# LR5 - all adjustments appear to work, except the adjustment brushes...



## GMJ (Oct 26, 2013)

Howdy folks;

my first post, and I come in swinging with a problem. :blush:

I upgraded to my MBP to Mavericks, fired up LR5 v.5.2 and continued editing a wedding, just to find out that everything is functional, except the adjustment brushes.

- Graduated filter, Spot removal, etc. all can be triggered, applied and they have editing effect.
- Adjustment brushes (i.e: soften skin) can be clicked, worked on the image, but have no editing effect whatsoever. None. Zilch. 

I'm an inch from uninstalling LR5 and slapping my MBP with a fresh install (Yes, legal with a valid serial number), but would prefer to just fix the current install.

Does anyone have any ideas before I do the "nuke n' pave" thing with LR5?


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## Selwin (Oct 26, 2013)

Have you checked that the Flow hasn't accidentally been turned low? Happens to me sometimes. If you apply an adjustment, and then click on the point in the image, do you see the red overlay of the adjustment? Is it a thick red or a faint one? If it's thick and you don't see an effect, there is something funky going on.


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## GMJ (Oct 26, 2013)

Hi Selwin;

Yes, flow is turned on - i moved it to 100% just to see whether there's any editing effect at all.
I checked the red overlay, turned the pins on to "Always", and...there's no red overlay. I switched the color readout of the overlay - still nothing.
Also, even though the pins are turned to always, as soon as I try to apply an adjustment, the pins auto switch to "never", while still no edits are visible and/or applied. 

I'm thoroughly stumped on that one...


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## GMJ (Oct 26, 2013)

Work cannot wait, so I uninstalled LR5 completely, backed up the Presets before. Reinstalled. Now it works again. I wonder if there's something that just didn't work out with the upgrade to Mavericks. 
I hope no one else encounters the same. If so, reinstall and you're back to work.


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## Jim Wilde (Oct 26, 2013)

What Density have you got set? A very low value would have that effect....


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## GMJ (Oct 26, 2013)

I tried several values on Density and Flow, wondering where they'd coincide, what effect they'd have on one another, etc. None did anything at all. 

In the end, hours of fact finding could have been saved by just reinstalling in the first place. It did the job. However, it still bugs me that I don't know what went wrong, changed LR's behavior or broke something that only the adjustment brushes wouldn't work. It's strange...


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## Selwin (Oct 26, 2013)

My second option was that there was something funky going on. Apparently I was pretty close . OK seriously, I am happy for you that you can get back to work. This is why I am still running Snow Leopard on my work horse Mac Pro. i can't afford to spend lots of time troubleshooting and my SL-LR3/4 setup hasn't ever let me down.
I do realise though that I cannot stay on SL forever, so I'm contemplating stepping up to Mountain Lion. On a spare partition to start with of course, leaving my SL partition in tact for now.


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## GMJ (Oct 26, 2013)

I haven't had any issues with LR4/5 and CS6 in Mountain Lion. I'd say you're pretty save to move on up. I definitely jumped the gun with the Mavericks upgrade, especially after I just came from a complete reinstall after my drive fried. Lesson(s) learned. Patience is the key for next time.


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## Selwin (Oct 26, 2013)

Thanks for sharing that. I think I just might try that modest jump next week.


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## clee01l (Oct 26, 2013)

Selwin said:


> Thanks for sharing that. I think I just might try that modest jump next week.


If you have a separate drive to boot from, just skip 10.8 and install 10.9.  You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. I started with 10.7 on my iMac, upgraded to 10.8 and now 10.9. I've not experienced any hiccups.  I've now upgraded both the iMac and the rMBP.  LR and everything else runs smoothly. It's not like going from Win XP to Vista or later.  (i've done those too BTW.)


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## Selwin (Oct 27, 2013)

Hi Cletus,

Thank you for your advice and for sharing how your Mavericks are flying. As you may have discovered about me I can be very conservative when it comes to computer system reliability and quite progressive when it comes to photographic equipment. That is why I will install ML first as Apple has hopefully eradicated most of the start-up problems of that OS. I have plenty spare drives so I will probably install Mavericks as well and see how it performs. 

My Mac Pro doesn't have many programs installed besides Adobe software. I even moved all of my email to my Macbook so I can easily switch to a new OS (or a different OS on a spare drive) without much of a hassle.

My basic rule for my main PP machine is to upgrade only if necessary or if there are substantial advantages that can't be neglected. So at this time the question is whether it is necessary /advantageous to upgrade from LR 4.4 to 5.x. As I am planning to set up a LR course in my local area, moving to the latest LR version is quite unavoidable. 
I'll keep an eye on how Mavericks does in the Adobe world.

thanks again for your input


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