I get a fair number of emails from frantic users who have lost some critical part of the Lightroom interface. In this video I show you how to find missing panels, tools, and more. Watch the video to learn not only how to find what you have lost, but also how to hide what you don’t need.
For best quality, after hitting Play, click on the sprocket wheel in the bottom right of the video and choose 720/HD or the highest setting available.
For those of you who need to just get to what you are looking for, below is what I cover and where you can find it in the video:
Find your missing Lightroom:
- module (0:30)
- panel (0:50) – the Basic panel is most common – white balance, exposure, etc
- panel strip / filmstrip (1:30)
- toolbar (1:52)
- library filter bar (2:15)
- tool in toolbar (2:43)
- hidden settings in panel (3:06)
- grid view photo information (3:42)
- loupe view photo information (4:18)
- program close/minimize/maximize buttons (4:55)
- program menu bar (4:55)
- Lightroom 4 & 5 Basic panel tone controls (highlights, shadows, whites, blacks) (5:43)
- tone curve sliders or point curve (6:49)
Related Posts:
- “I” is for Information
- Quickly Changing Photo Information in the Grid
- Where Are My Lightroom 4 or 5 Develop Controls and What’s That Lightning Bolt Below the Histogram?
- What is the Tone Curve in Lightroom?
Excellent tutorial. I’m always learning something from you!
I don´t find in the inferior panel how to check for seing those minor dusts, in black and white: Can you help me to turn that button on? Thanks.
My regards
Maria Sacadura
Always appreciate. How do I eliminate the “SignUp” and “Submit” texts that remain on the window .. I am signed up.
Keep ’em flyin’
ed
I need help asap 🙁 My Lightroom 3, develop module has NOTHING showing in the develop mode. I can’t find any tools to edit. ANy ideas? Thank you.
Hi Bev,
I’m sorry I didn’t get to this sooner. I’m hoping you have already figured it out, but if you mean that the entire module is blank, I don’t know the answer — I would suggest posting on lightroomforums.net for troubleshooting assistance.
may I say…….Thank you!
Thank you, this was so helpful!
Hi – thanks for the tutorial. I have Lightroom 5 and suddenly am missing the “Basic” tone section in my Develop module. I saw in the tutorial that you simply right clicked on “tone” and selected “basic” and it reappeared, however, for some reason it’s not working for me. It’s simply not clickable, and I just keep opening and collapsing the area but I am only in “tone curve” or, further down the panel, “split toning.”
Please help! Am turning around a job right now and need to adjust exposure, shadows, etc.!
Much thanks,
Deborah
Got it! Found where to check “basic” when I clicked on the “help” section at the top and entered “tone.”
THANK YOU! Video was very helpful but that was my same problem! That worked. I am so excited 🙂
THANK YOU!!!! Exactly what I needed help with!!
I am missing my basic WB selections of Daylight, shade, etc… Only have As Shot, Auto and Custom.
Also missing several selections of Lens Profiles: Model and Profile. Where did they go?
They are only available for raw files, Geri, not JPEGs.
Thank you Laura,
I figured that out after posting my question… I had sent my camera in for warranty work and they changed my settings from RAW to JPEG:-/
However, I did find a wonderful workaround with white balance presets here: http://lightroomkillertips.com/?p=402 by Matt Kloskowski 🙂
Thank you! Excellent tutorial.
Help! I cannot see the Lightroom Templates in the Print module. Please help. Thanks.
Thank you so much, shift-F fixed me right up… Your guide to “where to find it in the video:” was very helpful.
I hope somebody can help me. At the very bottom of the panel (library or development) is a row of thumbnails of the photos (just above the down-pointing arrow). These are now so small that I have to view them in the grid and also I can’t see anymore the development changes made to the photo (those small icons on the bottom right side). How can I restore the size of these thumbnails? I know how to see this info in the grid, but this is more time consuming. Thanks for your help.
You have probably figured this out by now, Renate, but you can make the filmstrip larger by hovering over the black/grey top border of it until you get the double-arrow, then dragging up. Here is an article with filmstrip tips: https://laurashoe.com/2013/03/25/lightroom-filmstrip-quick-tips/
Yea, Laura, i have figured it out but thanks for your reply.
Mine is weird and I didn’t see it mentioned, the minimize, close, and ‘stacking’ icons in Windows are missing so that the only way I can see another window is to open over Lightroom and I can’t minimize the window at all- and to close Lightroom I have to go the File drop down menu. How do I get those back?
If you are using Lightroom 4 or earlier, Paul, type F once or twice. If you are using Lightroom 5, shift-F.
YOU ROCK!!!! thank you!!!!! That was quick and easy!
Hi.
When importing my “Apply during Import” gone missing.
I cannot apply keywords etc while importing.
My presets are still there, but how do I change them?
Thanks
Markus
Markus, right-click on another panel name there and choose Apply During Import to display it.
I feel like a prize idiot! Thank you for your help(-:
Great tutorial, Laura. Thanks for sharing.
I suddenly have the “Print Settings” button disappear, which was next to the “Page Setup” button, in the “PRINT” Module, in the left panel, in LR 5.
I have tried and checked everywhere, but could not find a solution, how to get it back. This is in Windows 7.
Do you know how to get that “button” back?
Thanks.
Print settings is only available on a Mac, Frank. Page Setup takes you to your printer driver software, with all the printer settings.
When I’m in the Develop tab all my sliders are in white and not colour. How can I change this to colour please on a Mac? On my laptop they are in colour, but my desktop it’s white.
Thanks
You stumped me on this one, Amanda! Try lightroomforums.net.
I’m in the same boat. Did you ever figure this out? Thanks, Jason
I haven’t looked into it, Jason. Note that many sliders should be in shades of gray. In the Basic panel, for example, only temp, tint, vibrance, and saturation are in color.
this has just happened to me – did you manage to solve the problem ?
Thank you SO much! So helpful:) You saved my day! <3
I love you!!! Thank you!!! Lost my basic. Got it back – like Stella and her groove.
Thank you!!! I lost my basic panel with the new Lightroom CC and had been at a loss trying to figure out what happened.
You are a life saver. Lost the presets panel and could not figure out how to get it back.
I too have lost the Presets Panel and even after this video (and a few others) can’t seem to get it to come up. I have a large number of presets in my LR5 folder, but can’t use any of them because the panel is missing. Please help!
If you have lost the entire panel strip, Heather, click on the sideways triangle on the left edge, at the center. If you have lost only the Presets panel and you are in the Develop module, right-click on the Collections panel name (or Ctl-click with a one button Mac mouse), and choose Presets to unhide it.
I have lightroom 4 and my templates on the left side is missing. All i have is Navigator and folders nothing else. I tried right clicking but its not working any idea.
never mind i resolved my issue your video did help with a lot of things that could go wrong thanks
I’m glad to hear it, Linda!
Laura, Here’s one I havent’ seen covered yet. I’m missing the adjustment sliders for the graduated filter adjustment only. I’ve been right-clicking and searching for sideways triangles to no avail! Help!
Hi Gail,
You’re intuition is correct – there is a sideways triangle in the filter panel to the right of the word “Effect: (dropdown)”.
In my lightroom 5 develop module, the white balance has gone from 9 options to 3 options. Daylight, cloudy, Shade, Tungsten, Fluorescent and Flash has gone missing. How do I restore them? Thank you.
The others are only available for raw files, Cindy.
LR 5.6 Book module, MacbookPro. The TYPE panel isn’t wide enough to show the presets available for selection, or the box for typing in the font size. I have tried adjusting screen resolution, real estate size and the width of teh right hand panels. No joy. I’m sur eit must be something simple…..
Sorry for the delay, Mike. I don’t know what the issue would be – if you haven’t resolved it, I would suggest posting on lightroomforums.net.
Thank you…within 1:20 I found the answer to my question!! THANK YOU!!!!
Hi there,
The noise reduction setting just went missing… There is no detail section. How do I locate this? Thank
You for the help!
Kate, right-click on another panel name in that strip (such as Tone Curve), and choose Detail.
Thank you, Laura! I had asked that same question (although I don’t see it anywhere). I followed your advice and found it again. I don’t know how it went missing in the first place, but I’m sure glad to have it back!!! 🙂
THANK YOU!!!!
Thank you!!!
Thank you for the info on the youtube segment. I’ll use some of those. However, my issue is that the Noise Reduction part in the Develop Module is missing. I got down to the last five photos and it disappeared. And I have to give these photos to some friends tonight. Yikes!!!! Any help would be appreciated.
That’s the Detail panel, Karen. Right-click on another panel name in the strip, like Lens Corrections, and choose Detail.
Unfortunately my entire BASIC panel is missing. ???
You’ll find that at 1:18 in the video, Kerry.
So thankful for your help! Frantic doesn’t begin to describe how I felt as I searched helplessly for the Basic Tool Panel. I was beginning to think I was losing my mind.
I have Lightroom 4.4 When I edit and do Ctrl+E I do not have a pop up window like I used to ask me what I want to do it just goes straight to Photoshop….Where is my pop up window.
NOTE: I just installed all of this on a new computer…everything worked on the ” old” machine
You won’t get the popup asking if you want to edit the original, etc. if you are opening from a raw file, Larry. In this case, Lightroom has to edit a copy with your Lightroom adjustments applied.
Nice video Laura, thank you again. Here’s one I cannot seem to un-Earth. Earlier today my File Handling component of the Import Module vanished and I cannot find anything anywhere about anyone else having this problem, nor can I figure out how to restore it. Any guesses?
Thank you again,
Keith Benoist
Hi Laura, it took me a day but I found one must right click at the bottom of the right of the screen to restore the “File Handling” option in the Library Module when importing, should the File Handling option disappeared, which mine did inexplicably at some point yesterday. I watched your video on this but not sure if you covered this one issue.
Thanks for all your help,
Keith
My highlight slider is gone in my basic panel. When I hover over the value it gives me a double sided arrow that I can use to increase or decrease the value or I can click in the window and manually type in a value but my slider is GONE!!!! HELP!
I’m not sure, Shannon – I’d post on lightroomforums.net, and include a screenshot.
Hi Laura, I’ve just upgraded from LR 3 to LR 5 and followed your tutorial on ‘upgrading’ the catalogues all with no issue. I have just come to start to have a play in the new develop module and I have noticed that there are no changes at all present from LR3 to 5, ie under the Basic panel there is still the following sliders – Exposure, Recovery, Filly Light, Blacks etc. I know that in subsequent versions these have been replaced with ‘highlights’, ‘shadows’ etc so I am confused as to where all the new features are. Any clues??
Hi Stephanie,
You’ll want to read this article on updating the process version for your photos. Enjoy Lightroom 5!
Laura you star! I found restarting the programme brought all the functions that were missing up but I did still find the lightning bolt so now I know how to deal with that. Thanks so much.
Really useful video. Thank you. the niggle with Lightroom I have is in the develop module. If I crop, or paint an adjustment, when I finish there is no “Done” button. I can press return and that does the job, but isn’t ideal. I have probably hit a short cut and not noticed, but cannot find a way of undoing it. I use Lightroom on the iMac, but still managed to follow all the shortcuts etc in your video.
Thanks again.
You have lost your toolbar – type T to get it back. You can also click back on the tool icon to close it, or click on Close in the tool option section.
Dear Laura,
What a wonderful tutorial. F key was really enlightening!
I still have a question. I am missing something you didn’t mention… I imported photos, having them in my library but when I click Develop tab there is nothing. Photos also don’t show in my slider below the library… I would truly appreciate quick response from you Laura or anyone who knows the answer asap! THX!
Hi Beata, I apologize for the delay. If you still have the issue, have you selected a folder or collection in the Library module and do the photos show in the grid? If so, I don’t know what the issue would be – I would post on lightroomforums.net for assistance.
Hi, Laura.
What a great website! Thank you so much for this tutorial. My quick develop bar went missing and I was working on my photography assignment. You saved my day!
Cheers,
Caroline
I’m happy to hear it, Caroline!
I have spent days reviewing this video and trying everything I could think of but I am still stumped! I have a MacBook Pro computer, my ‘luminance, noise, and reduction panel went missing. I hit the option button while the pointer is placed over a panel and instead of getting the panels that you can check to open, I continue to get the ‘reset button’. What am I doing wrong?
Hit the Ctl button instead of the Opt button when you click on another panel header, Beth.
My ‘Previous’ button is missing in Develop mode. It now says ‘Sync’. Any ideas?
Sorry for the delay, Rhonda, but it changes from Previous to Sync when you have multiple photos selected. Click in the gray border of the thumbnail of the photo you want to work on in the filmstrip to deselect all others.
Hi There Laura! thank you for the turorial, its great! I have a quick question. I just bought some templates but I don’t have a template browser panel. How do I get that onto the left hand side of lightroom? thank you!
Jamiey
If you’re in one of the output modules (Book, Slideshow, Web or Print) that should have a templates panel, right-click on another panel header there, such as Collections, and choose Template Browser.
Thank you very much! I was really pist because I coul not find “whites” and “blacks” in my Basic panel. Now, thanks to you, I am happy again with my Lightroom 6.
Thank you SO much for this video. I was going crazy trying to get my Basic panel back!
Really helpful thanks and I will check out some of your other tutorials.
thank You!!! i was freaking out!!! 🙂
Just wanted to say “thank you!!” for this video. I had been missing a couple of panels in my Develop module for a few hours and was really starting to get frustrated because I have photos that need to get to my clients. I was able to retrieve them through your advice on this video. Thank you so much! (And my clients will be happy I can work. HA!) You save me a night of complete frustration. 🙂 Cheers!
So helpful!! Found exactly what I needed (even though I wasn’t sure of the name) definitely book marking this page for the future! Thank you so much!
Hi,
Suddenly in my installation of lightroom 5, the icons for Crop, Spot Removal etc are appearing very small in height. Also the length of adjustment brush has increased.
how do I restore this back to previous setting?
Regards,
Ramana
Very informative! However, I have somehow made my Presets side panel completely disappear. I can click on Collections, Folders, etc. It does not show up there. Nor does it show up in Window/Panels.
I have no idea how to get it back on my work area. They are still in my presets folders but I can’t get them back to the panel. Does that make sense?
Please Help.
If you are seeing Collections and Folders in the left panel strip, Cheri, then you are in the Library module, not the Develop module where the Preset panel is.
Hi Laure,
Your video is great but what happens when in library view the only panel is the navigator? This is my situation in LR 5.2. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
That’s not supposed to be possible, Sarah. I’d suggest posting on the Adobe Lightroom forum or lightroomforums.net for troubleshooting assistance.
Thanks for the help. Don’t know what people like myself would do without people like you!
Please help me my TEMPLATE BROWSER in the Print Module are missing, i was trying to load some templates when it happens, how can i get the browser back?
Thank you for your super video
Ronel
Right-click on the Collections panel name and choose Templates, Ronel.
Thank you so much, panic over!!
Thank you! My toolbar disappeared a while ago and I couldn’t figure out how to get it back. This video definitely helped me! Thank you!
Thank you so so much~ I have been trying to find my basic panel for awhile!
Thanks a heap for this really clear and simple explanation.
I’ve coming over from Aperture and the simplest things seem to elude me as i try to continue on my work, and unlearn to relearn.
Could not figure out where the rating and colour and flag had gone. So simple.
Enough to make me go on and buy your training.
Great work.
Very useful.
Thank you so much Laura.
Lots of great info,
what happened to the File handeling box in LR cc
thanks
Right click on another panel name in that strip, Al. The cause is discussed in this article on why panels go missing.
THANK YOUUUUU!!!!!
I have Lightroom 5.7. the star ratings and information no longer appear on the thumbnails.
I have gone into Library View Options and followed directions to have them back in place but it hasn’t worked .I still don’t have the star ratings and info showing up on thumbnails. I have clicked “show rating footer” and “include rotation buttons”
Thank you for your advice.
I have solved my problem. I had decreased the size of the thumbnails and when you do that all info disappears. I remembered I could make them larger and then all the info and ratings appeared.
Hi Linda, I don’t it is thumbnail size, directly. You were in “collapsed view”, which hides information around the thumbnails (and does make them smaller). Hitting “J” once or twice switches it to “expanded view”, with more information showing.
Yes your tutorials are very helpful , but I had tried hitting J so many times and changing all the settings in preferences. and none of them changed the thumbnails. and switching to expanded view and collapsed view. It wasn’t until I remembered that I could make the thumbnails bigger by moving my curser over the bottom of the lightroom screen till I found that certain line that allowed them to become small or big t that I got the info. back. I was so relieved. because it does make the work easier when you can see your stars and info.
Thanks for your consideration of my problem and I was happy to find your site.
Turns out we were talking about two different things, Linda. There are thumbnails in the Grid, which is the center area, and thumbnails in the Filmstrip at the bottom. Changing thumbnail size in the Grid does not reveal or hid the stars. Changing the Filmstrip size and the size of its thumbnails does hide or reveal stars, flags, and badges.
Thank you! My 8 month old daughter banged around on my keyboard while I was tending to something else and my basic panel disappeared! This was SO MUCH HELP!
Angie
Thank you for a great tutorial! Helped me when I was in a crunch :))
I have LR 5.7. Everything works fine, however, no Tone Curve. I have tried pushing just about every button possible. Please help me find it.
Hi John, this is a missing panel and is covered at 00:50 in this video. It is also covered in this blog post.
thank you!!! My basic bar was gone, but you showed me how to get it back. brilliant!
Thank you for an excellent video! I updated my lightroom cc and now when I’m in Develop under the Lens Correction I only see the “profile” and the “Manual” tabs. I’m missing the tabs “basic” & “color” help! thx.
Hi Mey, these were rearranged in Lightroom 6.6/ CC 2015.6. You’ll find a video covering what’s new in Lens Corrections and the new Transform panel in this blog post.
this post has saved me more than once. this is the third time i’ve found myself here via google. thanks SO MUCH for sharing all these tips
You’re welcome, Kate! Next time start on my site (laurashoe.com) and use the search box in the top right corner to find a subject. 🙂
Thank you. The answer was easy; I just had to find you.
Warren
Thank you !
Hi Laura, I’ve been using Lr for ages but recently had an issue I couldn’t seem to fix. Thanks to your video I had the answer in seconds! The reason it was seconds and not minutes, is that you indicated at what point in the video that each problem would be addressed. I went directly to 2:15 and there it was. Thank you!!!
You’re welcome, Joanne!
Thank you, Laura! You’re a life saver!
You’re welcome, Gina!
I use LR 5.6 The function that displays the before and after versions of the image has disappeared including the triangle (?) where you can turn it on and off. I realise \ can be used but this does not show both images simultaneously \.
The bar underneath the photo, Roger, is called the toolbar. If yours has gone missing, type “T” to reveal it. The Y|Y before/after button is in this toolbar.
I spent two weeks trying to get my grid back. Just type ‘t’. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Beth! Also, “G” for grid.
Hi Laura: I just upgraded to Lightroom CC. The paint can feature that I used to keyword pics was missing from the tool bar. I’ve been a photographer for a long time and I felt crazy for not being able to find this simple resolution. I searched online for a full day to find out how to restore that feature. Video’s, Adobe webite, written tutorials and not one said to hit “t” to restore that toolbar. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your simple, useful tutorial. I made some notes in case some of my other features go missing in action. ( :
I’m happy to hear it, Tina – thank you for your note!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! What a help!!
You’re welcome, Carol!
hey laura,I have recently upgraded my lightroom to v6.1 and there is a problem that I can’t use the loupe view in develop mode.. it shows a blue box with white cross sign ..plz help
Go into Preferences, Sid, and on the Performance tab turn off GPU acceleration.
Hi Laura,
Under Print, I cannot remove the background’s border. Online I see that I can change this under “Layout” but I am missing my “Layout” tab and cannot find it anywhere. Can you please help? Thank you so much!
Hi Annaleisa, missing panels are covered at 0:50.
Ah! there it is. Ha! I spent the last hour wondering where my panel went. This tutorial was exactly what I needed – thank you so much
You’re welcome, Militza!
First time I’ve seen this. I edited a file in Luminar plugin as a tiff file. Updated to Library. There is no histogram for it. When I made a virtual copy, there is a histogram, but not for the master file. Histogram exits for all other versions of this image, i.e. the original DNG and the jpeg export.
What’s up with that?
I suspect that the TIFF is not in an RGB color space, Julie – probably CMYK.
“T” for toolbar. You’re awesome! Thank you for this video.
You’re welcome, Melissa!
I’m missing my file handling panel on the library section when I need to import my photos. How do I restore it in my interface? Thank you.
Hi Adriana, missing panels are covered at 0:50 in the video. Note that you will only see File Handling when you are in the Import dialog, not in the Library module.
Laura:
I have LR 5-6, I am missing several options unde the “WB” dropdown menu (only 3 options are shown).
Also, on the “Lens Profile” only very few lens selctions are shown (where before I got a long list of Nikon lenses).
Please help me to recover the missing options
Those are only available with raw files, Robert, not JPEGs.
Excellent!!
I have LR CC and in the “Lens Corrections” module under “Manual” the -Vertical, -Horizontal etc have been replaced with -Distortion, -Defringe & -Vignetting. How do I get back to the individual adjustments? I watched your video and learned a bunch but tried all your tricks to no avail.
Thanks!
They are in the Transform panel now, Mitch, right above or below Lens Corrections.
Thank you!! Within a minute of watching your video I found my missing basic panel. I appreciate it very much!
You’re welcome!
Thanks, solved my problem expeditiously.
Thanks a Ton.. your video is very helpful
You’re welcome, Abhijeet!
The targeting tool in HSL does not work, it shows a magnifying glass.
That’s a bug, Ron, that will hopefully be fixed in the next update.
Hello Laura, I have a problem with filters like flag, rating and etc. I can’t access them and I am not able to see all of the flagged or rated photos because there’s nothing that I will be able to click simply because they are missing. can you help me? thanks.
You’ll find filters in the filmstrip (in the top right) or above the grid. If you don’t see the filter bar above the grid, go to View>Show Filter Bar or type \.
Thanks so much for this video. I was missing the Transform Panel in the Develop Module and I got it back after watching your video and learned several other things too. Yeah!!!
You’re welcome, Stephanie!
In 50 seconds I found my missing bar! Thank you for posting and the simple, useful expalainations!
You’re welcome, Mikey!
THANK you! My goodness 40 seconds and my problem was fixed! Thank you thank you thank you!
I’m sorry it took so long, Bobbi! 🙂