the synch going (although I should mention that the synch icons reappeared as soon as I pressed Pause even if I didn't select Start).   Since I could reproduce it every time I restarted the computer, I tried a few things like editing the images that were supposed to be synching, removing them from the collections and adding them back, switching between modules, some other things I don't remember -- none of which worked. Then I tried something that did work, after seeing some comments here about a possible server-side problem.   I rebooted the computer, started LRC and (as expected) the synch didn't start. I'm normally connected to the internet via Ethernet, but wondered what would happen if I used Wi-Fi instead. So I turned on Wi-Fi... and the synch icons appeared immediately.   Then I exited Lightroom, turned off Wi-Fi, rebooted the computer, launched Lightroom -- and the synch started right away. Going on three weeks now, the problem has not reoccurred.   This may not help anyone, but I thought I'd share it since I had a repeatable scenario where I could reproduce the problem and seem to have hit on a solution that (so far) has worked. And maybe it provides some insight into what might be going wrong.  ... View more

Hello. I bookmarked this thread shortly after you originally posted it, because I did have the problem you described -- suddenly I couldn't add to or subtract from an existing mask. Lightroom worked fine otherwise, but nothing would happen when I clicked the buttons to add or subtract. If I restarted Lightroom or switched to a different photo, it would work for a while but continued attempts to subtract objects, for example, did nothing.   In my case, however, I rebooted my Mac mini and haven't had the problem since -- so I never figured out why it happened and can't reproduce it.    But since you mentioned you don't have the problem when using your screen recorder software, a couple things occurred to me -- especially since I do have two programs on my system that qualify as "screen recorders" by the Mac's OS that I had updated to latest versions just before I had the problem.    First, in System Settings, under Privacy & Security, select Screen Recording. Lightroom Classic should be there, and toggled on. If it's not there, open Lightroom and use a color picker: that should cause Lightroom to prompt you (in the menu bar) to allow screen recording.   If that doesn't help or wasn't necessary, I'd then wonder if there was a conflict between OBS screen recorder and Lightroom. If OBS is listed under Screen Recording settings, try turning it off and rebooting.   I'm not familiar with OBS, but given its purpose: it could have login items or background processes that interfere with Lightroom. In System Settings, under General, check both Login Items and Allow in Background for OBS, turn them off, reboot and see if the problem goes away.    If none of that does any good, I'd still not rule out OBS, since it could have background processes running that are not visible in Login Items or Allow in Background. Can you uninstall it temporarily, reboot, and try Lightroom again?  ... View more

Glad I could help. And, yes, I think you are onto something.    The tests I conducted to write my response were done with Lightroom 13.0.1. However, I still had version 12.5 on an older Mac that I don't use very much, so I just tried to repeat the same tests there.     With version 12.5, if I select Save Metadata to Files, the XMPs are created as expected.   If I then delete the XMPs in Finder and return to Lightroom and select Save Metadata to Files -- Surprise!! Lightroom recreates them. So it looks like the behavior changed between 12.5 and 13.0.1; whether that was an intentional change or a bug, I do not know. Adobe would have to enlighten us on that.   ... View more

Oh, wow, glad to hear it! And thanks for letting me know! ... View more

It's been a while since I've used OneDrive for anything, but I think that path (C:\Users\myname\OneDrive\Lightroom) means the folder containing the catalog (and other LRC data) is both locally stored AND synched to the cloud. I remember trying it years ago with the Lightroom catalog: the problem I saw was that the catalog changes so often when you're working in Lightroom that OneDrive synching would bog down Lightroom and the system. And, since the whole folder containing the catalog (not just the catalog itself) was being synched continuously, previews and other Lightroom data that change frequently would also synch to the cloud while you were using Lightroom, causing more performance problems.    To get the catalog into OneDrive, someone would have to choose the folder "C:\Users\myname\OneDrive\Lightroom" as the location for a new catalog -- which is why I say that everthing that's stored in a Lightroom catalog FOLDER is being synched, not just the .LRCAT file itself.  Lightroom of course puts previews and other data in this folder.    At one point, OneDrive started allowing users to specify that a folder could be stored in the cloud only, and not locally stored. The folder would still exist on the local drive, but its contents would be in the OneDrive cloud -- sort of like a folder mounted from a network drive. This was never turned on by default, though; you had to set it for individual folders if that's what you wanted. And I never tried that, so don't know if, or how well, it might work.     ... View more

I've had a similar experience. The combination of Lens Blur with other masks didn't actually crash Lightroom in my case, but using the sliders (or keying in number values) for any of the mask settings took about five seconds each to respond, with lots of beachballing. Most other settings -- outside the mask panels -- worked fine.   Turning Lens Blur off didn't solve the problem for me.   The image had two masks: one with 34 objects selected, and an inverted copy of that mask.    Thinking that the number of mask objects might be causing a performance problem with LRC 13, I created a physical copy of the RAW file I was working with, renamed it, and imported it into Lightroom. Then I copied all the settings (including the masks) from the problem file to the new copy (pasting settings, I understand, doesn't currently copy Blur), and performance of mask settings was normal on the new version of the image. ... View more

Yes, this is happening for me too. In my case, I have two identical external monitors attached to an M1 mini. It started when I upgraded to Sonoma and had Lightroom Classic 12.5 at the time, and is still happening with LRC 13.0.   Something similar occurs if I have photos in a filmstrip filling the bottom of the screen, in both Library and Develop modes. When I right-click on the photo at the right edge, the menu opens on the second screen.  ... View more

Click the icon to the right of "Refine" to expand the panel, then you will see "Focus" and "Blur" buttons. Select either one and you should see a brush when you mouse over your image.  ... View more

I was checking to see if someone had suggested a saturation slider. Here's why I'd like one (and one for highlights):   I currently use object or subject selection to mask the background of a nature photo -- say, a couple of flowers with some stems and leaves that I want to keep in focus -- and use a combination of texture, sharpness, and noise reduction to soften and blur the background beyond what I captured with the camera. Then I'll decrease highlights and saturation (usually in the -15 to -25 range) because this gives the photo a greater appearance of depth and further differentiates the foreground from the background. It works really well with closeup nature photographs especially, because there are often lots of random, unfocused elements in the background (and blobs of green or brown) that I don't want to be so visually distracting. Decreasing saturation and highlights works well (better than, say, decreasing whites or increasing blacks) because it's more subtle and natural looking.    To get to a similar place with the new Blur tool, I'd have to use the Blur tool first then create masks separately to reduce saturation and/or highlights just for the background.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it would be great to do both with just the Blur tool.        ... View more

Alternatively, you might take a look at an Apple TV app called FilebrowserTV. FilebrowserTV will connect from Apple TV to any drive on your network, then you can navigate to folders containing photos to display them as slideshows. No need to cloud synch since it's just accessing your computer drives directly. I use it on my Apple TV frequently, and there's also an iPad version that functions similarly.  ... View more

On my Mac, hitting the ESC key closes crop, heal, redeye, and masking panels -- just like pressing the Edit button you show in your picture. Might work on Windows too.... ... View more

Great, glad to hear it, happy copying!   Dale ... View more

Hi. I don't use smart albums but this seemed to work with regular, not-smart ones:   - I reordered some photos in a collection then selected them in the filmstrip (in your case, your smart album) - From the filmstrip or grid, I right-clicked and chose "Mark to republish"   The photos then showed in the grid as "Modified Photos to Re-Publish." After I chose "Publish" they were reposted to my Flickr album in the new order.    Maybe that helps!   Regards, Dale ... View more

Hello!    I've used WordPress for years and never known them to send out bulk emails like this. WordPress blogs can install plugins that interact with Lightroom and Photoshop, but it would still be unusual for a legitimate plugin author to spam users. Can you post a screenshot of one of the emails you received? Maybe I can help or direct you to a WordPress resource that can.   Regards, Dale  ... View more

Hi, Karen.    I run into this problem sometimes also, more frequently with Viveza than the other Nik programs. I can usually resolve it by right-clicking the blank image thumbnail in the filmstrip at the bottom of the Develop module, then selecting "Metadata/Read Metadata from File."    I always use Nik Collection tools with tiff files created from raw files ("Edit a copy with Lightroom Adjustments", that is); I'm not sure if it's appropriate for jpgs if you are editing them in Nik without creating a copy.   There's often a delay updating images on return from a Nik Collection program; I've never quite figured out if it's a Nik or Lightroom issue, but maybe this will help.   Regards, Dale ... View more

Thank you, Johan ... I appreciate the information.   Dale ... View more

Sorry I can't solve your problem, but wanted to add that I upgraded Lightroom to version 11 (along with other updates) yesterday on a Mac Mini M1 and have noticed the same thing. Even though I can launch Lightroom V11 (and use its new features), it doesn't show as installed in Creative Cloud. Same is true for Photoshop, Bridge, and the cloud-based Lightroom app.   I was surprised to see the Lightroom V11 update available yesterday; I thought it wasn't coming out until October 26. And I have Creative Cloud and apps installed on another computer (a Macbook Air), but so far the updates aren't available for that machine. Creative Cloud (which is at version 5.6.0.788 on both systems) shows the correct status for the installed apps there. ... View more

You're welcomed! Good luck!   ... View more