PhotoLab Mac Users : Status on Catalina (formerly Don't upgrade to CATALINA topic)

…in order to not accidentally update to Catalina, read this: http://osxdaily.com/2019/10/16/hide-macos-catalina-software-update-mac/

Good news! We have just updated PhotoLab 2 to have a tool that will repair the issue that was created by the upgrade to Catalina, so that everything goes back to normal.

At startup, if you were in one of the cases where you could have issues, you will see a dialog that will perform the repair. Everything should be quite clear in the dialog, and if you have more questions, you can also check this FAQ (that will be updated very shortly) to get more details about those: https://support.dxo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360034657752

The same update will follow very closely for PhotoLab 3 (with version 3.0.1), so that the repair dialog is proposed for users who migrated to our latest major version already. This version should be released early next week.

Note that PhotoLab 2.3.3 also fixes two other issues with Catalina: the zoom control that was not working properly, and also navigating in the Photos library from within PhotoLab.

Thanks a lot for your patience and understanding.

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I recently installed CatalinaI and have issues with finding images. I tried upgrading to DXO 3, but DXO3 can’t find photos. The Photos Library shows, but there’s nothing in it. Depressing.

Another related issue, if I select Edit with DXO in Mac Photos, it will bring the image into DXO, but it shows as a TIFF rather than RAW. This makes DXO unusable now.

Hi Arthur,
Do not depress.
Things will be working soon I am sure.
(Un)fortunately I did not upgrade to Catalina yet so I can not help you but you are in good hands on this forum.
Try to see if your problem is already listed, maybe you only need a new update to fix this, else contact DxO support to get official help.
People using Catalina and PL3 will read your post. Keep faith :+1:

1 Like

I recently installed CatalinaI and have issues with finding images. I tried upgrading to DXO 3, but DXO3 can’t find photos. The Photos Library shows, but there’s nothing in it. Depressing.

As was said above, the issue of showing photos from within the Photo Library is fixed on PL2, and will very soon be fixed on PL3 as well.

Another related issue, if I select Edit with DXO in Mac Photos, it will bring the image into DXO, but it shows as a TIFF rather than RAW. This makes DXO unusable now.

As for Photos sending TIFFs to PhotoLab, there’s unfortunately not much we can do about that, we have absolutely no control over what Photos is sending us, so that would be a feature request for Apple.

3 Likes

The fix has now been released for PhotoLab 3 as well (in version 3.0.1), so it should be all clear on Catalina now!

Enjoy!

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About showing Photos from the Photos Library: What is the expected behavior? I tried on MacOS 10.14 with PL 3.0.1, but couldn’t figure out how to access the Photos Library. I assume you don’t mean to open the bundle directory directly and start working in the inner data structures of Apple Photos?

I assume you don’t mean to open the bundle directory directly and start working in the inner data structures of Apple Photos?

That’s actually one way to do it, even though it’s neither practical, nor really ‘clean’. :wink:
The best way I could recommend would be to use “Edit With” in Photos to open the photo in PhotoLab, but even then, it will still generate a picture in a temporary folder within the Photos library bundle, so we still need to get inside there.

When that happens, either way, it should prompt you the first time for permission to access Photos. If you don’t get that prompt, you’ll have to go into System Preferences > Security > Privacy > Photos, and there you can enable PhotoLab to allow the access.

Yes, then it is in an ExternalEditSessions subfolder. And if I export to the same folder without a suffix in JPG or TIFF then Photos picks up the edit. Nice, I wasn’t aware of that.

Still, usefulness is limited because Photos will not supply the RAW file, but a TIFF instead, as mentioned elsewhere.

Still, usefulness is limited because Photos will not supply the RAW file, but a TIFF instead, as mentioned elsewhere.

Yes, we don’t have much say on that, unfortunately… In the case of a Photos extension, there’s a criteria that the photo needs not have any correction applied in Photos to have the RAW passed along. Maybe it’s the same with the Edit With, so that might be worth a try… but I wouldn’t hold my breath either!

Is there a way to make PhotoLab function as an Photos extension so we can send RAW from Apple Photos?
If not, is there a plan to support this in the future?

I always start my post processing with PL, and I’m still most happy and excited by the results, which always includes 2 or 3 trips to NIK.

I am on Catalina (10.15.1) and have not had any issues inside PL. However, the completed files I send to the latest versions of LR and PS will not open there. I receive an error that the files are either unsupported or damaged. This happens with PL 2 and 3. (When I first opened PL 3 and got the introduction screen, I chose ‘Merge’.)

Thanks so much for your help,

Guy

Thanks

As far as I can tell, Photos doesn’t send RAW files to its extensions, it creates a jpeg of the image in its current edited state.

Now I can’t speak for Catalina, but in Mojave, photos will send RAW files to extensions (Raw Power, Graphic Converter, Luminar, etc,) if the RAW photo has not been edited yet. DXO even has an app, DXO Optics Pro for Photos that receives a RAW from photos. It’s a very limited & outdated app, I’d like to be able to do the same with PhotoLab.

The way I understand the role Photos.app can play in your workflow, is only the collection of your processed images. Not the raw unprocessed images.

When using Adobe Lightroom or DxO PhotoLab, you’re still working “ahead” of Photos.app.

Think of it as Photos.app being a digital photo album. You don’t tape film rolls in a photo album :slight_smile:

When you want to import images to Photos.app, you can ask to consolidate the photo library, which will effectively create copies of the imported photos in the file system bundle (the internal data structure where Photos.app does its magic). Whatever happens to your exported files (outside the Photos.app database) is then no longer a concern for Photos.app.

Then you don’t understand the Photos app. It can handle RAW files just fine. I have thousands of NEFs in my library - photos is my current DAM after Aperture was killed off.

I can edit RAWs in Photos or I can send the RAW to any extension app that supports RAWs to edit there. Afterwards, the edited image is available in Photos. Subsequent edits will not get the RAW (unless going back to the same extension that supports this), unless in photos you revert the edits and go back to RAW.

But the point is moot, until DXO enables PhotoLab to work as an extension, or I switch to a new DAM (which I will do, as soon as I find the right one).

I worked this out myself. Thanks,

Any news of an update for Silver Effex and DXO Black n White please

Also, I tried opening the CR3 raw files from a HD, but they show as ? in DXO PL2. I hoped that would be a workaround. Sadly it’s not…

Thanks.

I just updated Catalina and I’m running DxO PhotoLab 2.3.3.47
Photos still don’t show in the Photo Library.