If I assign a star rating to an image and then realize all images were selected when I did so, then the star rating will be applied to all of the images. When can’t I then Undo my mistake? The Undo menu item is grayed out.
Select all the images again and turn all the start ratings off. Deselect all the images and then reapply the ratings to only the image or images you want. The Undo won’t work because the ratings are not edits.
Mark
That’s just horrible. You may argue it’s not an “edit” because it is only metadata, but I don’t agree. It is an action that overwrites user-created data (the ratings), and there is no reason to not have this fall under the undo system.
For me, the rating system is the primary way I select my photos. Technically-correct photos get a star, and then zero-star photos are hidden. Then for groups of very similar photos the best one gets two stars. Then I only show the two-star photos, and give the best ones a third star. Losing this information means I have to re-do that process.
I’m still on Photolab 8, but downloaded the trial for 9 to see if it’s been fixed there. Unfortunately, it’s not.
Yup, I’ve made this mistake too and it is horrible when you realise what you have done and there is no way to undo it. Your heart just sinks.
In my opinion, this is a change to data and there should be a way to undo it. Or at the very least a warning pop-up that says ‘You are about to make a change to multiple images - do you wish to proceed.’
Such a warning could/should also apply (imo) to when you have multiple images selected and change a setting or paste settings. I’ve also made this mistake and undo only resets the primary selected image and not the entire set of selected images. You then need to go through all the other selected images one by one and reset them using the history panel, which is a massive time dump… A way to Undo such an editing mistake could be very useful too. I’m not sure which would be preferable though, a way to undo or a warning message.
I cannot speak to the Mac version Version of PhotoLab, but on the Windows version of PhotoLab the Advanced History is nothing more than a visual display of Windows Undo/Redo stack which has its own set of limitations.
Mark
May that’s one reason why i do selection/culling in different application, and trust in ‘hard folders’.
Yes. Now imagine having done that with crop.
“Crop” wasn’t the word I used when I grasped what I had done.
Just happened to me. I did not immediately understand what went on, and could not believe there was no way to “Undo” this until I read this thread. Absolutely unacceptable that this is overlooked by DxO. This happened in my main folder with years of photos. This is the kind of bug that makes an app feel unreliable. A real shame.
That’s crazy that there’s no undo. ChadGPT has what appears to be a crude path to recovery (Mac instructions as that’s my platform):
“This is a painful one in PhotoLab — and unfortunately DxO doesn’t give a true “global undo” for metadata changes once they’ve been written. What you can do depends on whether the ratings were written to files/XMP yet and how you applied them.
Best-case scenario (do this immediately
Try a normal Undo
If you just did it and haven’t closed PhotoLab:
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Press ⌘Z (Mac) repeatedly
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Or Edit ▸ Undo
PhotoLab will undo rating changes only while the session is still active. Once you switch folders, restart PhotoLab, or write metadata, undo is gone.
If Undo no longer works
Use “Reset rating” on the selection
If all those images should have no stars (or a different rating):
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In the PhotoLibrary view, select the affected photos
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Click one → ⌘A to select all
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Right-click → Rating
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Choose:
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No rating (clears all stars)
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or select the correct star value
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This is the fastest fix if the mistake was uniform.
If only
some
images were meant to be 5★
You can filter and correct in bulk:
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Use the Filter bar (top of PhotoLibrary)
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Filter by ★★★★★
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Select the images that shouldn’t be 5★
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Right-click → Rating ▸ No rating (or correct star level)”