Announcing Lightroom for iOS 2.6

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Today we’re announcing updates for Lightroom Mobile, Lightroom CC, and Adobe Camera Raw. Read on below for the updates in Lightroom for iOS 2.6 and Lightroom for Android 2.2.2 or click the following links to open new windows for the announcements of Lightroom 6.8 and Adobe Camera Raw 9.8.

Lightroom for iPhones includes a new edit experience, a new info section, a new capture interface with a brand new professional mode, support for all of the latest cameras and lenses provided in today’s Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom releases, as well as bug fixes and improvements. Lightroom for iPads adds in the new capture interface, camera and lens support, and bug fixes, and Lightroom for Android provides support for new cameras and lenses as well as bug fixes. To download Lightroom for iOS and Android, tap here.

The teams for both Lightroom for iPads as well as Lightroom for Android are also working on adding in the new edit and info experiences and we hope to release those updates soon.

Check out the new series of videos our very own Julieanne Kost has made covering Lightroom Mobile from end-to-end, including these new features, by clicking here.

In Lightroom for iPhones, you’ll find the following updates:

New Edit Interface

Lightroom mobile 2.6 represents a significant evolution of editing on mobile devices. We wanted to improve the ability to quickly find and access tools and ensure the fastest way to enhance and edit images on a phone. Our design team reached out to photographers of all skill levels to help us figure out how people edit with Lightroom mobile, what’s missing, and how we could make it even better. This update represents our first release taking advantage of this research.

The first step we took was to organize similar tools into categories to make it faster to use tools that are often used together.

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We then built an interface that was easy to use with a single hand, something we find ourselves doing pretty often while on our phones. This meant ensuring that you could see the entire image while editing it, but also to ensure that you can easily get to often used tools like showing the before and after without having to use your second hand (goodbye three-finger before and after, hello single finger tap and hold).

 

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New Info Section

Finally, we built ways of expanding the interface so that additional groups of functionality could be added in, like the often requested ability to add in titles, captions, and copyright from mobile devices. This new interface extensibility means we can continue to deliver on the features that photographers have been asking for, turning their mobile devices into more and more capable image processing devices.

 

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New Capture Interface and Professional Mode

Version 2.6 also adds in a brand new capture interface (the same that Android users received earlier this year) that provides access to a new professional mode that provides control over all aspects of your camera’s exposure and focus. This new mode makes it easy to dial in exactly the exposure you need to capture the shot you want.

 

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These updates are all available now, tap here to download.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about the new improvements in the comments below.

139 thoughts on “Announcing Lightroom for iOS 2.6”

  1. I am not impressed. The edit experience is more clumsy and not as fast as tje previous.
    The editing controls takes up more space – which is not an inprovement on small devices lile iphone and ipad.
    Furthermore you have to scroll up and down when you work with basic
    Another thing that slows things down is the lavk of combined rating and editing. This is a major flaw. Now you cannot edit and rate/flag in one go, which is a major slowdown.

    These thing are major steps back compared to tje prevoius version – and a shame.

  2. Let me be the first to say thanks for providing the ability to enter Title, Caption and Copyright Info. This is 3 out of the 4 fields that I have requested since the mobile version was launched.

    I will test this out as soon as possible. This may allow me consider using the Lr Mobile App.

    Thanks.

    The 4th field I was looking for is the “Sub Location” metadata field. This would allow me describe the location of the shot. The mobile device is the ideal tool to edit this info while on location.

    1. Hi,
      It could have been a good improvement, but unfortunately it is impossible to use with long sentences.

      1. I’m guessing you mean for the caption? We heard from some of our pre-release testers that they also had some problems with long captions. Unfortunately, we couldn’t optimize for this use case in the 2.6 release, but it is something that we will look into for a future launch. Thanks!

        1. I don’t understand the thinking behind not having the caption and title on the iPad Version – for those of us (professionals) trying to migrate from carrying around laptops to just carrying iPADs for the mobile work before heading back to the office for the final edits – this is a serious omission.

          2. I agree. Seems odd to me that we can not edit captions on the iPad. I do more editing on the iPad than the iPhone.

  3. Discovered some strange behavior.

    Updated both the ipad and the iphone. Both took quite a while “loading preview” first time.
    Then both switched from old interface to new interface. After a while the ipad switched back to the old interface. Very strange?

  4. STILL no keywording? Are you kidding me? That is VASTLY more important to most users than Title and Caption. Get your priorities straight Adobe.

    1. Very odd omission. Some technical reason for it? Perhaps they are analogizing to non-phone cameras, where you can set copyright but pretty much nothing else. Although I too would prioritize hierarchical keywords over captions as well.

      1. There have indeed been technical reasons (that persist), but it is now something that we are aware of and working towards. Sorry for how long it’s been taking 🙂

        1. That’s great news. Apologies aren’t needed, patience is a virtue, and being involved with a development team myself (I do QA for a video game) has given me much more appreciation for the delays that can occur in development, a context that is often missing or invisible to the loud and vocal complaining community.

          But for me, also, being able to sync / edit and filter by keywords on desktop and iDevice alike would be the single greatest improvement this product could have. Looking forward!

  5. Sigh. Still no ability to take a photo with the volume buttons, a feature that virtually every other camera app has. This is a highly requested feature by street photographers, yet it’s still falling on deaf ears.

    1. I take back what I said…the volume buttons now will release the shutter!!!! I didn’t see it listed in this article so I didn’t think the function was there. But it is! Thanks Adobe.

  6. Now that we’re in RAW, we desperately need Capture Sharpening as well as Output Sharpening.

    1. Yes, this is understood. We’ve been working on it, however it’s not an easy issue to resolve. I can’t say when it’ll be available, but it is a high priority on our backlog.

  7. Thank you so much for adding the Pro mode for the camera! Much needed and appreciated!
    Really like the live level as well. Curious about whether live meterering could be set to show or a live histogram while in full manual mode so you could now where you’re at with proper exposure and not just judging it by the screen preview.
    Thanks again LR team.

    1. Thanks for the feedback! We are considering how to give better information about the tonality in the scene, as basing the exposure decision entirely off of the screen is less than optimal.

      1. But seriously? Android version is still at 2.2.2 while iOS version jumps to 2.6 already? Local adjustment has been missing from the Android version for 7 months already!!!! It is understandable that the iOS platform may be easier to work on but unless you are saying you don’t care about the Android crowd, don’t let us fall behind for so long.

      1. Exploring? Really? I cannot understand how this is an issue given that freeware for iOS provide this feature. Come on Adobe!

  10. iPad Pro pencil support would be appreciated for selective adjustments as well. Don’t really see how this update is that much beneficial than adding more features; seems more of a UI reorganization.

    1. Well, you’ve got to set a good foundation before you can implement a ton of new features. We felt that the old foundation didn’t provide us with a stable enough footing for the future features we want to implement.

      Selective adjustments, such as those that would benefit from a pencil, are on the roadmap.

  11. So close, but still missing keywords… I don’t need to edit on my phone outside of simple crops. I do need an easier way to cull images and improve my workflow.

  12. Have updated on the iPad to ver 2.6.0 – but is still looking at the old interface?

  13. You can want all sort of stuff found in the desktop version.

    The biggest problem though is that this version is way slower when culling-adjusting – which is pretty much where Lr mobile comes in as good thing in a workflow.

    Sorry, mostly “bloat features” that slows working down and thereby makes this version less usefull. A couple of updates more like this and the Lr mobile is no use at all.

    1. Really appreciate your passion for the product, Søren! We understand that there are those users that primarily utilize LrM as a culling tool, and we are working on ways to make the culling workflow even faster in a future update. Please stay tuned 🙂

  14. I don’t get it. There is no change in 2.6 for iPad ?
    I cannot se any difference, same interface, no caption editing. Something wrong?
    I have restarted iPad etc, but no change.

    1. from the article above: “The teams for both Lightroom for iPads as well as Lightroom for Android are also working on adding in the new edit and info experiences and we hope to release those updates soon.”

  15. Seriously, who is asking for all these edit capabilities? EVERYONE I know that uses LrM, or that wants to use it, wants more cataloging / organizing capabilities. Give us collection sets, keywording, keyword filters, etc.

    Focus on the Library module, not the Develop module. You’ll drive much better adoption among LR users.

  16. Features that would be usefull would be having user presets – and just tranfer the user presets from the desktop version and make them available on the Lr mobile.

  17. When this first dropped and I downloaded it, I didn’t have the faintest idea what “Sec” meant in the Pro mode.

    I guess it means seconds.

    It’s weird sounding. I’m not a fan.

    But I do like the metadata file.ds

    1. At one point we had as an abbreviation for shutter speed, SS…that wasn’t really taken well by some of our international customers…

      Sec as short for seconds doesn’t seem like that bad of an idea if you ask me 😉

  18. I am giving a presentation on Lightroom Mobile to the Greater Lynn Camera Club next Monday. I have become quite adept at using Lightroom Mobile in my workflow. And now you have made major changes to the User Inteface. Gee thanks. I thought the User Interface was just fine. I haven’t downloaded the new release so I have no experience using it, however it looks to me that we will not be using what limited screen space on cell phones and tablets for the tools and losing screen space for the image. I should think this will cause us to spend a lot of adjustment time zooming in on the image and scrolling around on it. I would have preferred leaving the User Interface alone and just giving us the Adjustment Brush and the Spot Removal tool as implemented in Lightroom Desktop.
    I did appreciate the addition of Titles and Captions. I also liked the RAW addition (We badly need a complete RAW workflow).

  19. The new version 2.6 Adobe lightroom doesn’t update a windows pops up saying is not compatible iPad Pro (with this device).

    the message can not download this app is not compatible with your device.

    1. Are you trying to install the Phone version of the app on the iPad Pro? The iPad has a separate and distinct app that needs to be installed from the App Store.

  20. Wow. A lot of complaints here. I just want to say that I am impressed with what you’ve done!

  21. What have you done… Please give a warning before you do something drastic like that. I need to somehow revert back to the previous version as I have a 1000 + pictures which I can edit within a couple of hours on the old version… speed is the key or was the key with lightroom mobile!

    I’m a event photographer and clients are happy with the quality and SPEED that I can turn around photos the next day!

    I suggest you have the two interfaces, the old version was faster and utilise the space well on a smaller screen!

    Not happy, there’s no point me using lightroom now…

    1. Agree, tje new version is a major slow-down in terms of user interface.
      Someone has done some serious overthinking – and the result is pretty bad.

      A couple of updates more and LrM will be 100% useless – serious

    2. Thanks for the feedback John. I’d be curious about what part of the old interface that you found to be faster. I can imagine one major thing that made the old version faster was that you were familiar with it. Could you help us understand what your workflow is like so that we can identify ways of improving the current experience to support your workflow?

      1. I can tell you how this update breaks my entire workflow. Reviewing single images takes SO much longer now if I have to tap to get to the star ratings. Not to mention, when the iPhone is held in landscape orientation, the photos won’t go full screen for some reason. That annoying thumbnail bar on the bottom seems to be creating some glitch that the photo doesn’t expand when you tap and the info/thumbnail bar goes away. I want the photos as full screen as possible! Is this going to be fixed?? And bring back those one swipe star ratings!! Does anyone know how to revert to the last update?? I am in the middle of editing shoots, and this really breaks everything.

    1. This is my major complaint in this update – the single most usefull feature has been deleted. This is really … really BAD !

      1. Please bring back the swipe up/down review model, photo triage is the most important scenario for mobile usage of Lightroom Mobile as a companion app, editing is secondary

        1. Agreed. Removing the swipe review removes the main reason I use the app. (That being portable speed reviewing) Please at least add an option to turn the swipe feature back on if Adobe is set on going this direction.

    2. I, too, need to revert back. This update breaks my entire workflow. Reviewing single images takes SO much longer now if I have to tap to get to the star ratings. Not to mention, when the iPhone is held in landscape orientation, the photos won’t go full screen for some reason. That annoying thumbnail bar on the bottom seems to be creating some glitch that the photo doesn’t expand when you tap and the info/thumbnail bar goes away. Is this going to be fixed?? And bring back those one swipe star ratings!! Does anyone know how to revert to the last update?? I am in the middle of editing shoots, and this really breaks everything.

  23. I think it’s a useful all-round upgrade. Thanks. I do agree though it requires keywords and quickly, please. And how about integrating 7Plus “depth mode” or won’t Apple allow that,

    1. Thanks! Hear you regarding keywords, it’s something we’ll work on.

      With regards to the depth mode, that’s unfortunately something that is not provided by Apple’s APIs (function calls at the operating system level) at this point.

  24. I like the new interface, well done.
    But there’s one change, which will slow down the selecting process a lot:
    the ability to swipe up or down for a pick and reject. Now I have to switch modes all the time, really?
    Please bringt it back.

    Feature wise I’m mostly missing a watermark function for exports…

    1. Modes, LOL. The modal structure of Lr is what kept me a devoted Aperture user for so long. Switching modes – and having keyboard shortcuts change when you do – is so last-century. There are some things I dearly love about Lr. But the UI is not one of them. I hate it with passion. “Ease of use” is not in Adobe’s glossary.

      1. I can’t speak for the desktop applications, however modes are a requirement once you get into a mobile application. You cannot fit all of the features and functionality of an app that can do as much as LrM can do in a single 5.5″ screen (let alone an iPhone SE screen). The two answers to this are app fragmentation and modes. We prefer modes 😉

  25. Downloaded the new version and used it for ten minutes. My thoughts:

    – Title and captions!!! Hooray!!! …but no autocorrect makes actually using it very cumbersome. Is disable autocorrect a bug or intentional?
    – I hope keywords will appear in the Info section before long. 🙂
    – Batch editing of info would be nice for titles, and eventually keywords.
    – I love the new review/cull mode. It finally works the way I want: stars, flags, and mini filmstrip preview all in one place at once!
    – I find the new edit controls MUCH easier to find and use. I thought I would be unhappy that they take up extra real estate, but I don’t mind. They are grouped and labeled well.
    – I wish I could see histogram and exif data at the same time…
    – Not an issue specifically with this update, but I wish it was obvious which pictures have been rejected. Like how they are grayed out on the desktop version. I feel this is especially missing in review mode.

    With the earlier update that brought RAW importing, and now this update that introduced metadata editing, LR Mobile is shaping up to be quite powerful.

    Overall I find this to be a fantastic update. I think Adobe’s user research shows.

    Thanks everyone on the Lightroom Mobile team.

    1. Thanks for the feedback, Tristan!

      1. re disabling the auto correct, I hadn’t seen that, but now do, thanks for reporting it!
      2. re keywords, yup! Feedback has been heard and it’s moving up the list 🙂
      3. re: batching of titles…I’m not sure I get that one. When do you want the titles to all be the same? Or are you looking for a way to programmatically assign the title based off of some metadata? How are you (or others) using titles?
      4. re: exif info and histogram at the same time, what type of exif info do you want to see? I’m guessing this request would be for an iPad though, since having all of that on top of your image, you’d have no space to see the image while you edit (^▽^;)
      5. re: more obvious which images are rejected, agree 100%!

  26. One last thing: I also really like the distinction between Edit, Info, and Review. It’s very intuitive and speedy to navigate while keeping each screen focused and decluttered.

  28. +1 on the big omission, here: still no Keywords

    It would be good to hear from Adobe if there’s some reason why Keywording in LR Mobile/ Keyword sync to desktop LR is just an impossible dream. At least then we could move on….

  29. When can we expect smart collections to work over Lightroom Mobile?
    Could the camera not be a standalone app, I think launching the app will take longer and longer as more features are added. It would make sense to have that separation as both apps grow…

    1. re: smart collections, it is something we are tracking, just no ETA yet.

      re: camera as a standalone, it could be, just haven’t heard many folks asking for it yet…

  30. I can’t find spot removal and linear and radius effects anymore, please put it back, i almost only use lightroom mobile to edit and this function was working fine

    1. When you have a photo up in Edit mode, the Linear/Radius appear at the bottom left under “Selective”. As far as I know Spot Removal has never been in Lightroom mobile.

  31. iPad user here so I’ve not seen the new UI yet, but thanks for the regular updates anyway! 🙂

    I would like to ask that you add the “Camera Calibration” section from Lightroom Desktop, particularly the Profile selection. Using the 2012 process (and an Olympus camera) I generally change the profile from “Adobe Standard” to “Camera Portrait”, but this is not available on the iPad version.

  32. Love the new editing interface, really a huge improvement. However the most useful feature for LR mobile for me was speed flagging – being able to swipe through a couple thousand photos from a wedding to pick the best shots, then go to the desktop for the heavy editing. Now I have to carefully tap the flag icon – which is easy to think you’ve picked but really didn’t (especially without any kind of haptic feedback). Swiping is just such a no brainer for this process, I really don’t see how anyone actually using the software would think this is a better option!

    1. I agree! I’m a wedding photographer as well and PLEASE bring speed flagging back in an update. I don’t edit images on Lightroom Mobile. All I do is flag images then edit on the desktop.

    2. Same here – I use Lightroom Mobile for selecting keepers and doing rough adjustments (crop) on the go. Speed flagging was *much* faster than trying to tap those new flag icons. Please bring it back!

  33. Hi Josh – Nice update! Quick Q… am I correct in noticing that on my iPhone 7, that LrM is now automatically adjusting DNGs captured with LrM to -5 blacks, +15 whites and +8 clarity? I assume that’s intentional? Is there a way to change the default?

    Hope all’s well with you and the team.

    1. It is intentional. The default rendering of the raw files was too different from what the JPEG looked like (either if you shot as a JPEG and compared to the DNG or even the built-in JPEG thumbnail).

      There is no way currently to change the default, short of using one of the presets in the capture mode, which are fixed.

  35. Impressive. Things look and feel better and brighter, although others will have different feedback if their work concentrates on one particular function. Agree with the speed swiping, thought that was quite good.

  36. Dang!!! Lot of harsh critics…..

    I for one am really happy with this update and like the looks and feel of it way better than before. Always thought the editing features, sliders etc were cumbersome and odd-working. This new update has a much better flow and Pro look to it. In the last year I have switched to maybe doing 95%+ of my editing on Lightroom Mobile and barely any on my Computer. My computer is turning into a Server in a way and just sits and stores all my photos. Enjoy working in the Mobile edition much better and welcome the new look. Looking forward to more updates and advancements in future updates and I think Josh and the Lightroom Mobile team are on the right track with changing technology and how we use our devices.

    As I prefer to do the bulk of my editing on my iPad I really hope these new looks and changes come to the iPad sooner than later…..

    Thanks Adobe!!!!!

    1. Thanks Mau!

      We knew that there would be harsh criticisms with his new build. Both because things changed (having to spend time to re-learn something that you are already quite familiar with is frustrating) as well as because the new UI by it’s nature changes how some interactions work (like the fact that now the UI covers some of the image compared to the previous one). We also knew we weren’t going to get it 100% on the first round (even though we did do a LOT of user testing). We’re really grateful for all of the feedback and are working to address the issues and continue to make it better!

  37. So you can ADD title and caption, but if the imported file already has a title and caption you just wash it away?
    Same with pre-existing keywords and copyright usage terms. I’m new to LR mobile and can expect limitations, but actually REMOVING existing metadata seems a bit much..

    Is it supposed to delete pre-existing title and caption?

    Otherwise it looks very interesting.

    1. Hey Seth, that’s strange, I can’t reproduce this issue. I was able to set data from my mobile device and see it on my desktop and see captions set from my desktop on my mobile–no loss of data. Can you let me know what steps you took to reproduce this?

  38. The big update I’m waiting for is the cache issue when importing photos to an iPad and wifi is not available (photos take up double storage space until connected to wifi and uploaded to adobe servers), and the option to have a wifi free workflow on an iPad, allowing users to import, edit, and then transfer to desktop via wired connection. Josh can you tell me if either of these issues are being addressed?

    1. A wired approach is not very likely (wires are like, so 20th century). However I’d love if we could use a wireless connection that bypasses the cloud and goes entirely through your local wireless network. It’s something we’re researching 🙂

      1. That’s too bad. With the increasing file size of raw images as megapixels increase, it seems really silly to look past it. There’s people all over the web asking for this. It will prevent iPads from ever being a serious tool in a travel photographers workflow. Wifi doesn’t exist everywhere, especially many remote locations we shoot. Then returning to a studio we have to wait for hours just to be able to sync with a desktop. Makes no sense at all. But thanks for letting me know so I can give up and sell the iPad Pro.

        1. Jarred, thank you for expressing my concerns with LrM!! Cloud sync is just a PITA when you are on the road. Uploading gigabytes via crappy wifi just to download the same content again, ugh… Thanks, but no thanks.

          Oh, and Josh: “wires are 20th century”? Wow, that’s just a ridiculously unprofessional comment that shows a complete lack of understanding of professional workflows.

          Regards

  39. I know you can’t comment on time lines and so on, but I just want to say there are plenty of Android users out there who are waiting for their version of this app to be as good as the ios one.

    Particularly for local adjustments, I can do it in snapseed and that’s free! I’d like to just keep it all in LR

      1. Just wanted to echo what Chris said above – Local adjustments would be great on android! And personally, I would be grateful to see 16×10 introduced as a standard crop ratio – just a ratio I like!

        Also in my opinion, it would be great on device RAW-DNG conversion, as the cloud mechanism while I can understand the benefits, is tedious without a strong internet connection, such as when travelling, which must be a major driver behind this app demand? And I’m sure it’s in the works, but the ability to publish collections as in the desktop app would be amazing as well!

  40. Really like the new UI and the ability to add and edit caption, title, copyright etc is very welcome. As already mentioned, the addition of hierarchical keywords would be perfect but as one of the original LR1 beta testers when the hierarchical structure was first implemented, I’m aware of the issues and can appreciate the difficulties as we’ll need to access the controlled voculabulary on the desktop.

    One request – would it be possible to put a copyright symbol into an empty copyright field when editing – it would make it so much quicker and easier although presumably as some point access to presets will be made available.

    Overall, an excellent job, thank you.

    1. Thanks Denise!

      Love the idea of pre-populating the © into the copyright field! Good idea 🙂

      Hierarchical keywords are difficult, however we’re thinking about it.

  41. Much impressed with the way that LR mobile is moving, starting to be a genuinely useful tool. One key feature that everyone seems to overlook though: calibration.
    The first thing that I teach photographers when I’m training Lightroom is that the only true view of a digital image is on a calibrated screen. This is just as important on a mobile device. Screens are pretty good out of the box, but luminance levels? Why aren’t Adobe looking at a solution of their own or working with a known and reliable partner like XRite? This looks like a way forward: http://www.xritephoto.com/colortrue (I have had too many Spyder failures over they years to to give them credibility).

    On the interface side of LR Mobile, I’m liking the changes, but like others here, I have to agree that Keywords are crucial and the ability to keyword images remotely adds enormously to the value of the app.

    Final thought: the Selenium preset looks nothing like any of the prints I have selenium toned over the years

    1. Thanks for the feedback. The luminance issue is definitely one that requires some consideration. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to be so focus entirely on the output from your device only. A major difference between a monitor and a mobile device is that the monitor won’t (or shouldn’t) have huge variances of light projecting onto the screen (that’s why they make hoods for the monitor) and preferably won’t have the ambient light in the room change drastically since lightness and contrast are perceptual in nature, based on the surroundings.

      So, that being said, unless you want to do your editing in a dark room with a hood on your phone (in which case, get a monitor), I’d paraphrase a certain Disney movie…let it go, let it go 🙂

      Joking aside, if you’re doing color critical work, don’t do it on a phone as there’s more than just the software that has a huge impact. If you just want to get closer, you can use the histogram as a proxy, and we’re also looking for ways to help improve the experience (showing highlight and shadow clipping, providing true white and true black as reference points, etc.).

      1. Josh, don’t joke – I’ve a hood on my monitor and neutral grey walls!

        On a phone I’d agree with your point, but the screen on the big iPad Pro is SO good for dynamic range and colour gamut that I think a way of calibrating it to harness that potential is now essential. Sure changing light is a factor, but the ability to do colour critical work (in the right environment) is really there – in the snug comfort of an armchair!

        On the desktop app, I always suggest to clients that LLL with a white background set in prefs is a great way to finally check an image before export – perhaps a black / white click-through may help Mobile users too? Dark interfaces on software always look great, but make accurate colour / contrast perception extremely hard. Remember Apple Color?

        1. Hah, the tablet is definitely an interesting point, and something we have been considering.

          When you look at the numbers (whether it’s sales of phones vs. tablets, usage of phone vs tablets for content creation, etc.), we see that vast majority of photographers (both traditional pros as well as up-and-comers) are using phones at a significant ratio (you might even say yuuuuge). It all comes down to convenience—your phone is always with you, your tablet, laptop, and desktop, not so much.

          As I mentioned above, there’s nothing about LrM that plays into a mutually exclusive interaction with LrD, and LrD is for now (and perhaps forever) going to be THE place to do color-critical work. That doesn’t mean we can’t do work and effort to make LrM play nicer, especially on the iPad 🙂

          1. Agreed, the phone is always with you – and I deliberately chose a bigger phone for the screen usability.

            I can now see the potential for tablets, especially the large Pro models, with their recent increases in capacity and capability, to start cannibalising laptop sales. In the premium market sector, the price differential is very significant and the performance difference is negligible for GPU intensive application. The game changer though, is the recent capability to import RAW files direct from a camera. Once this is ‘discovered’ by the wider market, it will be a significant catalyst.

  42. Great work Adobe – good to see the App getting the attention it needs. One of the biggest issue a lot of photographers I know that use it have is that collections can not be stored in collection sets. It would be a real game changer if we could do this because with thousands of photos in collections (organised by sets) opening items in LR Mobile makes me feel like postponing until I get back to my laptop instead.

    1. Thanks for the feedback. We’ve definitely heard requests from folks asking for collection sets and it’s something we hope to bring into LrM soon 🙂

  43. No swipe up/down flagging?? WTF?
    Gee thanks. If you can’t restore that simple feature then there is no point in using LRM.

  44. Josh, I tried the new UI on the iPhone (6S) and I guess it is OK but the screen is so small, I won’t be using it much for processing 200+ RAW images. I’m glad you only changed the cell and not the iPad as I really love the iPad UI. I teach LRM to Camera Clubs and they love it (see my presentation on my web site at – kmessamore.com and krtraining.biz). I have tried shooting RAW image post processing on the iPad and it is great. I use a Canon EOS 5D Mark III along with an eye-fi card (recently bought by Keenai) to wirelessly import to camera roll and then brought into LRM. One problem is you have tomanually select images to bring them intoLRM. Julieanne Kost described a process in the new UI that can automatically import camera roll images into LRM but it only automatically imports the last shoot. That would be a great process. Even the sync speed is acceptable. I have even tried multiple RAWs loaded via an SD card into the Camera roll in an iPad and that works for 200+ images. RAW processing however is a very slow process and we need a complete workflow in LRM that will work for professional photographers that typically shoot 200+ images for travel or studio shoots.
    A workflow figment of my imagination would be: 1. Shoot 200+ images (think Canon 50MB) and upload RAW images to the cloud while loading jpeg or Smart Previews to tablet Camera roll. 2 Automatically import jpeg or smart previews into LRM on tablet. 3. Post process jpeg/Smart preview on tablet and sync to Laptop/Desktop/Web. 4. Provide link to Web for Client review/comment feedback (with no requirement for Client to sign in with Adobe ID. link is sufficient). 5. RAW upload and download from Cloud to Desktop/Laptop proceeds in parallel with post processing in tablet. 6. Changes synced to Desktop/Laptop are applied to RAW images. This allows fast post processing but allows slow path for RAW images. Is something like this possible? We need a complete workflow from clicking of the shutter to client/print. LRM is getting very close to being the ultimate solution for professional and hobby photographers. My thanks to Adobe.

    1. Kent, I think your hypothetical workflow is excellent, but a minor weakness: the uploading of the RAW files. Here in Europe that can sometimes work fine, but in many areas uploading a Gb of images may be a slow process. Things are getting better and mobile will soon replace fixed lines for speed, but slowly.
      Better IMO to import files to the device and let the Smart PVs form the core of the client review material?

    1. The brush tool has not yet been added to iOS, so I guess the question really is “when will android users get a brush tool?” and the answer is, it’s clear that users have asked for this functionality and it’s being worked on 🙂

  46. My thought is the photographer doesn’t care that the RAW files are slow as they will be processing the images (jpegs or Smart Previews while traveling home or working with the client remotely. Once they return home the RAW file should be waiting on the Laptop/Desktop ready for applying the post process changes that have been made. The key is to separate the slow RAW path to the Laptop/Desktop from the fast, rating/post processing path to the Laptop/Desktop. The alternative is a slow RAW rating/post processing path to the Laptop/Desktop. Works fine for one or two images but not for 200+ 20Mb RAWs.

  48. Impressed with the progress y’all are making toward an effective pro workflow on LR and LR Mobile; can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but we are not there yet. The iPad Pro and LR Mobile seem made in heaven for a pro workflow starting in the field.

    In September I spent a month in Iran along with 2 D800e cameras and an iPad Pro (and no laptop) and dreamt of how I could have been using the iPad and LR Mobile. But all I could do with ~150 images a day was look at the camera LCD and wait until I got home to upload them to LR and get them prepared for my website. So, with all the latest LR Mobile improvements, I tested my dream workflow on a short field trip last week.

    Here’s my priorities for adding what’s missing to make this really good:

    1. Optionally, automatically delete from Camera Roll when moving raws to Lightroom Photos. This would avoid the present (PITA) situation of duplicate 50 MB images on iCloud/Adobe Cloud, the Mac, and iPad. If Apple doesn’t enable this, make the case strenuously.

    2. Batch captioning and keywording. (I use batch to build up captions first with location information, then I add other caption information as appropriate for various groups of images.) Also batch image editing with synching and Previous capabilities as on LR on Mac.

    3. Sync Smart Collections including creation of Smart Collections on iPad. Better yet, be able to sync and create Mac folders to iPad so one could file images via an identical folder structure on iPad in-field.

    4. Camera profile raw processing presets, same as on Mac.

    5. Wired (USB) uploading of images from iPad to Mac. There are situations where a fast network isn’t available. If you don’t like wires, and can implement a no-fuss bluetooth connection, OK. I would have put this first priority, but I was impressed by how fast images came down from the Adobe cloud on a test I just did.

    6. Oh, and this should really be first priority, bring iPad up to editing level of iPhone. Maybe you have a technical reason why the iPad is taking second fiddle, but really that is the device for LR Mobile to really shine. Serious editing is not really viable on an iPhone. It’s OK to cover some of the screen with adjustment tools, but a tap on the screen should hide the tools and show the image full screen (and zoomable).

  49. What’s the ETA on bringing back one-swipe star ratings, and fixing the full screen image glitch when in landscape orientation?

  50. I gave up on Lightroom mobile long ago. I wish Adobe would resolve Lightroom before adding bloatware to Lightroom Mobile.

  51. You’re latest 1/17 iOS of adobe lightroom for IPad is upon updating reporting app is not comptiable for,your,device running iOS 10.2

    1. Strange, I’m running 10.2 on my iPad Pro and didn’t have the same problem. Let me check in with our team and see if they can help identify what the problem may be.

  52. One perfect addition would be to be able to (on the iPAD) copy metadata (all) from an existing synced image. Therefore at base the metadata could be set on an image an synced to the mobile device. Then all that is need the ability to copy metadata from image to image without a full editing interface (as long as the metadata is stored in any exported image).

    Do you have any press photographers on your beta test platform?

  54. Key-wording key-wording key-wording.

    Did Lightroom really come out in June 2013?? That’s 3.5yrs and still no key-wording in LR mobile/web?!?! Insane. Tech issues, really? Adobe.. or Adoobie?

    1. moreover: users asks for about 3 years for keywording. In open source software that never happens.
      But here: at least the answers regarding reasons, status or progress of development are rare.
      In a clean generic programming environment the costs for providing 2 or 20 fields of metadata is nearly the same. However, the hierarchy of the keywords takes some extra effort.
      As of hundreds other users, I can’t understand the lack of basic features but the implementation of extended capabilities like selective filters. Such development can be done much more precise on desktop systems with calibrated monitors.

      For me, the mobile version turns out completely unusable, because it’s simply impossible to select a photo (i.e. as referece) out of 30000 without the use of keywords. Or even present decided photos.

      I don’t wanna flame, I still hope to get the mobile version of LR usable.

  55. Hi Josh,

    I just have a general LRM query that I can’t find a definitive answer to. Once images are synced to the Cloud from LRM or to LRM from LRD/LRW, what is stored on the mobile device?
    My head and usage say that once ‘in the Cloud’ a mixture of Smart Previews and Thumbnails remain on the device depending on how LRM self optimises.
    Do you have a link or likewise?

    Thanks

  57. When will you add the ability to search by keyword? This would be incredibly helpful as I keyword everything on the desktop version yet it’s not synced in mobile. My clients would love it too. Please add in next release

  58. I am an android user and I love having this app available on my phone since I use it on my laptop consistently. I only wish it was updated as frequently on my Samsung Galaxy s7 as it is for iPhone. I have no local adjustment and it’s a feature I really would like to be able to use, so that is disappointing. It seems that iPhone takes priority for any update. There are plenty of android users too!

  59. Still unusable because of no keywording ability. That is the only real use I have for LR Mobile and years later and it’s still not available! Full editability of metadata (flags, keywords and ratings are critical) is the most important and useful part of a mobile app.

  61. still waiting for keywording or tags. iOS removed tags in the last version in favor of face recognition. 90% of the pictures I take with a phone are of objects not people so tags are really important. Seems like such a basic request. When I take a quick photo on a phone, I want to identify it, not edit it.

  62. Keywording is important. Adobe should better manage their customers’ expectations. Either say they can’t do it or let us know when it will be available.

  63. Hi All,
    I noticed that LRM is not bringing the iptc fields when importing from camera roll. Has anyone observed similar issues with iptc (caption, title, location etc).
    I am investigating a workflow using Nikon’s snapbridge to download jpeg with iptc filled into an ipad, then import the files from camera roll to LRM, do editing, and export/ share. When I export directly from Snapbridge the iptc’s set in camera are preserved in the exported files. However when editing the files in LRM the title/ caption fields are empty.
    Has this been addressed perhaps?
    Regards,

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