Adobe today released an update to address crashes and performance issues in the 6.2 and CC 2015.2 releases of this past Monday. The update is labeled 6.2.1 and CC 2015.2.1.
I believe that this release has a lot of promise to address both the crashes (mostly on Mac) and the performance lags resulting from how Lightroom was scanning your hard drive for potential folders to show on the new “Add Photos” screen. While I withdraw my blanket warning to not update, I’d still say that it can’t hurt to wait and see how it goes for other users.
UPDATE 10/12/15: While the number of complaints has decreased substantially with this update, some users are still experiencing stability issues. Unless you need the new camera support or lens profiles added in 6.2, I’d suggest continuing to hold off on updating.
If you do wish to update, if Lightroom doesn’t prompt you to update, go to Help>Updates. If you are a CC subscriber, you can also update from your CC app.
If you didn’t read about what’s new in 6.2, read my blog post from Monday. In addition to new camera support, new lens profiles, and bug fixes, all users will see a redesigned import process, and CC subscribers will see dehaze added as a local adjustment.
As I mentioned in this Monday post, some features have been removed from Import, in an effort to streamline the Import process and make it easier. If these features are among those you rely on, you still might choose to not update. Removal of some of these features has caused a lot of consternation among users. In acknowledging this user feedback, Shared Mangalik, Lightroom Product Manager, has written in the Lightroom Journal:
The previous Import experience literally made people push back from their computers in frustration. Keeping the existing Import experience isn’t an option, and we needed to evolve the Import experience.
We’ve heard great feedback on the changes, and we’ve always evolved the Lightroom product with feedback from photographers and look forward to continue to evolve the experience going forward with your feedback in mind.
I look forward to seeing how the experience evolves. Adobe has given us a great product, so I’m going to have faith that we get to a solution that is best for the user community as a whole.
In my video in this post, I walk you through the new Import process.
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Laura:
I can’t thank you enough for your guidance with Lightroom.
Before I discovered you 5 years ago I was lost and confused with trying to understand and use Lightroom. Your videos back then gave me an experience, a near epiphany. I finally “got it” and have been a serious user ever since. The part of your Lightroom Video Series that depicted Lightroom being like a public library (card catalog, pointing to location on the book shelves, etc.) was brilliant!
So, thank again for your great and important service. You are my guide through the wiles of Lightroom iterations and I am very grateful.
Feel free to let me know ways I can help you keep up your great work.
Aloha from Maui…
-Neil
You’re welcome, Neil! Thanks very much for your note – I am very happy to hear that my videos have been so helpful. I wish I could say that the public library analogy was my idea, but it wasn’t.
Hi Laura,
Thanks so much for the great advice on the latest upgrade of CC. I am always an early adopter and use programme upgrades whenever they are released so your advice this time was well directed at me. I held off upgrading.
Thanks also for the tutorial on the new importing interface. As usual very clear and clearly aimed at photographers of all levels of ability. I love the way you include everyone of whatever level of experience.
A final thanks for the comments from Adobe. It does appear that they listen to customer experiences and I am grateful to your input to this.
Keep up the great work,
Blessings,
Roy.
Hello Laura – your announcements are candid, as usual. My son (he is in London) has sent me the LR 6 CD, which I have to install yet. Like my LR 5, this CD is ‘Made in Germany’. Btw, I suppose its alright to have both LR 5 and LR 6 on my iMac; is it?
Warm Regards from Mauritius.
Beware the LR 6.21/2015.2.1 Fixes NOTHING. Its still BAD NEWS!
I had problems with the LR 6.2 Update running under El Capitan (OS X 10.11) so I quickly applied the 6.21 “fix” this morning. Oh yes there were a few less apparent bugs, but the HUGE problem is that it still freezes up on Quitting LR requiring a power down to restart my MacBook Air.
The Import panel is enough reason to stay away unitl they listen to the actual pros who use the software and not LR naive user groups “Who pushed themselves away from the computer when confronting the Import panel”, as was posted on a Adobe support page justifying gutting its usefulness.
Hi John,
Regarding hang ups specifically, you could try resetting your preferences – close Lightroom, then hold down the alt/opt key and Shift as you open it again. I hear you though on Import.
As a ACE LR3,4,5 (don’t know what happened with 6 and CC) I spent have a long time with LR (all the way back to Pixmantec…) Well over 100,000 images in my active catalog.
We have a problem. Adobe has changed:
1. No previews on Adobe Labs for real users to vet before release (or at least I didn’t see them)
2. Fluffing up (dumbing down) Lightroom for ‘consumers’- Facial recognition (?!), new Import Module (?!)
3. Focus on mobile which in my mind doesn’t help professional users who use on a daily basis. Useless except for display.
No focus on what professional users have asked for such as faster image previews (a la PhotoMechanic), and a host of other that Scott Kelby has collated and sent.
PS ended up with two versions. PS Elements for dummies, and PS Real for Professionals.
Perhaps its time for a LR Elements while putting performance enhancements in the professional version.
I am a CC user but I will NOT be updating to any further LR 6.x that doesn’t return the Import module to where it was (at least as an option) because my workflow demands features that have been removed.
I also highly recommend no-one updates until Adobe fix this properly.
+1
Thanks Laura for letting us know about this second update so quickly. So Useful.
Laura,
Your videos and blog have been invaluable ever since I switched from Aperture to Lightroom almost a year ago. I have one quick question regarding rolling back to an earlier version. Rather than uninstalling and then reinstalling the earlier versions of Lightroom CC, is it possible to just restore from an earlier backup of Lightroom and the catalog?
You might be able to restore from a Mac Time Machine backup, Carl, but I don’t know how this works. If you’re just rolling back because of crashes or performance issues, and not lost Import features, I’d first suggest updating to 6.2.1 / CC 2015.2.1 to see if this resolves your issues.
Laura, thanks for your guidance regarding LR.
Laura, I am far from a professional photographer, However, I have learned the LR Import process (in no small part thanks to your great DVDs and CreativeLive) and hate to see Adobe delete features in order to make the learning curve easier. I think they could have kept the previous Import process while adding a dialog-based Import Wizard or some other form of in-app help. I, for one, dislike the help function that takes you to a web page that lists several options that may or may not apply to the issue I have. So, I can understand those new to LR being frustrated at times as Adobe has correctly pointed out.
However, to trash something that does work for the current user base, while deleting useful features, indicates a company that is looking for new revenue at the expense of losing those who have helped build their business into what it is today. And to compound things, to issue updates that seem to have had little in the way of regression testing, is not a good omen for the future of the product. I am a relatively new CC subscriber and while I appreciate the features of LR and PS, I am now wondering if I should have stayed with 5.7 and PSE13.
Laura: First of all I want to thank you for the good work you do. On to my issue. Recently I went to Best Buy and purchased a software download card for Adobe Creative cloud -Photography Plan: Photoshop CC and Lightroom, 12 month prepaid membership for CC. I downloaded via the CC download software both Photoshop CC and LIghtroom. When I went to Help at the top of the screen to check the version it read ADOBE PHOTOSHOP LIGHTROOM CC 2015 release. I have no Dehaze slider under “Effects”? as per you tutorial on Lightroom 6? I also find no lightning bolt under the histogram. I have not updated to 6.2 or 6.2.1 as I previously was using Lightroom 4.4 with OK results and do not want to change to the new import screen at least for now. Can and would you please assist as to why I do not have the dehaze option in this version? If it was not for the dehaze I would never have gone for the CC anything. I anxiously await your or any one else’s assistance in this matter. Can I just download 6.1.1? Thanks Steve Sorry I was a little long on words.
Hi Steven,
Make sure you are logged in to your Adobe account. In the top left in Lightroom, click on the identity plate (where you see the Lightroom logo). If there is a sign in button, click on it.
Hi Laura,
This is a repeat of a reply to your email but I guess I should have placed my comments here. My apologies for the double post.
“Have you noticed, Laura, that since the 6.2 / CC 2015.2 update, tapping the “I” key no longer shows the usual image information.
It seems to continue to work providing the new import page isn’t selected.
Unfortunately, de-selecting the “Show Add Photos” screen doesn’t return it.
Will this be corrected in a further update, I wonder?
I hope so.”
David Allerton-Austin
I’m not sure what you mean, David, that it works if the new import page isn’t selected. To my knowledge “I” has never worked within the Import dialog. For me it continues to work in Loupe view (E) in the Library module (and in other modules).
When I go to preferences and select Show “Add Photos” Screen and click “OK”, I can no longer get the usual response in “Library” when I use the “I” key.
It does,however, still work in “Develop” mode.
I have just discovered that if after selecting “Show “Add photos”” in preferences pressing “OK” AND the “Restart lightroom” button then all
returns to normal.
But it does seem to be long winded to have to restart lightroom in order to get the “I” key function back.
Laura,
You have been a God-send during this whole fiasco. I did upgrade to the CC 2015. 2.1 release, and, at first, it seemed to be fine. However, I began to run into issues where it would just hang when quitting the application (I am on a Mac using El Capitan) such that I had to force quit. Finally, I followed your excellent instructions to roll back to the 2015.1.1 release. At this time I think I will wait until the general consensus is that whatever new updates Adobe eventually releases are truly stable.
Hi Laura
I have never used LR before and am contemplating purchasing the stand alone version of the software. However after reading these posts I am confused on what to do, particularly since I have a iMac computer running OS X / El Capitain. Should I get the 30 day trial version before making a committment ? Does the trial version come with the latest update 6.2.1 ? and if so will this result in crashes of my iMac. I have several hundreds of photographs in the new “Photos” on the Mac and was hoping that LR would help me to organize and catalog them in addition to helping me to enhance some of the photos. Please advise and thank you in advance.
Ralston Maloney
Hi Ralston,
The trial does come with 6.2.1. I believe you can just download 6.0 from my post here, and then when you open it, choose to use the trial version. Then update to 6.1.1 from the same page.
I have the newest patches and the system has become completely unusable.
1. Starting to import took ages. A process that normally takes place ten minutes, took me 3 hours of hard work of starting, restarting,
2. Finally, when I imported my 400 photos, it became impossible to work. When I click on menus, the program reacts or not. Or displays different folder, because of the lag l clicked something else.
The box to switch order is gone – strange, because before import it was there. When I unfold side panels, they do not display their content, only black areas. Total disaster.
3. Activiti Monitor shows 86% for Lightroom, without relation to any activiti.
4. After the update, I worked two days more or less normally – but then I imported less then 100 photos each time.
5. I updated, because the version I was using, crashed, when I tried to move photos from folder to folder. I am not sure, which version it was, but it was definately a version before import redesign.
6. The newest version does not work for me.
Summary: At the frustration, yesterday I started the process of converting my catalog to C1. It will be complete in 2 hours from now. I do not know, if it works better for me, but I am close to a border. Last year, after replacing the computer, I spent three days with Adobe help desk trying to reinstall it in a way, that it catches my subscription. Maybe I just have bad luck.
Hi Wojciech,
I would suggest reverting to 6.1.1.
I really appreciate Laura!! Better than Adobe’s non-existent help for sure. I have LR 6.1.1 and downloaded the dehaze presets, so I am not in bad condition except for Adobe’s “don’t care” attitude toward non CC users. I have NOT updated to 6.2.1, so I was wondering what is going on with the new Add Photos process (except for crashes and hang ups) that limits what you could do before? I agree with a previous user here, that Adobe is definitely aiming for the point-and-shoot masses to increase revenue. I found absolutely nothing difficult about the “old” import process.