I’m not 100% sure this is a bug, but it sure is annoying.
Any time I adjust the contrast for the first time, or even if I just enable the contrast tool (again, for the first time), the microcontrast auto-adjusts on its own. Isn’t it only supposed to auto-adjust if you click the little magic wand next to it?
This was me toggling the tool “on” for an image I had never worked with before:
Just tried this and got the same result. If I click the magic wand then the Auto tag goes away and toggling the Contrast on/off it seems to remember that the Auto has been disabled.
So I think the magic wand indicates that the setting is in Auto mode and clicking it so its shows the diagonal line turns off Auto mode.
It’s not a bug, it’s a feature. You can override it with your preset.
I think DxO tries to make it easy for an average user to get “best” results quickly, hence their (questionable?) choice.
Not to shoot the messenger, but it’d be nice to have a “pro” mode you can enable aka “I know what I want turned on, that’s why I’m turning it on”.
Or perhaps flip it on its head and make that the norm, and implement a “training wheels” mode that does hold your hand and suggest things you didn’t actually touch.
PhotoLab is about doing things automatically. In most cases, its magic wands are active - except in CA correction, which is set to not quite do that.
For practical reasons, I think it’s better to adapt and carry on 
Probably for a good reason, since magic wand CA size may bring unwanted micro-halos, so I stay at 4. But that depends heavily on camera/lens, so don’t follow my advice blindly.
We were really wondering why several images were all of a sudden acquiring Microcontrast when we had not applied it, much preferring Fine Contrast.
I just did a check and, lo and behold, I added normal contrast to an image and, as soon as I did that, PL automatically added Microcontrast to 16.
Upon further inspection, I found this to be part of my default preset.
So, I tried to edit that preset and found that, if I disabled the Contrast palette, the Microcontrast magic wand got activated and the slider moved to 16. The only way that I could stop that happening was to enable the Contrast palette and disable the magic wand.
This seems like a bug or, at least, an unintended effect. Could be worth reporting.
When editing presets you should take care also for disabled corrections, for which you can specify defaults, which would show when activated during editing. So in a preset you can disable contrast corrections, but set microcontrast settings, which would be used if contrast is enabled. Sorry if it sounds clumsy.
The funny thing is: Despite the icon looking like an “AI tool” the automatic always sets the microcontrast slider to “16” - no matter what the photo looks like…
Hah, yeah that’s true. Mine does exactly the same. I believe it’s the same for Chromatic aberration.
What would be really nice is if we could see what PhotoLab is masking off as e.g. Microcontrast, Fine Contrast, Chromatic aberration, Moire etc.
Then we could see if the tool is even having any impact (and on what), or if it’s a placebo.
Micro-contrast set itself as long as I remember. Magic 16 in many cases but not all, I also see different values in my test images.
Yes, and I have no problem with automatic changes for certain settings–mostly settings that are equipment-corrective, such as CA, or the “DxO-magic” settings, such as ClearView Plus.
I would even say that I wouldn’t mind the microcontrast auto-adjusting if the toggle I was flipping was ONLY for that. But to simply adjust the normal contrast and get the unexpected side effect of the microcontrast auto-adjusting, is a bad one in my opinion.
That’s how I felt about it as well. I’ll try reporting, but as you mentioned in a post in the General forum, I think DxO support channels are becoming more AI-based and unhelpful (or the support team are just more obstinate and unwilling to actually help, or it’s a side effect of that new paid support system–*sigh*).
After a lot of messing around, I found that, as soon as the Contrast slider is changed from 0, the Micro-contrast is set to 16, no matter what the Contrast value.
So I started furtling around in my custom default preset for RAW, which only applies Optical Corrections, and I found a spurious line…
LightingV2LocalContrastAmount = -38.013480392156872,
Now, with the following preset…
Preset = {
LocalizedInfo = {
en = {
DisplayName = "Optical Corrections only",
},
fr = {
DisplayName = "Corrections Optiques seules",
},
ja = {
DisplayName = "光学系補正のみ",
},
de = {
DisplayName = "Nur optische Korrekturen",
},
zh = {
DisplayName = "仅光学校正",
},
},
Settings = {
Base = {
BlurActive = true,
BlurActiveAuto = false,
BlurDetails = 50,
BlurIntensity = 100,
BlurSmoothTransitions = 50,
ChromaticAberrationActive = true,
ChromaticAberrationIntensity = 100,
ChromaticAberrationIntensityAuto = true,
ChromaticAberrationLateralActive = true,
ChromaticAberrationPurpleActive = false,
ChromaticAberrationSize = 4,
ChromaticAberrationSizeAuto = true,
ColorModeContrast = 0,
ContrastControlGroupActive = false,
ContrastEnhancementActive = false,
ContrastEnhancementGlobalIntensity = 0,
ContrastEnhancementHighlightIntensity = 0,
ContrastEnhancementLowlightIntensity = 0,
ContrastEnhancementMidlightIntensity = 0,
DistortionActive = true,
DistortionAnamorphosisKeepEntireImage = false,
DistortionIntensity = 1,
DistortionKeepRatio = true,
DistortionType = "Auto",
DistortionTypeAuto = false,
MicroContrastAuto = false,
UnsharpMaskActive = false,
UnsharpMaskActiveAuto = false,
UnsharpMaskIntensity = 100,
UnsharpMaskIntensityOffset = 0,
UnsharpMaskRadius = 0.5,
UnsharpMaskThreshold = 4,
VignettingActive = true,
VignettingClipping = 50,
VignettingClippingAuto = true,
VignettingIntensity = 0,
VignettingIntensityAuto = true,
VignettingMidFieldIntensity = 0,
VignettingType = "Auto",
VignettingTypeAuto = true,
},
Version = "20.1",
},
Version = "20.0",
}
Now, when I open a brand new file, I get the following sliders in the Contrast palette…
What is more, when I adjust the Contrast slider, I get this…
I don’t want to shout too loud too soon but, at least here, I seem to have solved the problem.
Please feel free to take this preset and play with it to see if you can break it on your setup.
Addenda
I just tried this preset file and altered the version numbers for PL8 and it seems to work fine there as well.
Thanks for taking the time @Joanna , that’s a very interesting find.
I didn’t even realize these presets could be inspected, but I did the same for my copy’s “optical only” preset (which I have never modified, it is “factory original”) by exporting it.
Upon inspecting, I have a very obvious line in mine which contributes to the issue:
MicroContrastAuto = true,
I changed that to false, saved the preset and imported it. If I apply this preset and then turn on the Contrast setting (either with the toggle switch, as before, or by setting “Contrast”) then the microcontrast does not get auto-set.
What I thought was strange, however, is that I have the “No Correction” preset applied to my images as I don’t want DOP files being created for every image PL encounters willy nilly.
Looking more closely at how PL works, I realized that the “no correction” preset is, technically, an actual preset, just with no actual corrections. So I exported that to inspect it, and lo and behold it includes:
MicroContrastAuto = true, 
Unfortunately, changing that setting for the “no correction” preset, and then applying it, produces a DOP file – my whole reason behind not applying the lens correction preset automatically.
Now I have to decide whether to live with DOP files for every image (which is only a problem because my brain doesn’t like excess files if they aren’t necessary) in which case I’ll just apply optical corrections, or to live with the automatic microcontrast.
Likely the former.
If I understand your correctly, you applied the new preset to an already open image. Of course, this then counts as an edit and a DOP is created.
But, if you set my preset as the default for RAW files, delete previous DOPs and, possibly delete the database if you can, then this makes sure that a DOP is not created as the file is opened for the first time.
And this is critical. My preset, or similar, with the edits I made to the auto setting must be the default profile and the file must never have been opened in PL before.
Interesting…
Are you saying that any “default” preset will not create a DOP file?
Scratch that, I just tested this by using my custom no-micocontrast preset as default, and YES it does not create the DOP, and YES if I adjust contrast, microcontrast it not applied.
Thank you!
I just changed the default preset, opened a brand new file, closed PL9 and no DOP was created
Pheewww!!! I love it when a plan comes together 
Indeed!
Thanks again for the help. It’s at least nice that–even if something doesn’t work the way I think it should–there’s at least a way to customize it to my preferences 
