The cloud-based Lightroom has been somewhat dangerous to use since its inception in 2017 because, as I warned about, it’s not hard to accidentally have more photos selected than you intend to when you go to delete, and if you’re not paying attention you’ll delete them all. Up until recently there has been no way to recover them. In May we got the ability to recover files deleted within the past 60 days using Lightroom Web, and now we can do the same in Lightroom Desktop and Mobile.

Lightroom Desktop

To restore a deleted file, go to the Deleted collection in My Photos, find the file, and click on the restore icon (#1 in the screenshot below). If the image is stored locally it will be restored right away. If it’s stored only in the cloud, it may take some time for it to sync back down, or if sync is paused, it will wait for you to resume sync. In addition to restoring one photo at a time, you can select multiple photos and then click on the restore button in any one of them and all will be restored.

Each image thumbnail will indicate how many days are left before it automatically gets deleted permanently (#3). To delete a photo permanently right away, click on the trash can (#2). Finally, #4 icon shows the sync status of the image – click on this for an explanation.

Finding Your Restored Photos

When you restore a photo it disappears from the Deleted collection. To then get to that photo, you have to scroll through All Photos looking for it, or know either the date it was captured so that you can use the By Date section of My Photos to get to it or what album it resides in so that you can look there – but unfortunately while it’s in the Deleted collection there’s no way to determine the capture date or what albums it resides in. Hopefully in a later release Adobe will make it easier to get to recently restored photos. In the meantime I’m just grateful that there’s now a way to restore them.

Lightroom Mobile (iOS and Android)

To restore deleted files using Lightroom Mobile, go to the Deleted collection, then tap on the three dots in the top right, and choose Select. Tap on one or more photos to be restored, then choose Restore at the bottom of the screen. The Delete button will delete them permanently.

The entire Lightroom ecosystem now supports the following new cameras:

• Canon PowerShot G5 X Mark II
• Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III
• Hasselblad X1D II 50C
• Leica V-Lux 5
• Panasonic LUMIX DC-GX880

Click here for a list of all cameras supported by each version of Lightroom (and Camera Raw).

These new lens profiles are available throughout the Lightroom ecosystem:

Click here for a list of all lens profiles available in Lightroom.

In addition to deleted file recovery, new camera support and new lens profiles, the following enhancements are available in Lightroom Mobile:

More Facets for Searching (iOS, Android, ChromeOS)

Adobe has added the following search facets, making them available now throughout the Lightroom ecosystem: focal length:, type: (raw, HDR, pano, image vs. video, etc.) and depth map:. Type one of these, including the colon, in the search bar and you’ll be presented with a list of values present in your catalog to choose from.  This page has a list of all facets available in cloud-based Lightroom.

Create Presets from Discover Posts (iOS, Android, ChromeOS)

On the Home screen in the Discover section you can explore other photographers’ editing of their photos. Now with this update, save their edits for a photo as a preset that you can apply to your own photos: Choose a Discover photo, tap on the three dots in the top right and choose Download as Preset. The preset will then be available in the Presets tab when you edit your own photos.

Video Import and Playback (Android)

Now import and play video formats supported by Android. (Video export not yet available.) Coming to iOS at a later date.

Batch Editing of Metadata (Android, ChromeOS)

Change flag status, star rating, title, caption and copyright for groups of photos. Select multiple photos from the grid, then choose Edit Info. Coming to iOS at a later date.

Skip Importing of Screenshots (iOS)

While having Lightroom automatically import from your phone’s camera roll, you can have the import skip screenshots you have taken with your mobile device. Import of screenshots is now off by default. To change this, go into settings – from the home screen, tap on the gear icon in the top right. Choose Import, and then toggle on or off the Screenshots switch.

This Import screen, by the way, is where you set up auto-import from your camera roll. I have this on, so all the photos I now take with my phone, whether taken with the Apple camera (and also the Lightroom camera) automatically get imported and synced to my computer and Lightroom Classic.

In-App Tutorials (Android tablets, Chromebooks)

In-app interactive editing tutorials, previously available in Desktop, iOS and Android phones, are also now available on Android tablets and Chromebooks. You’ll find them in the Learn section on the Home screen.

Filtering Shared Albums (iOS, Android, ChromeOS)

If you have any shared albums filtered by stars or flags, you may see messaging that the capability to filter shared albums by stars and flags will be removed in the near future. Apparently it conflicts in some way with future plans that Adobe has for shared albums.

Notable Bug Fixes (iOS)

• Before this update accessing the filter feature in a catalog with lots of keywords could cause the app to freeze.
• Healing performance issue fixed.

In addition to deleted file recovery, new camera support and new lens profiles, the following enhancements are available in Lightroom Web:

• Lightroom Web now has both the photo and square grids – type G to toggle between them (as you can in Lightroom Desktop). The square grid, new to Lightroom Web, provides information about your images – flag status, star rating, and file type. The Best Photos feature now also uses the square grid.

Lightroom Web’s square grid – type G to toggle between this and the photo grid.

Contributors to shared albums, when contributing, are now given the opportunity to upload an avatar, if they haven’t already.
The capability to filter shared albums by flag status and star rating is being removed to make way for other new features to come. Here’s Adobe’s statement on this.