Important Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4 Update

You have no idea how much pain this caused over the weekend. I can only hope that the QA folk have learned some important lessons about regression testing so we don't see this kind of thing repeated.

I have no problems with the odd bug slipping through - we're all human - but to _introduce_ such massive problems into something that was functional really has no excuse.

(BTW - QA guys: I'm not having a dig at you. If Adobe is anything like pretty much any other software shop on the planet, you've got the least staff and the highest workload of any department. But use this incident to your advantage!)

This explains why the 1.4 link points to the old 1.3.1 file.

I guess what I don't understand is that none of the "bugs" were listed as feature enhancements in the "release notes" or whatever you want to call it...

It'd be great if you guys would be a bit more detailed with the release notes.

All that was listed as changed for 1.4.0 is "support for additional camera models."

I updated one workstation just to see what had changed ... not expecting anything to be difference because according to your notes you didn't mess with DNG or EXIF data.

I think it's beneficial in many ways to be descriptive with the updates that are being committed to the new versions and perhaps people would be more excited to download the latest version if we knew what was ACTUALLY changing.

[Ryan, by removing the update from Adobe.com, we're indicating that we did not know about these issues prior to the release. -TH]

I checked my Mac
Library/Receipts/Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.pkg
and there is no Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.pkg in Receipts folder????
I did just move the program to my new Mac via Migration assistant....
I also checked in my user's Library as well
no such .pkg file found

[Mel, are you looking at the user Library or the system Library? You'll want to make sure your checking your system Library. Try searching on Lightroom.pkg. -TH]

Ugh! There is no excuse EVER for tampering with RAW files. This seriously makes me reconsider my switch from Aperture.

Oh well! it happens. We all know how difficult it can be to release a piece of complex software. It is an inconvenience, but it should not take away from the superb job you guys have done! keep up the good work, we all make mistakes and honesty and admission goes a long way in my book, well done to you all.

Info has been relayed on our community website.
Any planning on a patch availability or new release would be appreciated.

LR writes to the RAW files ? How is that possible ? Was it mentionned somewhere ? Some more infos on this typical item would be a nice feedback from the LR team.

[I don't have an update on the timing of a subsequent release. EXIF capture time is the one field that is written to the original raw file in order to provide compatibility with other applications. -TH]

How can I check my RAW files?
How can I find the incorrect files (EXIF time stamp error)?

[Tamas, you would need to use a third party software that ignores Adobe sidecar XMP files to view the updated EXIF field in the raw file. The XMP metadata still holds the correct information, so files that have been impacted will be corrected by Lightroom 1.3.1. -TH]

Ryan: You should check your Macintosh HD/Library/Receipts folder not your Home/Libary.

ohhh oh, we just switched from Aperture to LR - I was quite happy but this is a big one.

Any ideas how to reverse it?? Just replace the DB with the backup DB??

I hope one of those days that they think about the user once too.

[This won't impact your catalog in any way. Open your current catalog in Lightroom 1.3.1. -TH]

Guess it was wrong decision to use DNG, its still not mature enough (after 4 years?). WHo knows what you will mess up in next version.

[Actually, it was a new DNG feature intended to provide validation of the integrity of the image data that was handled incorrectly by Lightroom. Camera Raw and the DNG converter handle this new feature correctly. -TH]

There is great differences between Adobe and Apple:
When you do a mess you apologize…

Here in France, there is a say:
"A fault confessed is half redressed"

What a mess - just sheer incompetence!

I'm having the same problems as Mel. Cannot locate the lightroom.pkg I'm unable to get rid of Lightroom 1.4

[Make sure you're looking in the system library not the library located under the user account. -TH]

As of 5:30 am PDT, after deleting ver 1.4 and reinstalling ver 1.3.1, running 1.3.1 still gives the message that a new version, 1.4, is available. Adobe needs to remove this as well until the new 1.4 version is available.

[The update notification has been removed. -TH]

Cripes. This implies you are neither fully testing your updates and more importantly, not being transparent with the changes being made.

Now I'm afraid to do the uninstall gymnastics on my system for other things to break.

What about Unit testing Adobe ? Seems the test base for this product is by far not complete - or even worse, there are not tests ;)

Best regards,
Markus

[I can't speak to the details of unit testing but I do know that this is something that should have been covered in a our update testing. -TH]

Hmmmm. For those of us that heaved our lazy selves of the couch and did a lot of photoprocessing in the last few weeks, both on data a few months old, and quite a lot of new photos, what does this mean to our libraries?

I mean, is the damage already done, and I should just press on until the next fix, or do I downgrade anyway, and /somehow/ find a way to determine which metadata is wrong and correct it by hand?

What are the circumstances around your first bullet point up there?

[If you revert to Lightroom 1.3.1 you should press on until a new update can be provided. The first bullet point error will occur when you select images and choose to save metadata to the files. (CMD/CTRL - S) -TH]

> Ugh! There is no excuse EVER for tampering with RAW files.

That's why the release was pulled--it's a (serious) bug.

TH, I think what Jacek Maryan was referring to is that just adding new cameras wouldn't seem to have resulted in problems in these areas. Therefore, I would guess something else was also being worked on. These other things were not mentioned in the list of changes. I would think many people would like to know if there are changes being made that could affect various areas of the program. Including this information does not reveal your actual changes of course - but gives everyone a heads-up as to potential improvements or caveats. A case like this is a really good example of why this type of disclosure would be valuable.

D.

[Good point David. We're constantly updating the underlying architecture of our raw processing. In this case, a pending update to the DNG specification required changes to how Adobe applications read or write DNG files. -TH]

I have serious trouble with exporting a slideshow since upgrading to 1.4. It is hanging and my clients need to see the results without me spending hours on trying to solve a problem that is really a programming issue.

[Tom, please revert to Lightroom 1.3.1 per my post. -TH]

So why does the Adobe web site download section only show "Download Lightroom 1.4" ? No reference now to 1.3.1

[Several pages are still in need of updates to clarify the currently available version. Thanks for your patience while we get these cleaned up and localized into various languages. -TH]

@ Fazal, probably not as a general rule BUT I prefer my images to have correct "where shot" local time recorded so when I shoot in a different time zone and (as I often do) forget to change the camera's time to match it's handy to be able modify the exif data in lightroom, that said why it would try modify it, by its self, automatically, on import is a mystery to me

EXIF Time Stamp error statement not clear: does it or does it not change the original file, and under what exact circumstances? The statement seems to state that it does change the EXIF date, then goes on to say "integrity of image data is not affected"...?

If I don't need to use Lightroom for awhile, can I just wait for update 1.4.1 to be posted and install on top of version 1.4?

If I do uninstall ver 1.4 and install ver 1.3.1, will the database files be affected or removed during the process (i.e. keywording forgotten or previews need to be regenerated)?

[Jim, raw files consist of two essential pieces: the block of data that was captured by your sensor and metadata to describe that image data. In this case, Lightroom would incorrectly update the metadata when you explicitly update the metadata. If you're not planning on using Lightroom you can certainly wait for the subsequent update and install it over Lightroom 1.4 if you prefer. -TH]

Unfortunately, I spent this past rainy weekend reorganizing my Lightroom keywords and library structure (160GB). I now have a time-stamp catastrophe on hand. Even restoring the .NEFs from backup will be a major pain because each file will have to be restored individually. Will Adobe provide a utility to restore the original time stamps?

[The time stamps will be restored when you revert to Lightroom 1.3.1. No need to restore your NEFs from backup. -TH]

The link you have above for the 4.3.1 files is for CS3 only. I have Elements 6.0 - where can I find the older RAW update? All I can find is the newest 4.4 update, which is still available, it seems. Wasn't this taken off, per the announcement above?

[Bob, Camera Raw 4.3.1 will work with Photoshop Elements 6.0. Camera Raw was not removed from Adobe.com, only the Lightroom update. -TH]

Check what platform instructions? I am totally computer illiterate. Is using the add/remove win program all I have to do to uninstall. Is it a big deal to use LR 1.4 until Adobe gives detailed instructions on how to uninstall and reinstall. I have CS3 and LR and would hope I get a little more details on how to do this stuff(step by step)u. It looks like I can use the add/remove utility but then what -where is LR 1.3--. I don't want to screw up and end up with nothing. I love Adobe but I bought a tool not a computer program. I need to chill and keep the faith- I guess I will continue will LR 1.4 until I get more info. I'll just stay away from those issues for wa while.

[John, add/remove program will work to remove Lightroom 1.4. Then you can download and install Lightroom 1.3.1 through the link in my post. -TH]

To error is to be human. Considering that we are in a constant flux of development and you can go back to a later version - I think people should be happy that they have something to play with. Put things in perspective. I do. I work in commercial print where as everything is screwed up. Be positive about the future. Things will change.

I used LR 1.4 over the weekend and updated metadata. How do I know if its messed up the EXIF in my original RAW files? (Thought I was only writing to XMP...)

[The easiest method to determine if your EXIF data has been updated is to look at the modification date of your raw files. If it was over the weekend, then chances are that Lightroom updated the EXIF data. The incorrect EXIF will be corrected through Lightroom 1.3.1 -TH]

Tom:
When running the Mac version of Lr 1.4 I noticed that the new ACR 4.4 profile was not being picked up by RAW files (sRW, CR2) that had never been edited. Is this correct behavior? I would imagine not. Is the new ACR filter assigned only upon RAW import into Lr? Since running Lr 1.4 I have not imported new RAW files, so I do not know if the import process assigns the new profile.

Thanks.

A. Dias

[Thanks for the report. I'm fairly certain that if the new profile is not applied by default, that the files were previously 'touched' by Camera Raw or Lightroom. -TH]

Any ideas on the timeframe for a new fix for these issues?

And, should I not uninstall the 1.4 update, will the new 1.4 update do the correct thing? (assuming I can't get to my lightroom machine before the update is pushed out.)

THanks,
Brian

[Sorry Brian, I don't have any details on the timing of the update yet but it will do the 'correct' thing in terms of installing over the 1.4 update. -TH]

I just spent the last three days before seeing this notice working hundreds of RAW files into shape, and adding new caption data. When I uninstall the update, will those file changes be lost, or will the program revert to the prior version and retain the file changes in that older version?

[David, all of that work is immediately stored in your Lightroom catalog and will still be there when you revert to Lightroom 1.3.1. -TH]

Tom, I'm sure you will do the internal self review to try and make sure this doesn't re-occur, so thanks in advance. If I might offer a suggestion especially while LR is still in the 1.x age. Before putting out a release with more than just camera updates, perhaps offer it to a broader set of users to assist with regression tests via beta especially if certain areas of the code are touched (somewhat along the release note thought above). If you are looking for profiles of camera types, shooting patterns, etc., I'd imagine there would be no shortage of volunteers (although you'll have to excuse in advance the cries for more functions) :-) . I know I'd certainly be willing to help.

[Thanks Jay. I mentioned in a subsequent post that broadening the scope of testing before considering the release final could be a possibility in the future. -TH]

Agreed with Fazal Majid -- why does the relevant code even *exist* to modify RAW files? This is not just a horrible regression bug; this raises questions about what's really going on in Lightroom under the hood.

I guess I'm pretty stupid because I don't know what this statement means: "For those that have already converted their files to DNG using Lightroom 1.4(Windows only) we recommend using the DNG 4.3.1 converter to convert the DNG files you’ve created with Lightroom 1.4."

Could you restate this pleaase?

[Ron, just use the DNG 4.3.1 converter to 'reconvert' your DNG files. -TH]

Ok, I've downgraded to 1.3.1, but only after I spent a good part of the weekend working in 1.4 with a set of 100+ raw files. Is there an easy way to see which files, if any, have had their EXIF data corrupted by 1.4? I would like to know which RAW files I should reload from the camera. Hopefully not all of them.

[Rick, none of your files have been corrupted. An incorrect time value may have been written to the raw file but it can be easily fixed by downgrading to Lightroom 1.3.1. The easiest way to tell which images may have been affected is to check the modification date of the raw files. If it was within the last few days, they were probably affected by the bug. But again, there's no corruption involved, only an incorrect value so there's no need to reload your raws. -TH]

Argh. I updated to 1.4 and spent hours working on my DNG files in LR.

What happens to my catalog? If/when I revert, will my hours and hours of edits made in Develop mode be lost?

[Paul, nothing happens to your hours of edit. They'll be right where you left them when you launch Lightroom 1.3.1. -TH]

i agree with the previous poster that there should NEVER be a situation where the original RAW file should be modified without the awareness or approval of the user.

One issue that is not clear with the background on the bug is whether this problem only occurs if the user performs a Save Metadata operation, or whether the original RAW file is modified at the time of import into Lightroom. Can you clarify?

I've got a number of pictures I've already imported into Lightroom 1.4 and am concerned that I need to trash all the work I've done and restore the original RAW files from a backup.

thanks

[Brent, in the case of proprietary raw files, the bug would only occur during a save metadata operation. No need to throw away the work you've done. Your files are fine and the work will still be there when you revert to Lightroom 1.3.1. - TH]

So what does this actually mean for RAW file users.

I installed 1.4 and updated all my RAW files with ACR4. whatever.

Now installed 1.3.1 and am now updating back to ACR 2.4.

And will the RAW Exif timestamp error now correct itself?

And what does that actually mean to me if it doesn't.

And what did the error in LR 1.4 change the RAW timestamp to?

And why the h*ll are Adobe mucking around with my RAW files anyway - that's not part of the RAW deal (excuse the pun).

[TH: Chris, the EXIF timestamp error will correct itself. I believe the incorrect timestamp written is 00:00:00. -TH]

It would certainly help if you posted a notice on your Support download site about this problem. I realize bad news doesn't like to be flashed about but this is pretty important news and I had to search and search just to find this page. Not cool!

[Thanks Bruce. I'm working on creating a Tech Note on our support site. -TH]

Is this why, when I exported out of LR to my website this weekend, all my metadata was intact EXCEPT for my time stamps? I incurred major brain damage manually sorting 119 images on the site, and have now put my web engine providers through all sorts of grief trying to figure out the problem (having told them that it CAN'T be a LR issue because I have the time stamps in my metadata in LR).

An answer to the opening question would be much appreciated. I'd also like to know how to revert to 1.3.1.

[Kent see the information in the blog post about uninstalling Lightroom 1.4 and installing Lightroom 1.3.1. Yes, the problem with the timestamp on your exported files could have been caused by this bug. -TH]

Does the DNG conversion bug affect LR 1.4 and ACR 4.4 or LR 1.4 and any version of ACR?

I just finished going back to LR 1.31, ACR apparently was 4.31 all along. I can use develop on my latest imports just fine without errors, but I'd like to be sure.

[I would recommend using Camera Raw 4.3.1 and Lightroom 1.3.1. This does not affect those versions or earlier. Lightroom 1.3.1 is the same version of camera raw support as Camera Raw 4.3.1. -TH]

I have to agree with Fazal – it's frightening that Lightroom writes to the RAW files at all. Not writing to the originals is one of the primary reasons we use Lightroom (or Aperture) to begin with. Have I been wrong in understanding that Lightroom normally does no writing at all to the original?

This bug warrants further explanation. Among other things, you wrote that "This is the only metadata field that Lightroom will write to an original proprietary raw file." What does this mean? Does it mean that Lightroom normally writes to the EXIF date field, but only to that field? Or does it mean that the bug is limited to causing a write to the EXIF date field, whereas Lightroom normally does not write to any field in the original file?

Thanks. I appreciate what a great product Lightroom is, and I appreciate your open communication on this blog. But it's pretty major for a non-destructive app to make destructive writes.

[Yes, Lightroom has written the time stamp EXIF field back to raw files since the product was launched. This is intended to provide compatibility to other products that ignore the same field written to XMP metadata. -TH]

Tom, I think the point of Ryan's comment, which I also agree with, wasn't what you took it as.

The complaint/suggestion isn't that you knew 1.4 had the bugs listed here and didn't put "known bugs..." in the release notes; it's that you knew 1.4 changed the handling of DNG and EXIF data, and didn't put *that* in the release notes.

If the release notes said "we added DNG verification", people who didn't want to tolerate any changes to the DNG processing code could hold off on upgrading, and people would be less surprised when DNG import functionality that worked in 1.3.1 was broken in 1.4.

[Matt, there was no *intended* EXIF behavior change in Lightroom 1.4 that's why I didn't address it in the readme. The underlying architecture change to provide DNG validation is arguably a little too technical to address in a readme file particularly when there's not supposed to be any visible presentation of it to the photographer. That was clearly not the case. -TH]

None of the stated problems really concern me in the immediate term. To be able to download and re-install 1.4 when your correction is ready will I have to still uninstall 1.4 and reinstall 1.3.1? Or can I just install over 1.4 when you guys have the new update?

[Scott, the new update, likely to be Lightroom 1.4.1, will install over 1.3.1 or 1.4 without additional action required. -TH]

So, if the 1.4 pkg is removed, what is left to tell Adobe that you already own a copy when you try to download and reinstall 1.3?

And what happens if you have already converted some files.

And what happens if you continue using the 1.4 version. All of your exif data appears incorrect?

[Don, Revert to Lightroom 1.3.1 and we'll take care of it from there. -TH]

I agree with Fazal Majid. Certainly the time stamp should NOT be updated EVER without approval by the user (if even then).
However, Adobe, thank you for a quick response to the bugs. With software these kind of errors tend to happen.

[This is certainly the prevailing sentiment. -TH]

So how do I go back to 1.3.1? Do I just install it over 1.4 OR do I uninstall 1.4 first?
If the latter, what will happen to my catalog if I uninstall 1.4 first?

Please advise.

Thank you!

[Please check my notes in this blog post on how to revert to Lightroom 1.3.1. -TH]

Why is Adobe Updater still telling me that I need this update and allowing to download and install it? AND I MEAN TODAY TIUESDAY 3/18!

I would not even know about this if I hadn't gone to the user forum to find out if there was a way to take advantage of a dual monitor set up with LR on a Mac.

Lucky for me I'm still using Aperture and just playing with Lightroom. I'm just not going to launch it again until there's a patch.

Tom,

I upgraded LR 1.4 on both my G5 (OS X 10.4.11) and my MacBook Pro (OS X 10.5.2). The program is working just fine. I see no problems with the EXIF time stamp either through the stand-alone Adobe converter or straight into LR converting while importing from card.

I have monitored the LR Forum and noted that the problems appear to be with Windows XP only.

I'll leave the update 1.4 as is until I find that I have a problem.

I also worked with the Betas since Beta 2. Excellent program, good support, friendly folks both on the forum and at Adobe. I cannot say enough about how closely and positively they all get together. I also worked with Aperture from early on but have since discarded it from the many problems it created, e.g. changing file names when creating web pages! Lots of other ticky-tick things as well.

Keep up the good work!

Don Eddy

[Don, I would recommend reverting to Lightroom 1.3.1. You don't see the EXIF bug because Adobe applications do not read that specific field once the XMP value for the field is available. -TH]

Tom thanks for your patience.

Nachdem ich LR 1.4 deinstalliert und LR1.3.1 wieder installiert habe, war alles wie vorher. Nur die mit 1.4 konvertierten DNGs habe ich nochmals mit 1.3.1 konvertiert. Scheint also nicht ganz so schlimm zu sein ...

[Perhaps someone who speaks German can lend a hand with this post. -TH]

The funny thing is I have been running a bootleg copy of LR for a while. Calm down now let me talk! I did the upgrade to 1.4 and had problems since. I also use the Nikon D60. I tried to print some D60 shots and no print just a blank page. I then figured since I use a legal copy of CS3 I should do the right thing and get a paid for,legal copy of LR. So I did. I updated it this morning and I am glad it installed the 1.3.1 version. HEHEHE I did the right thing. Sure this inconvienced me for a couple of days but installing 1.3.1 resolved my problems. I do hope these problem can be resolved so I can work with my D60, but for the mean time 1.3.1 works just fine for me. So my final comment to the bootleggers out there. Do the right thing ;-0

1.3.1 does not want to re-install.

I followed (I think) the uninstall instructions...
1. deleted the application file
2. did not find any receipt file (looked in both the system and home Library folder)

Installing 1.3.1 shows the hard drive icon with a red exclamation mark and says it cannot install because a version of Lightroom is already installed

:(

[Larry, did you try using the operating system search to find the word Lightroom? That should show you all of the files on your system related to Lightroom. -TH]

The reverting to Lightroom 1.3.1 does not work as it is suposse to do. I've followed intructions: no such file as Library/Receipts/Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.pkg

The only files in "Receipts" are to do with Acrobat.
Uninstalled Lightroom then proceed to reinstall version 1.3.1 and it does not allow me as it says that there's a newer version of lightroom.
I'm working with Mac Intel core 2 Duo on Leopard and now without Lightroom or with a version that it exists in my computer but there's no way the find where. I made searches for "lightroom": no result. And also searched anything with an extension ".pkg" and zero results.

[I'll ask the team to look into this but a search for Lightroom.pkg should turn up the file. -TH]

If 1.4 was taken down why was I allerted to the update just two days ago which I downloaded and installed. I have not been able to import files since the programme just locks up (ctrl+alt+del they only course). Reverting to 1.3.1 does not cure the problem. I still cannot import with out the programme locking up! Please help since LR is a bit of a chocolate teapot without the ability to import!!!

[Unfortunately it would appear that the alert was not pulled before you were notified on Sunday the 16th. Can you make sure that Lightroom 1.3.1 is the version of the application you're launching? Sometimes the application shortcuts we use will link to other versions. -TH]

If I choose NOT to do anything and keep running v1.4 what will happen? I ask because I think I can live with the wrong time stamp for a while and I don't use DNG do I? [i]I use RAW and then export to photoshop for editing before saving as either tiff or jpeg[/i].
I'd rather do nothing than risk wasting loads of time with a dodgy uninstall/reintall process.

Mike

[Mike, if you have a backup routine that uses file modification time, you may incur unnecessary disk churn on your proprietary files and backup files. -TH]

OK - I've been trying to open LR all day and restarted my computer several times, however, I keep getting an error and the program closes. I then read this post, uninstalled 1.4 and reinstalled 1.3. I am still unable to open LR - could this problem I'm having have anything to do with this newest 1.4 upgrade? and if so, how can I get the program to open???

[Diane, this sounds unrelated to the 1.4 problem. Are you trying to open a catalog from a network volume? -TH]

Tom: Thanks for your help and honesty in regards to fixing the issues caused by Lightroom 1.4. I decided to double check that Lightroom 1.4 did not mangle any of my original RAW files by running a diff command (in the terminal on a Mac) for the files catalogued by Lightroom versus the original raw files on the camera's SD card.

I did actually find that one of the RAW files was changed by Lightroom. I had cropped this file in Lightroom 1.4, which generated an XMP file but also changed the RAW file (which Lightroom is not supposed to do, I think). I ran Phil Harvey's excellent exiftool, dumped the results to text files, and ran diff again to see the differences. Here is what I got (I had to replace the greater/less than signs from the diff output with "a" and "b" to make the text appear correctly in preview):

catamaran2:raw drb$ diff lightroom.txt original.txt
5c5
a Directory : card2
---
b Directory : /Users/drb/Desktop/DCIM/100NCD40
7c7
a File Modification Date/Time : 2008:03:14 17:11:28
---
b File Modification Date/Time : 2008:03:14 16:03:20
29c29
a Modify Date : 2008:03:14 12:03:21
---
b Modify Date : 2008:03:14 16:03:21
65,66c65,66
a Date/Time Original : 2008:03:14 12:03:21
a Create Date : 2008:03:14 12:03:20
---
b Date/Time Original : 2008:03:14 16:03:21
b Create Date : 2008:03:14 16:03:20

So, it seems to me that Lightroom 1.4 did actually change "Date/Time Original" and "Create Date" (not counting the modify date, etc.). So even after downgrading to 1.3.1, this particular RAW file has incorrect EXIF data.

In my case, this is not a problem since I can delete the RAW and XMP files from Lightroom and reimport the original RAW file from the camera. But users of Lightroom 1.4 should know that just downgrading to 1.3.1 does not appear to actually fix the EXIF data that was changed by 1.4, at least not in my experience.

[Rick, Had you run an update metadata command on those files to correct the time stamp in Lightroom 1.3.1 prior to checking the EXIF values? You'll need to use command or ctrl S to update the field. -TH]

Well I imported and processed over 1500 images over the weekend, and now I have downgraded to the previous version, but I can't export full sized tiffs. I get an error:

readNegative: dng_error_unknown

How about some detailed instructions on how to fix our DNGs or a utility?

For some of us, deleting everything and reimported under 1.3 is not an option.

[John, save metadata to those files prior to export by choosing the CMD or CTRL S. Please let me know if that does not correct the error. -TH]

I installed LR 1.4. If I reinstall 1.3.1, can I just install Camera Raw 4.3.1 over 4.4, or do I have to delete 4.4 first? If yes, where do I find Camera Raw on my Mac? –Ross

[Ross, when you download the 4.3.1 update the installation instructions will indicate the plug-in location so that you can replace the 4.4 version. -TH]

If I continue to use 1.4 when 1.4.1 is released will it correct any invalid changes to the exif date brought about by using 1.4 in the same way you are saying a roll back to 1.3.1 will? I don't use DNG files so am not bothered by that problem.

[Alex, the EXIF time stamp issue isn't limited to DNG so I recommend reverting to Lightroom 1.3.1 until Lightroom 1.4.1 is released. -TH]

Is the 1.4 uninstall, just an update uninstall, or for the whole program, in which case, the activation and registration process must be undertaken again?

thank,
rb

[Reverting to Lightroom 1.3.1 should not require additional serialization or registration processes. -TH]

I have a problem with re-installing Lightroom 1.3.1
I uninstalled LR 1.4 (but like other commentators I could not locate a Lightroom.pkg in either User Library or System Library, or by searching for it).
But when I try to install 1.3.1 the installation program tells me that it cannot be done as there is a later version already installed.
I have also tried going back to my distribution CD, but I get the same message.
So now I have no access to Lightroom at all!!!!!
What can I do?

[Gerard, I'll ask the team to look into this and will post an update when possible. Have you searched on 'Lightroom.pkg' to make sure that you haven't missed it? -TH]

I have to agree with most of the posters, there is NEVER EVER EVER EVER a reason that you should automagically touch the RAW file. The RAW file is intended to be the digital negative, regardless of DNG or whatever - I pull CR2 off the flash card, I expect it to be the same in 4 years as it was the day I captured the image. If you need to modify the EXIF Captured timestamp, then this needs to either be a manual process (click the field and manually change the number) or a automated-manual process where I select a bunch of photos and hit a menu option to "correct timestamps", or whatever.

I too forget to change the time on my camera when I leave PST, but I also tend to forget to change the TZ on my laptop, too. Regardless of WHY this "feature" is there, it needs to not be automatic, or if it is going to, IT NEEDS TO BE EASY TO DISABLE. Period.

This raises serious concerns for me over the viability of LightRoom as a processing product, and I do not look forward to the prospect of converting to Aperture, or going back to Photoshop full-time. LR provides a great workflow, but I DO NOT want something futzing with my raw files. They are originals for a -reason-.
[Many agree with this comment. -TH]

Why do we bother to register our Adobe products with Adobe when notice of an egregious error like this that can affect our livelihood is not broadcast to registered users via email, rather than having to find out about it by luck FOUR DAYS LATER through the UK version of MacUser????? Outrageous!!!!!

[Randy, the errors are correctable and do not cause loss of any data so it did not require an 'active' recall. -TH]

It seems also that LTR v1.4 doesn't allow to modify the image in PS CS3 and then return to LTR as usual.. the image can't be read by LTR cause image is "corrupted". I don't know if there is a relation with version 1.4 but with old one 1.3 there's no difficulty to achieve this common transformation.

OTHER IMPORTANT BUG !!! (At least in my case or my computer)
Be Careful !!!
The "only read" files PC are not "import" on MAC.
This problem affects almost certainly your best photographs!!.
The photograph marked with "key" in a Nikon camera to prevent accidental overwriting were not imported from HD USB.
I have suffered this unfortunate problem of migration of PC to Mac.
Is there any explanation?
(Sorry Google traslation)

--------

Spanish:
Los archivos "sólo lectura" NO son "importados" por LRoom en un MAC.
Este problema afectará probablemente a tus mejores fotografías.
Las fotografias marcadas con una "llave" en una Nikon para evitar el borrado accidental no fueron importadas desde HD USB.
He sufrido este problema en la migración de PC a Mac.
¿Hay alguna explicación?

Tom, I followed your instructions to delete lightroom 1.4 on my mac, but when I try to install 1.3.1 then, the installer just keeps informing me that a newer version is already installed and won't allow me to continue installing 1.3.1. How can I fully clean the 1.4 installation then?

[This seems like a common problem. I'm looking into it. -TH]

@ all those who have 'slagged off' the Adobe developers for releasing this update. Did YOU install the new update on a back-up system of your own and tested it before you put the 1.4 update into YOUR production system?

No, why not? Maybe it is you who should be thinking about your disaster planning set up.

Personally, I've waited until now to install the 1.4 update, making sure it was OK to install. I'm glad I did.

[Owin, my personal expectation of professional grade software from Adobe is that it works as expected when released. -TH]

I have big problems since the update V. 1.3.1. When closing the application or working longer than 1-2 hours windows xp-sp2 chrashes with a blue screen! This happend exactly after installing the update.

I "solved" the problem after creating new libraries with less than a few hundred pictures.

This is a bug too!

[Thanks for the information Thomas. -TH]

I discovered another EXIF bug in 1.4. If you export from 1.4, the resulting jpegs have a date created timestap that has the right date but lists 00:00:00 for the time.
[This is the EXIF time stamp bug. -TH]

Hi Tom,

I wrote previously about the problem with the Date Modified stamps on my NEF files after using 1.4 over last weekend. I have now reinstalled 1.3.1. UNFORTUNATELY, the mangled Date Modified displayed in Explorer on NEF files whose keywords or develop settings were modified remains as mangled by 1.4. Version 1.3.1 did not restore the modification dates of NEF files to their previous values. This presents an incredible headache in managing my workflow outside of Lightroom. Will the Lightroom team be providing a utility to resync the modification dates in the Windows file system?

Thanks for your help,
George

[George, Can you select all of those files in Lightroom and save the metadata to the file? (CMD/CTRL S) That should correct the problem. -TH]

Hi!

Thanks for the communication of the problem and the supportive blog. Appreciated!
I was particularly happy with Lightroom 1.4 because it fixed the colour management problem with OSX Leopard in combination with Epson R2400 (there is a miscommunication with the printer driver so that letting LR manage the colours doesn't work correctly, it has to be handled by the printer).
So what do I do now? I really wish to use my nice new printer, but with LR1.3 I cannot use the dedicated colour profiles for the paper I'm using. Is there a work-around, and what is the time-frame for the "new" LR1.4?

Best regards
Kristofer

[Kristofer, I'll provide a timeline as soon as possible. -TH]

How do I know what version of Camera Raw I have? Where do I find it on my Mac? Was Camera Raw 4.4 automatically installed when I downloaded Lightroom 1.4?

[Camera Raw is a separate installation process and unrelated to Lightroom 1.4. -TH]

Hi, Tom.

I experienced the 1.4 problem with photos that are catalogued in Lightroom running on an XP notebook, with the photos themselves residing on a server (NetBSD/Unix, with Samba). I noticed that the photos' modification times on the server had changed. Similarly to what Rick did, I used the 'diff' command to compare the photos against a recent backup. In my case, there were no differences at all, not even in the EXIF metadata --- evidently, Lightroom had written the original values back into the affected EXIF fields. Still, it's surprising and annoying to have the modifications time change for no readily apparent reason. I'll either restore the photos from the backup (preserving their original modification times) or use the 'exiftool' command to reset the modification times from the EXIF DateTimeOriginal field.

You mentioned that Lightroom modifies just the EXIF metadata of RAW files, not the image contents themselves. First, that's not acceptable for everyone, and second, it assumes the absence of bugs. If Lightroom has a bug that causes an error in the offset to the metadata, then it could end up writing to any part of the RAW file.

I'd like to make a strong suggestion that Lightroom have a preferences option to prevent it from ever modifying RAW files (neither their metadata nor their image contents). The default setting should be to prevent modification. Then, if the user wants to have compatibility with other applications, or, as suggested by another poster, to have Lightroom handle time zone changes (I avoid this issue by setting all my cameras to UTC/GMT), then he or she can change the option's setting.

Thanks for all your work.

--Bill

[Very good points Bill. -TH]

Mike, if you have a backup routine that uses file modification time, you may incur unnecessary disk churn on your proprietary files and backup files. -TH

OK. I don't backup in this way, so reading between the lines I should be OK to carry on using v1.4 and wait for the fix in the next upgrade. Is that correct?

Mike

[I can't recommend it but you won't experience any data loss. -TH]

TH, you're a very patient person. I just read through the posts above and commend you on keeping your cool with your replies. Especially to those who ask the same question as others have asked and had answered. I have also gone through the 1.4 upgrade/downgrade. It doesn't appear that anything was changed in the data of my NEFs or DNGs that I imported using 1.4. Other than getting a message stating "An Unknown Error Has Occurred" on every file in the Develop module, the files were fine upon export and printing. The only embarrassing part was that this message was popping up while conducting a workshop for a group of professional photographers prior to finding out about the recall.

Guess this is a good time to check out Aperture 2.

BTW the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.pkg file we need to delete is not in the "system" library as Tom said above. It's in the main library on the boot drive.

[Sorry for the nomenclature discrepancy. I refer to the boot drive Library as the system library. -TH]

I set my NEF files as Read Only upon download, as I assumed they would not be touched by LR. The good news is that it saved me any raw file corruption with this release. The bad news is that I get an error message whenever I attempt to save metadata.

However, it raises several questions:

1) If the next version is designed to "fix" these files, am I going to get a series of error messages from now on because it won't be able to write to my raw files?

2) Did the current operations with v1.4 complete fully except for the inability to write to my raw files?

3) Is there a legitimate reason to write to raw files? I assume someone had a reason to introduce this code, which wasn't there before.

Thank you for your patience and help.

Bob

[Bob, the 1.4.1 update will resolve the problem and you will not see an error message on metadata update. You can always check your XMP sidecar files to verify that the remainder of the metadata was updated properly. Lightroom has always updated time stamp codes in the EXIF field of a raw file for compatibility with other software programs that don't necessarily read or recognize sidecar XMP files. -TH]

Thank you for the response to my e-mail of 18.3.08. Your suggestion does not help. I am executing 1.3.1! The problem appears to be with the preference file which I have to create a new one every time prior to import. Incredibly tedious you must agree. I'd appreciate your advice as to how to make a workable pref file 'stick'! Also if you could communicate a metaphorical slap to Adobe for what is an astonishing cock-up aka Adobe LH 1.4.

[John, it sounds like you have larger issues with your configuration. I recommend contacting technical support or filing a bug report here: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform
-TH]

Have the same problem with uninstalling 1.4 there is no Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.pkg in Receipts folder. have checked the hard drive in every possible location. Has anyone found the solution?

LR

Yes you may well be right but the absolute fact is that I had no such problems pre 1.4 instillation. Customers surely should be able to seek compensation for the utter misery and time and energy consumed as a result of the poisonous 1.4 update.

Thanks Adobe for fessing up. I have another issue with V1.4 (Windows) and that is the filmstrip always wants to go to the last image so I cannot select an image from the beginning of the filmstrip. Hopefully this bad behaviour can be stamped out in a subsequest release also.

[Thanks Keith. -TH]

Luckily I don't have to worry about this 1.4 problem as I didn't even know there was a 1.4 out or that there was a problem with it until I went to the LR forum on Adobe!

I've been wondering where the heck my email notifications of updates/upgrades have been? What does it take to send out an email...and why must I find out about new developments on my own?

RHW

[Richard, we provide update notifications through the application. I think most people prefer that method over just another email. -TH]

Fortunately I hadn't notised the problem, but I most of the time only work in JPGs, so that probably why.

Though I was really happy with the release. For the first time I could actually use the AUTO with the Exposure etc.... and get a good result. The previous version (also 1.3.1) gives a totally overexposed result only using Brightness.

Please don't forget to enclude that again ;-)

I wondered though why that was changed and not listed as a part of the updates?!

[Michael, we didn't change the auto functionality from 1.3.1 to 1.4. -TH]

Going back to 1.3.1 was painless, but I don't get it:
When you said to delete the application, I thought that I would have to reinstall from the original install disk, but I just ran the 1.3.1 update.
How can I update an app that's not there?

Also, in my previous post when I referred to "Adobe Updater" I must have misspoken. I meant that LR was telling me it needed to be updated and allowed me to download 1.4 on the 18th. I see that this has been fixed.

Tom,

Thanks for addressing the problem here. No thanks for the problem, of course; but I do appreciate the promptness and candor in the way you are handling it.

It points out a huge disconnect between my understanding of a RAW/negative file and Adobe's. I expect these to be saved, backed up, protected, and NEVER modified. So much so that I did not even conceive of Lightroom altering these files or their modified date. The blog responses support the notion that this is a common and probably highly dominant perception.

Please do two things:

1) Make the default Lightroom actions agree with the default expectations. Do not make any modifications to a RAW file unless the user authorizes it -- either for that file or in general.

2) Post exactly what changes Lightroom might make to RAW files and under what circumstances (imagine the explanation that you might give a curator as you enter the Louvre with a wire brush). Make the explanation prominent -- I believe that you are answering a question that most users do not think they need to ask.

Thanks,

Joe

I just updated to LR1.4 on my MacPro OSX10.5.2 to fix the printing problem with Epson pro 3800. This fixed the printing problem. A wrong date in the XMP file - if it will correct with a future update - doesn't bother me. Why should I go back to using 1.3.1? Is there some problem that I'm not aware of?
I could just use Adobe CS3 - although I love the tools in Camera Raw4.4.

I upgraded to Lightroom 1.4 a short time ago, and just heard about the problems some have had with it. I used the updated program to process many images to PSD from RAW this weekend, but the EXIF information on various converted images seems accurate. I'm tempted to stay with V.1.4 until Adobe releases an improvement. Is this a bad idea? If so, why? Thanks for your thoughts.

Just a general comment about software testing - to all those who feel that 100% testing should be carried out before the release of any version of software.

100% testing is possible but in reality is in most cases impossible to achieve - life critical software should be exhaustively tested.

For example, exhaustive testing of 12 dimensions with 2 features each (for example 12 flags that can each be on or off) requires 2 to the power of 12 = 4096 testcases.

Gets out of hand really quickly. Can you imagine the number of combinations that could be made using the Lightroom product. Time to get real people.

Regression testing is testing carried out to ensure that parts of a software product that should not have changed have in fact not changed as a result of changes in other parts of the software.

As it appears these "bugs" - I call them "defects" - are something that should have been picked up as part of a set of regression tests that may not have been carried out, the defects would not have been listed in the release notes for this version of the software.

I suspect a user of the software has reported the issue to Adobe that resulted in an immediate investigation and removeal of the release from the download site.

The people concerned, including the testers, test manager, product release manager and many others I am sure have learned a crucial lesson with this release.

As a tester, I see this happening quite often. Time pressures for a release, cost saving etc all come at some risk and the people who made the decision to release the software decided on the risk of not carrying out the required regression testing. In this case it has come back to haunt them in public and has no doubt done consideable harm to their reputation in some people's minds.

So guys, give them a break, they will ensure the next release is of a much higher standard as will many more releases in the future.

P.S. I am a Adobe product user not one of their employees. I live in Wellington New Zealand - no where near where the product is developed and tested.

"Compensation," Mr. Chesham? Surely you jest. I'm disappointed that one would even suggest such a thing. For the average purchase price of this software, one should be entitled to no less than what one sees here: An open admission of an error and a promise to repair the software as soon as is practical. And in all but the most damaging of cases, certainly no more.

To suggest that you be (monetarily) compensated for something that did not cause you substantial and proveable material loss is absurd.

Perhaps you don't understand what goes into making complex software.

Yes, this bug makes for invonvenience. But as Tom has repeated at least a dozen times here, your files have not been corrupted. And let's not forget: It's not as if you spent thousands of dollars on your LR license. Give them a break and stop waxing so righteously litigious.

And no, I don't work for Adobe.

It passed 10 days and until now no update with those bugs fixed.

[This will take more than a few days to test and repost. -TH]

Whilst perhaps not with Adobe Mr Harper you no doubt have an affiliation to the software world and it's rip-off business-model i.e. The Licence. I never mentioned money. For me an open and sincere apology would do it!

To those of us that got our Olympus jpeg files corrupted, what will this mean for next update? Will those file "get well" or we have to do something to get them well?
I do not feel like doing all the gymnastics of uninstalling and reinstalling 1.3.1.

[Roni, no corruption takes place on your original files. Please revert to Lightroom 1.3.1 until the 1.4.1 update is available. It's quite simple to rollback versions. -TH]

Despite the problems I haven't uninstalled 1.4. I'm hoping that you name the fixed versions something higher than 1.4 and RAW 4.4 so that they will easily replace the versions you have recalled. Thanks, and I appreciate all your improvemnts to the program, I do wish that some of the inner workings (e.g. the method used for sharpening) were more easily discovered but the podcasts do help.

I followed your advice and downgraded to LR 1.3.1 on Windows. I identified the affected RAW files and verified that database and sidecar timestamps are correct.
My only problem is that saving metadata back to those files doesn't seem to work; the RAW files still have the wrong EXIF timestamps. I even get the little progress bar animation when I press Ctrl+S but the files remain unchanged. What am I doing wrong? Has this worked for anyone?

[Anmar, remember, you'll need to use a third party tool to view the actual EXIF time stamp in the raw files. The values shown by Adobe products will not change. -TH]

I don't have an Uninstall Lightroom 1.4 menu item. Can 1.4 be manually uninstalled?

[Yes, please see the instructions in the blog post. The menu item is not within Lightroom but in the Windows Program list in the Start Menu. -TH]

Sorry but I'm new to Mac (10.5) and I tried to follow your instructions. I deleted the Lightroom application in the Application folder(Mac). I did not have the following file which the instructions specified for deletion: Library/Receipts/Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.pkg.

I downloaded 1.3.1 but installation fails with this message: " You cannot install Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.3 on this volume. A newer version of this software already exists on this volume." Help please....

[Gerry, you have two Library/Receipts folders. One for the hard drive the operating system is installed in and one listed under the user. Try the other one. -TH]

I see that 1.4 is still available on the Adobe website.

http://www.adobe.com/downloads/updates/?ogn=EN_US-gntray_supp_updates

[This will be corrected shortly. -TH]

The problem for me is that while Adobe works to get 1.4 working properly, the known bugs with 'legacy printer drivers on OS X 10.5 (Leopard)' which completely prevent me from printing with Lightroom remain.

In the meantime, Aperture 2.1 has arrived, not only exhibiting good performance again and a new slew of features to push it even further ahead of Lightroom, but my trial version is printing my files beautifully!

There's been no indication whatsoever from Adobe when the working version of Lightroom 1.4 will arrive (containing only fixes, no new catchup features), and for only $US99 I can upgrade my copy of Aperture 1.5.6 to 2.x and be moving forward again with Apple.

I'd turned my back on Aperture and given it up as a bad job, but now I'm not so sure!

[Ross, I always recommend that photographers pick the tool that works best for them. The Lightroom 1.4.1 update will be available in April. -TH]

This is a copy of a note I posted today to a Yahoo Lightroom group:

Hello,

I became aware of the current issues about Lightroom v. 1.4 within the last week, but I'm not sure that my problem arises from this version, or whether my complicated workflow has had this problem even with earlier versions.

Let me explain how I work:

I have been using an older version of Photo Mechanic for years to create folders, change the names of image files within folders, apply IPTC caption information to the images, and rearrange files by image content.

Although I realize that Lightroom could perform these functions as well, PM is the backbone of my file organizing system, and I have seen no reason to change my methods.

I put my fresh photos into a "Raw originals" subfolder. Then I use PM to choose the Raw files that I would like to process in Lightroom. I tag those files and copy them (without deleting the originals) to a temporary "Lightroom export" folder. Then I open Lightroom and import my selected Raw images from that folder. I process them in LR, then export them to a PSD subfolder within the original desktop folder.

That has worked fine for nearly a year. But this morning I realized that I had never confirmed the content of the captions on those PSD files. I checked a few, and found that no caption information appeared on those files. Somewhere in the transfer to or from Lightroom, that information had been removed.

Now I'm facing having to painstakingly copy IPTC information, image by image in many cases, from photos in the original Raw subfolders to the processed images in my PSD subfolders. That's a huge job.

Does this appear to be a v.1.4 issue, or is it simply the way Lightroom works?

Any suggestions on how to fix my current problem, or prevent this from happening in the future, would be gratefully appreciated. Thanks!

Jim Quinn

"[Ross, I always recommend that photographers pick the tool that works best for them. The Lightroom 1.4.1 update will be available in April. -TH]"

I've got lot work to do in april and Lr is my nb 1 tool. Could you tell me when is that WHEN in april - I need this date to fix Lr and start my work!!!

Cheers
Tom

[First half of April Tom. -TH]

Tom,

Earlier you replied:
"[...You can always check your XMP sidecar files to verify that the remainder of the metadata was updated properly. Lightroom has always updated time stamp codes in the EXIF field of a raw file for compatibility with other software programs that don't necessarily read or recognize sidecar XMP files. -TH]"

Several questions come to mind:
1) How can I check the sidecar files?
2) Is there any documentation as to which EXIF fields are updated by LR?
3) I mentioned that I write-protect my raw files. Is this apt to cause me any problems in the future? Should I stop doing this?

Thank you for your help.

Bob

[Bob, the sidecar file data is presented through Lightroom, Bridge and Photoshop. You can also open up the XMP file that has the same name as the image using a text editor. Clearly, the EXIF field adjustment information needs to be published. The comments field of this blog isn't the right place. I don't think there's anything wrong with write-protecting your files. -TH]

I uninstalled 1.4, as per instructions, downloaded 1.3.1 for Mac and when I launch lighroom in opens for a moment while 'loading...' and then shuts down. It did this when I had 1.4 occasionally. Now it is all the time and I cannot even work in lightroom. I have Leopard installed. How do I remedy this?

[Marcy, did Lightroom finish installing correctly? It might be worth another try. -TH]

I am more than a little upset- I just finished a major import of over 3,000 images and found that i was getting the error message.

good news is that after reinstalling 1.3 everything works-

QUESTION the blog mentions having to run a DNG converter- what does this mean- I had converted all images to DNG but after reloading 1.3 everything appears fine- am I missing something?

[Rich, at this point you could probably just wait until Lightroom 1.4.1 is released in the first half of April. That will sort everything out for you. -TH]

Hello,
I read that the problem lies only in Lr and NOT Camera raw 4.4 inside Ps.
Well, I just developed all my PEFs (Pentax Raws from K20D) with Camera Raw 4.4 and saved them as Jpeg.
All of them now have the same shooting Date/Time inside EXIF.
It takes the first photo's date and copies it inside all others, Time is alwways 12.00p.m
I also developed the RAWs in Pentax Photo Lab v.3.50 just to confirm that it's CR's fault

Why did we not receive a direct email from Adobe about this? Why did I have to learn about it 2 weeks later, by pure chance, glancing at a newsletter I usually ignore? We aren't always surfing the web for news you know.

[Tim, the information wasn't distributed via email because there was no risk of data loss and the issues would be corrected by a future update. -TH]

Just the fact that you acknowledge the problem shows that you care about your customers - in fact by just posting in this blog AND have an open comments system - makes me go for my DNG-convertion.

Good job Adobe!

[Thanks Esse. -TH]

I just visited the main adobe download page and found the LR 1.4 update listed again, though with the old date of March 14th attached. Attempting to download now...
Camera Raw 4.4 also listed.
... Well , what da ya know, problems with Adobes site again, page unavailable due to site maintenance.. How come the people who claim to lead in web development software and technology have such a dodgy website it crashes all the time!

[I don't see the Lightroom 1.4 update you're referring to. Camera Raw 4.4 was never removed, it was just never pushed to through the Adobe Update Manager. -TH]

Anyone update to 1.4.1 yet.
Just wondering if Adobe has fixed the issues with the 1.4.0 update.

[Allan, I know that many folks have updated to Lightroom 1.4.1. We wouldn't have released it if the issues in 1.4 weren't fixed. -TH]

Annoying LR behavior on my Mac running 10.5.2 OSX:
both when using LR 1.4 and now after upgrading on 1.4.1 I can import all my DNG files but I can only import a few jpeg files (in preview mode when about to import the pictures into LR I get blank windows and of course no file gets imported: "the files cannot be imported because they cannot be read").
Any advice please?

[Have you submitted a bug report? There's a lot more information required before any advice can be offered. (Platform specs, etc.) http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adobe.com%2Fcfusion%2Fmmform%2Findex.cfm%3Fname%3Dwishform&ei=pTA7SIXGFZmIsAOJn4G8DQ&usg=AFQjCNG19HPsKGPJhax2SpJX-drVuFYXeA&sig2=OWbKTL82-7kxG2QSl4zzFQ
One quick test would be to see if the operating system recognizes those images through Image Capture. That is the operating system technology that Lightroom relies on for importing files. -TH]

When will the following page finally be available?!?
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/

And mostly, WHY is unavailable?? It is still impossible to get the 4.3.1 camera raw patch...

An explanation would be most welcome, it is the least you can offer to the user community.

[Nick, the 4.3.1 Camera Raw plug-in can be found through the product update page here after selecting the correct Photoshop platform: http://www.adobe.com/downloads/updates/
But it's best only to highlight the most recent updates. Camera Raw 4.4.1 is available through both the Adobe Update Manager in Photoshop CS3 as well as the home page of the download link you reference above. -TH]

In March 2008 there was the promise "I will post additional updates to this blog as we have more information on the timing and scope of the future update."

As I am thinking of buying an Olympus camera, I am concerned about the reported problem "Olympus Conversion Error: There is an error in converting Olympus JPEG files to other formats in .... the Camera Raw 4.4 plug-in. "

But as at today 24 June, I can't find an update. Is there STILL a problem with Olympus files in Camera Raw 4.4.1???

[Jenny, 4.4.1 was the update and the fix for the issue. -TH]

I have a question: since Lightroom isn't intended to write on the RAW files by its design, why include the ability to do that in the first place?

[I assume you're referring to the ability to update the EXIF date/time fields that is disabled by default? This is an option that some photographers prefer. -TH]

buggy, and they treat every
customer as a thief. I know know why they have as much respect as MS.