A frustrating behavior of selections, possibly a bug

[Pluviasilva]

I have Photo Mechanic Version 6.0, build 4851 (8540bbd) running on MacOS 10.15.5. I have no idea what has changed but now the program displays a behavior that makes it virtually unusable for me. When working in a contact sheet I often need to make selections based on a combination of keywords and other metadata. Once the contact sheet displays only the selection, I double click the file to see a larger preview. If I then double-click the preview or use Command-W (while in full screen mode) I immediately lose the selection and I am left with only that single file in the contact sheet. This behavior is so crippling that unless I can fix it I will be forced to abandon Photo Mechanic and go back to Lightroom. Is there a fix for this or will the next version address this bug?

[Kirk Baker]

I have Photo Mechanic Version 6.0, build 4851 (8540bbd) running on MacOS 10.15.5. I have no idea what has changed but now the program displays a behavior that makes it virtually unusable for me. When working in a contact sheet I often need to make selections based on a combination of keywords and other metadata. Once the contact sheet displays only the selection, I double click the file to see a larger preview. If I then double-click the preview or use Command-W (while in full screen mode) I immediately lose the selection and I am left with only that single file in the contact sheet. This behavior is so crippling that unless I can fix it I will be forced to abandon Photo Mechanic and go back to Lightroom. Is there a fix for this or will the next version address this bug?

This is the first I've heard of it.  So unless I can reproduce the problem, there won't be a fix.  It's really hard to fix problems that cannot be reproduced.

I'll try and reproduce the problem based on what you've described above but if I can't reproduce it then I'll need more information from you until I can reproduce the problem.

If you can list all of the steps required to reproduce the problem then that would be most helpful.  I understand that you're frustrated and want the problem to be fixed and I want to fix it for you and others who may be experiencing the problem.

Leave no detail out, no matter how small.  Video captures or annotated screen grabs of various states can be extremely helpful.

-Kirk

[Pluviasilva]

Here is a screen recording showing this behavior.

The steps in the recording are:
1. Find a set of images based on a keyword.
2. Display just the selected images.
3. Double click an image to see a larger preview.
4. Close the preview using Command-W.
All the selected images are gone, leaving only the one image.

[Kirk Baker]

Here is a screen recording showing this behavior.

The steps in the recording are:
1. Find a set of images based on a keyword.
2. Display just the selected images.
3. Double click an image to see a larger preview.
4. Close the preview using Command-W.
All the selected images are gone, leaving only the one image.

Thank you for the video.  Do you by chance have the preference "Rescan Contact Sheet when Preview closes" checked (ON) in the Preview page of the Preferences dialog?  If so, try turning it off.  I can only reproduce your issue when that setting is turned on.

-Kirk

[Pluviasilva]

Ok, that solved it. Thank you. But this certainly is not the most intuitive setting and it would have taken me a while to figure it out on my own. How about renaming it "Clear Contact Sheet selection when Preview closes"? "Rescan" is very ambiguous.
While we are at it, is there are way to automatically trim the contact sheet to show just the files that meet the search criteria? Right now it is a two step process: close the search dialog, choose "Selected". It is probably safe to assume that if someone is performing a search, she/he wants to see just the results of that search.

[Kirk Baker]

Ok, that solved it. Thank you. But this certainly is not the most intuitive setting and it would have taken me a while to figure it out on my own. How about renaming it "Clear Contact Sheet selection when Preview closes"? "Rescan" is very ambiguous.

But that's not what it does.  It rescans the Contact Sheet.  Rescanning the Contact Sheet checks for new or missing items, sorts, and filters.  It is that last part that has the undesirable side effect that you reported.  In your video you don't have any images selected at all.  Nothing was deselected.  What happened is that because nothing was selected when the "View by Selected" filter ran after the Preview was closed, the other images disappeared.

While we are at it, is there are way to automatically trim the contact sheet to show just the files that meet the search criteria? Right now it is a two step process: close the search dialog, choose "Selected". It is probably safe to assume that if someone is performing a search, she/he wants to see just the results of that search.

No.  There is no automatic way to filter by selected after doing a search.

Why filter by Selected anyway?  If you enter the Preview window with a selection of at least two items, the Preview will, by default, browse only your selection.  Saves you some hassle right there.

HTH,

-Kirk