Lightroom Desktop: All edits done, lost.

@DGrainger Well, if the car is not working, then I can't bring it over to the mechanic. And I'm not a mechanic myself, to know what's wrong.

I usually edit a photo in Lightroom, then open it in Photoshop to make more changes, then save it as a JPG.

Yesterday, I edited the photo, but before opening Photoshop, I decided to get all the photos I was planning to add to an Instagram post, to batch edit all of them. I took longer than expected, and after a couple of hours, just turned off my MacBook.

I'm not supposed to click Save after editing a photo, do I?

Well, I open Lightroom again today, and the photo is there, without any edits. They're gone. What happened? I don't know. I'm not a mechanic.

Earlier in the day, several updates downloaded and installed automatically. That's all I can think of

@Rikk No, I hate Adobe's file system so once I finish editing a photo and obtain the final file, I delete it from Lightroom and I don't save it in Photoshop. I always just have the photos I'm editing at the moment. Most times, that's just one.

I might have left the edit screen open for several hours, before turning off my MacBook. Are you saying it won't save ANY edits if I do that?

Aha! A conceptual problem here.  Adobe does not "have a file system." One does NOT save files "in Photoshop" nor when using any other program. Files are saved in your storage media, whatever that might be, in a file system / format system depending on which you are using, Windows or Apple, in a structure which you can visualize in a human friendly display. With Windows there are Directories (also called Folders) which the computer can locate and store or retrieve depending upon user instructions to save or open a file to or from storage.   I used to have clients (I had an IT Support business for many years) who would say to me something like this: " I saved it in Word!" when they actually saved the file in a directory within Windows file system. What was always the problem was that the save had been to a different place than the user thought because they had saved something else earlier and failed to notice WHERE the document was being saved.

So, perhaps in this case, possibly a Save command given to Photoshop placed files in unexpected places, or perhaps the user had expectations that Photoshop itself had the work tucked into a little place in Photoshop, and didn't understand that you do NOT save files inside software programs. If the latter is the case, and, as the OP stated, he or she simply left the computer open for a while and shut it off without actually saving the file after making edits, then that is pilot error.

Geez... I mean that while inside Photoshop, if you click on File / Save or File / Save as..., the user experience I'm put through is awful. Photoshop, and all Adobe products for that matter, always suggest a certain folder to save files in, and overall, just keep pushing the user to buy their cloud solution.

That's why I dislike it, not the file system, but the user experience they offer to interact with my device's filing system.

Well, it's a bit ridiculous that Adobe allowed this bug to go through, and even more so that they haven't fixed it.

But alright, your step 1 makes sense. I'll do that, thanks!

@DGrainger Well, that's not how previous Lightroom versions worked. So what changed in that latest update? I would never save any of my images before.

There is a bug in Lightroom where you lose the edits of a picture if you quit Lightroom with this picture still selected in edit mode. Either go back to the grid, or select another picture before you quit Lightroom.

This thread is being merged into an authoritative thread for better tracking and response. 

Do you do a Save before quitting?

Yes, this is a known bug, not only in the M1 version, but also in the Mac Intel version. Adobe will no doubt fix it in an update. In the meantime, either move to another image or switch back to the grid before the quit Lightroom.

@DGrainger, there is no save option in Lightroom, so that is not the problem.

Thanks! Not a Lightroom user, so I didn't know that!

@DGrainger If you're not even a Lightroom user, then why are you giving advice about how to fix this issue?

There is a known bug that you lose edits if you quit Lightroom when the edit window is still active. Switch to another photo or switch to the grid before you quit Lightroom.

Merging to an existing thread to better track this issue.

We are aware of this issue and are working on a fix. For now, after editing,  if you move to another image before you quit Lightroom you edits will be saved. It also works to move to another view. (Grid, Detail, etc.)

I'm merging your post with an existing thread to better keep track of this issue.

Google Translate: 

Wir sind uns dieses Problems bewusst und arbeiten an einer Lösung. Wenn Sie nach dem Bearbeiten vor dem Beenden von Lightroom zu einem anderen Bild wechseln, werden die Änderungen vorerst gespeichert. Es funktioniert auch, um zu einer anderen Ansicht zu wechseln. (Gitter, Detail usw.)

Ich füge Ihren Beitrag mit einem vorhandenen Thread zusammen, um dieses Problem besser im Auge zu behalten.

Please let me know once you have this fixed. I edited 25 to 250 photos at a time and it is extremely frustrating to go back to my grid and export, then see that a random group of 10-20 are reverted back to unedited form. 

This is a know bug, so next time search this forum first before posting a question. There is a bug in Lightroom desktop where you lose edits if you quit Lightroom with the edited image still in full view. To save your edits while this bug has not been solved, either go back to the grid before you quit Lightroom, or switch to another image.