LIGHTROOM - Is there way to permanently disable Stacking?

Robert,

you haven't provide any specifics but these are the settings that affect stacking / grouping of images:

1) Lightroom->Preferences->General->Import Options->Treat JPEG files next to raw as separate files

2) Lightroom->Preferences->External Editing->Stack With Original

3) Library Module::Photo->Stacking->Auto-Stack by Capture Time...

They address different aspects of stacking; 2+3 is "genuine" stacking and probably related to what you are experiencing; 1 is more "grouping" JPEG and RAW versions of a single photo into one so probably unrelated.

1) is off and 2) is on by default; 3) is an active choice. In my experience there is no random / nondeterministic stacking behaviour. The only case I can think of is external editing where multiple photos are used as the source e.g. "Open as Layers in PhotoShop" or "Merge to Panorama" where the resulting image does NOT become part of a stack even if the source images are in a stack. But again only managed for completeness as your aim is to disable stacking.

I wouldn't be surprised if your issue is related to 3).

Regards,

Roland

Thanks for the info. I use external editing to photoshop for editing, not jpeg. Hopefully,  option 2 will do the trick. I missed that when reviewing preferences.

Once more be great if Adobe increased the font size had a larger button. I cant wait for the millennials get reading glasses! Might actually help the boomers get Adobe to change the text size ;)

So every time I click on an image in Develop in Lightroom, it creates a stack. I don't like the stacks. Then when I unstack the images it creates multiple of the image that I started with. How do I get it to stop doing this? 

When filtering images, different camera models respond differently when a virtual copy is created, and they shouldn't. Specifically, the 5dMiv virtual copies do not appear when created using (at least) the camera filter, while virtual copies from other camera models do appear. Unless someone makes the connection that the difference has to do with the camera model, as I have done, the way virtual copies are displayed does appear to be random and at first glance may seem that stacking is to blame (since virtual copies are hidden/not showing). 

My current example:
1. Under catalog, in Library mode, select "All Photographs".
2. Press "\" to bring up filters.
3. Filter by Camera: I tried 5dMii, 5dMiv, 40D, Nikon d200, d300, and d600
4. Sort images by capture time or filename
5. Make sure stacking is turned off.
6. Select 1 or more images from results, right click and select "create virtual copy/copies".  

Expected Results:
Since stacking is off and the virtual copy has the same filename, date, rating, color, flash state, is from the same camera and is the same file type as the original, the virtual copies should all appear next to the original when sorting by filename or capture time.

Results:
1. When either 5dMii, 40D, Nikon d200, d300, and d600 models are filtered, ALL virtual copies created show up, right next to the original images, as expected. 

2. When I filter by camera: Canon...5D Mark IV, virtual copies DO NOT show up next to the original. There is a curled page indicator on the bottom corner that shows a virtual copy was created, and the image count increases (1 of 2), but NO virtual copy can be found. Furthermore, unstacking doesn't show the copies (stacking is turned off), so they aren't being stacked and hidden, they just don't show up.  

3. When I select 2 or more camera models from the filter list, one being the 5dmiv, the 5dmiv is the only one that does not show newly created virtual copies next to the selected image(s).

4. When filtering by "all cameras", virtual copies from 5dMiv appear next to original/selected image, as they should. 

To be clear, I'm not talking about missing virtual copies because they don't match the filter or because I'm creating them from a collection instead of a folder, or because I'm sorting files in such a way that a virtual copy wouldn't show up next to the original.  As I pointed out already, under the exact same filter and sorting criteria, virtual copies show up next to the original for certain camera models, while the virtual copies from my 5dMiv camera are hidden.


Workarounds:
The workarounds are weird (and proves to me that something needs to be fixed): basically any change in filters or sorting will make the lost virtual copies appear (as long as they still fit the filter). If another virtual copy is created, you have to make another change for it to show.  For example, if I increase or decrease the filter rating or sort the results by filename instead of date created, the virtual copy will appear.  Create another virtual copy and it will not show unless I make a new change.

So, the original poster is correct that, for some camera models, including the 5D Mark IV, virtual copies created while using certain filters, including the camera filter, behave in a random manner.  Please fix this.