# Can I sort by images already edited?



## CameraCarl

Operating System: Mac OS 10.13.2
Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info): Lightroom ClassicCC 7.1

My daughter asked me to give her digital copies of images taken over the last 13 or 14 years.  I've narrowed it down to a couple thousand images which are are a mix of unedited RAWs, jpegs and edited RAW images.  I plan to sort them by file type.  I'll simply copy the jpegs. Before I convert the RAW images to jpegs, I plan to make Autocorrections on the unedited RAW images. But I can't see any reason to do this on the RAW images I have already worked on in Lightroom.  Is there any way to sort out the edited RAW images?  If so, I can convert them to jpegs without further editing.


----------



## Johan Elzenga

I don't think you can sort them, but you can select them in the following way. First, create a normal collection with all the images you selected. Then create a smart collection that matches two criteria: 

1: collection is the name of the collection you just created
2: adjustments is false

I'm typing this on my iPad, so I can't check the exact wording, but this should work.


----------



## johnbeardy

Sorting is possible by Edit Time and by Edit Count (how many adjustments).


----------



## Johan Elzenga

I stand corrected. That is obviously even easier.


----------



## johnbeardy

But it is imperfect. It's hard to be certain what counts as an edit - it's probably a mix of history steps and metadata changes.


----------



## Johan Elzenga

The question is if using a smart collection like I suggested is less uncertain. But it's worth a try.


----------



## Wanda

I would approach this sorting of RAW unedited images by using the Metadata filter in the Filter Library. Sort by Year, File Type and Edit, then perhaps Develop Preset. Hope this helps.


----------



## Kirby Krieger

johnbeardy said:


> It's hard to be certain what counts as an edit - it's probably a mix of history steps and metadata changes.



Is there a  definitive answer?  The function is sloppy without knowing what "counts" — I never sort by "Edit Count" because I don't know what's being counted.


----------



## Victoria Bampton

Kirby Krieger said:


> Is there a  definitive answer?  The function is sloppy without knowing what "counts" — I never sort by "Edit Count" because I don't know what's being counted.


I haven't seen it documented. The way to test it would be a collection of two photos. Edit one so it's first/last, then try different edits on the other to see what  moves it in the sort order. As you can imagine, that would be a bit of a job, and it's the first time I've heard anyone ask the question!


----------

