# Can't clear develop history



## johngalt (Oct 20, 2012)

Hi,

I've managed to change a setting somehow. I am applying some Lightroom General Presets to DNG's.
My problem is this. While developing a DNG I can CTRL Z to back out of develop steps, however once 
I go to another DNG and then back to the original I can't clear the develop history to go back to 
the original. This is even if I Clear All.

This behavior is recent and I can't figure out what I've done.

Any help would be appreciated.


Doug


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## Victoria Bampton (Oct 20, 2012)

Hi Doug, have you tried clicking on the earlier history state?  Clear All clears all the history states, so perhaps you were meaning to press Reset instead?


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## johngalt (Oct 20, 2012)

Hi Victoria,

Right now I have a photo in Develop mode show the changes I made with the presets.
The filmstrip thumbnail shows badges reflecting crop and develop settings yet the
history shows none of these steps. Which I would expect because I cleared them 
all because I wanted to get back to the original DNG "negative".

I hope this makes sense. 


Doug


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## Hal P Anderson (Oct 20, 2012)

Doug,

It makes sense, but it is incorrect thinking. "Clear history" merely clears the entries in the History panel, it doesn't actually undo the steps. Try hitting the Reset button in the bottom right.

Hal


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## Randy McKown (Oct 20, 2012)

When you switch to another image and then switch back again .. your last Lightroom action for Ctrl+Z is going to be "Undo Selection" (the act of switching images not the last edit performed on the current image selected). However, you should still be able to manually click backwards on the history actions in the History Panel for the current selected image. I'm not aware of any settings that will change this so it should be working as far as I can tell. I've never heard of anything that would allow Lightroom to auto clear the History upon navigating away from the image .. if it exists it would be one of the dumbest features ever LOL. If this is happening I would guess it to be a program error more than anything .. never seen this happen. 

Now when you click Clear All .. that is actually clearing out the History .. not the actual steps performed in your History .. LOL I know it makes no sense. So if you clear the history what it does is prevents you from backing up through the history and whatever last edit was done is what you're stuck with. However, you can still revert back to the original image by clicking on the Reset Button .. directly across the screen on the bottom of your develop settings panel.


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## johngalt (Oct 21, 2012)

Victoria, Hal and Randy,

Thank you. I guess I got so used to seeing the steps in they history display get
deleted when I CRTL Z that I thought clearing them would natural... well clear
them.

The reset button did exactly what I wanted.

Again thank you all for your assistance.


Doug


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