Local adjustment presets overwritten at startup

[vr8ce]

LR 6.8 on OSX 10.11.6.

My local adjustment presets are overwritten every time LR starts up. IOW, at startup, it's as if I hit the "Restore Local Adjustment Presets" button on the Presets page of Preferences. I've confirmed this not only with behavior, but also by watching the local adjustment folder when LR starts up. If I make a change to one of the built-in presets (Dodge, e.g.), it has an update time of today in the LA folder, both while LR is open and after it exits. As LR starts up, however, it is overwritten and the date reverts to Dec 2, 2016.

Which is the date on the version of the preset that's in the .app contents.

This behavior changed in 6.x — in prior versions (5.x, 4.x, etc.), I had no problem making and keeping changes to the built-in presets. But this problem has persisted through all of the 6.x revisions.

I do not have "Store presets with this catalog" checked, nor have I ever had it checked (or want it checked).

Why is this happening and how do I make it stop? The "Reset … preset" buttons are there for a reason — so that we can manually restore the presets if we want to. It shouldn't be happening automatically every time LR starts up.

Thanks!

[vr8ce]

Does no one else see/have this problem? No ideas on how to fix it? Or did LR just remove the ability to keep changes to their built-in presets?

[Rob_Cullen]

My thoughts are- that the 'default' local adjustment presets are "Hard-wired" into the software and cannot be over-written.

This is definitely true of the Global Develop Presets, as they are not even to be found in any folder (with 'recent' Lr versions). Only previous versions show the folders (or these 'old' folders had be copied and archived)

I can only suggest any changes you make to a L.A.Preset should be saved as a 'new' preset.

[vr8ce]

It's possible, but there are a couple of things against it. First, as I noted, this is new behavior to 6.x. We have always been able to change these presets before. Second, Preferences has a "Reset Preferences" button that performs this exact function. It's presence there implies that we can change the presets, and it's continued presence there even in 6.x means that something is wrong — either the presets shouldn't be being overwritten, or the preference button is no longer needed. Since we've been able to change the presets for the entire existence of LR before 6.x, it makes sense to me that it's the former.

Saving them as a new preset just doubles the presets I have, making them harder to navigate, choose, etc. I don't want double the presets. (Actually, this goes to deleting the presets, too — we should be able to delete the built-in presets if we want to, without them being restored every time LR starts up.)

[Rob_Cullen]

Hi vr8c3,

Now you have me confused as well!  And my local adjustment presets always look different to others!

"Restore" from both Preferences and the drop-down menu- neither seem to do anything to change my presets!

So we need more investigation to get you a comprehensive answer.

My experiments (CC2015.8) indicate these results in the screen-clip-

[vr8ce]

To be clear (and as indicated in my OP), I'm referring to local adjustment presets. These are the local adjustment presets are built-in to LR (they can be found in /Applications/Adobe Lightroom/Adobe Lightroom.app/Contents/PlugIns/Develop.lrmodule/Contents/Resources/localized_presets): Burn (Darken), Dodge (Lighten), Iris Enhance, Soften Skin, and Teeth Whitening. Those are the names of the presets as they show up in LR; the filenames in the above directory are slightly different, e.g. BurnDarken.lrtemplate, etc.

Choosing "Update Preset" after making a change will change it for that LR session, i.e. as long as LR stays open. However, upon exiting/quitting LR (Alt-Q) and re-starting it, the preset will revert to it's original state.

As an example, I add 10 to Shadows to the Dodge (Lighten) preset, then choose "Update Preset". That keeps the Shadows at 10 for that entire LR session. However, when I exit LR and re-start it, Shadows has reverted to 0. I know it's the result of a restore preferences, because the date time on the version in the local adjustments folder now matches the date time on the one in the application contents directory above.

[Rob_Cullen]

One other thought-

Have you checked the Read/Write permissions for EVERY folder in -

{ Macintosh HD / Users / [your username] / Library / Application Support / Adobe / Lightroom /  }

This should be the default folder for Presets. Refer:  https://www.lightroomqueen.com/backup-lightroom-files/

I do not understand why your path to presets looks so different. And I don't believe this is where Lr is looking for the Local Adjustment Presets. { localized_presets } is not the correct folder.

{  Applications/Adobe Lightroom/Adobe Lightroom.app/Contents/PlugIns/Develop.lrmodule/Contents/Resources/localized_presets  }

[Just Shoot Me]

I think your problem comes from you can't Update built in Local Presets. I just tried on my system, Win 7 LR 2015.8. I set the Burn (Darken) exposure to -10 instead of the default -30 and then opened that preset in a text editor before and after making that change and selecting Update preset.

Before.

s = {

  id = "86261CEB-3283-4FD0-A084-4118957DC6F2",

  internalName = "Burn (Darken)",

  title = ZSTR "$$$/AgDevelop/Localized/Preset/BurnDarken=Burn (Darken)",

  type = "LocalizedAdjustmentPreset",

  value = {

  clarity = 0,

  clarity2012 = 0,

  contrast = 0,

  contrast2012 = 0,

  exposure = -0.080459770114943,

  exposure2012 = -0.075000002980232,

  highlights2012 = 0,

  luminanceNoise = 0,

  moire = 0,

  saturation = 0,

  shadows2012 = 0,

  sharpness = 0,

  temperature = 0,

  tint = 0,

  toningHue = 240,

  toningLuminance = 0,

  toningSaturation = 0,

  },

  version = 1,

}

After.

s = {

  id = "86261CEB-3283-4FD0-A084-4118957DC6F2",

  internalName = "Burn (Darken)",

  title = "Burn (Darken)",

  type = "LocalizedAdjustmentPreset",

  value = {

  blacks2012 = 0,

  clarity = 0,

  clarity2012 = 0,

  contrast = 0,

  contrast2012 = 0,

  defringe = 0,

  dehaze = 0,

  exposure = -0.080459770114943,

  exposure2012 = -0.02375,

  highlights2012 = 0,

  luminanceNoise = 0,

  moire = 0,

  saturation = 0,

  shadows2012 = 0,

  sharpness = 0,

  temperature = 0,

  tint = 0,

  toningHue = 240,

  toningLuminance = 0,

  toningSaturation = 0,

  whites2012 = 0,

  },

  version = 0,

}

But when I close and reopen LR the file goes back to the default value.

What you have to do is select "Save Current setting as a New Preset" and give it a name like Burn Edited. Then it will be available from the list.

You can't Update the Default presets.

[vr8ce]

wobertc​, as I said, that is the path to the built-in ones, i.e. the ones that are restored if you hit the restore button. They are built-in to the app so that LR can restore them. That is not the path for the ones that are used (i.e. the ones being over-written), which is the path you indicated.

The permissions are fine. The changes are saved, they're just overwritten when LR re-starts. If there were permission issues, the change wouldn't/couldn't be saved in the first place.

Just Shoot Me, you've just re-stated the problem. I'm well aware of the behavior, that's why I posted. But, as I've stated in this thread, since 1) this behavior changed with 6.x, and 2) there is still a "Reset adjustments" button, I believe the behavior is at the least a bug and at the most a bug masquerading as a (severely mis-guided) feature. There is no reason to force us to double-up on the presets when they provide a perfectly good way to restore the built-ins if we get them to a state we don't like.