Help › LrGeniusAI FAQ — Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ — Frequently Asked Questions

General

What is LrGeniusAI?

LrGeniusAI is an AI extension for Adobe Lightroom Classic. It adds AI-powered metadata generation (keywords, titles, captions), semantic free-text search, automatic develop edits, image culling, face/person management, and more — all running locally as a background server without freezing Lightroom.

Does it send my photos to the cloud?

Only if you choose a cloud provider (ChatGPT/OpenAI, Google Gemini, Vertex AI). With local providers (Ollama, LM Studio) your photos never leave your machine. For cloud providers, images are sent to the respective API for analysis. Embeddings and all generated metadata are always stored locally.

Which Lightroom version is supported?

Adobe Lightroom Classic only. Lightroom CC (cloud) and other Lightroom versions are not supported, as the plugin relies on the Lightroom Classic SDK.

Is it free?

Yes, LrGeniusAI is open source (AGPL-3.0). Cloud API usage (Gemini, OpenAI) incurs costs at the respective provider’s standard rates. Local models (Ollama, LM Studio) are completely free to run.

Installation

The installer is blocked by Windows or macOS — is it safe?

Yes. The installers are not code-signed (cost and complexity for an open-source project), which causes operating system warnings. This is expected behavior:

  • Windows (SmartScreen): Click More info → Run anyway.
  • macOS (Gatekeeper): Right-click the .pkg → Open → Open anyway. Or go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.

The backend server won’t start

  1. Check that you completed the installer for the backend (separate from the plugin .lrdevplugin).
  2. On macOS, make sure you allowed the binary in System Settings → Privacy & Security.
  3. Try starting the server manually: lrgenius-server/lrgenius-server (macOS) or lrgenius-server/lrgenius-server.cmd (Windows).
  4. Check the Plugin Manager → Backend Server section — it shows the server status and URL.

Can I run the backend on a different machine or in Docker?

Yes. Change the Backend Server URL in Plug-in Manager → LrGeniusAI to point to the remote host, e.g. http://192.168.1.100:19819. Docker Compose files are included in the repository.

AI Model Setup

Which AI model should I use?

See Help: Choosing AI Model for a full breakdown. Quick summary:

GoalRecommendation
Cheap bulk keywordinggemini-2.5-flash-lite or gpt-5-nano
Balanced defaultgemini-2.5-flash
Best qualitygemini-2.5-pro or gpt-5.4-pro
Privacy / no API costOllama or LM Studio with qwen3-vl:8b
Apple Silicon, localLM Studio MLX build of qwen3-vl

I don’t see any models in the dropdown

The model list is loaded from the backend at runtime. If it’s empty:

  1. Make sure the backend server is running and reachable (Plugin Manager → Status).
  2. Check that the relevant API key or local server URL is configured.
  3. For Ollama/LM Studio: the local server must be started before Lightroom is opened (or before running a task).

Where do I enter my API key?

File → Plug-in Manager → LrGeniusAI → scroll to the API Keys section. Enter your Gemini or OpenAI key there.

Analyze & Index

What does “Analyze & Index” actually do?

It does two things in one pass:

  1. Sends each photo to the configured AI model to generate keywords, title, caption, and alt text.
  2. Creates a semantic embedding (using SigLIP2 locally) so the photo can be found by Advanced Search.

Both steps are optional — you can run only embeddings, only metadata, or both.

Yes. Advanced Search only works on photos that have been indexed (embeddings created). Unindexed photos will not appear in search results.

The AI generated wrong or low-quality keywords

  • Try a more capable model (e.g. move from a small local model to gemini-2.5-flash).
  • Add Photo Context (folder names, capture date, GPS coordinates) to give the AI more information.
  • Write a custom System Prompt in Plug-in Manager → Prompts to guide the output style.
  • Adjust the Temperature slider — lower values produce more consistent output.

How do I re-index photos that have already been indexed?

Enable Regenerate all data (overwrite existing) in the Analyze & Index dialog.

Search returns no results

  1. Make sure photos were indexed with Create search embeddings enabled.
  2. Set the Lightroom collection sort order to Custom Order — otherwise results appear in random order and the best matches are not at the top.
  3. Try a broader query — semantic search understands concepts, not just exact keywords.

How does search ranking work?

Results are ranked by combining visual semantic embeddings with a text search over AI-generated metadata (keywords, caption, title, alt text). The final score reflects both visual and textual similarity to your query.

AI Edit Photos

What does AI Edit generate?

A structured Lightroom develop recipe: global adjustments (exposure, white balance, tone curve, HSL, etc.) and optional local masks (subject, sky, background). The recipe is applied via the Lightroom SDK — no raw pixel editing happens outside Lightroom.

I want to review edits before they are applied

Enable Review each proposed edit before applying it in the AI Edit dialog. You will see a before/after preview for each photo and can approve, skip, or adjust the edit.

What are “Overall look” presets?

Presets define the editing style — for example Natural Professional, Moody Dramatic, Portrait - Skin Safe, Wedding - Soft Airy. They inject a style description into the AI prompt. Choose Custom to write your own style instruction.

What does “Style strength” do?

Controls how aggressively the AI applies the style. At 0% the AI makes only technical corrections; at 100% it applies the full stylized look. Default is 50%.

Can I train the AI on my own editing style?

Yes — use Save Edits as AI Training Examples (Library → Plug-in Extras). See Help: Train from Edits for details.

Cull Photos

Does culling delete photos?

No. Culling is completely non-destructive. It creates Lightroom collections (Picks, Alternates, Reject Candidates, optional Duplicates) — your photos are never moved or deleted.

Which photos need to be indexed before culling?

Photos need to be indexed with Analyze & Index Photos first. Face-aware ranking (eye openness, sharpness) requires face detection to have been run during indexing.

People & Faces

What does the “People” workflow do?

It lists all detected face clusters (persons) from your indexed photos, lets you assign names, and creates Lightroom collections per person. See Help: People & Faces.

How do I enable face detection?

In the Analyze & Index Photos dialog, make sure face detection is enabled. The backend uses InsightFace for detection and clustering.

Keyword Management

What is the difference between “Deduplicate Keyword Synonyms” and “Auto De-Clutter”?

  • Auto De-Clutter runs automatically during indexing and prevents the AI from creating near-duplicate keywords of ones already in your catalog (e.g. if Car exists, Automobile becomes Car).
  • Deduplicate Keyword Synonyms is an interactive workflow you run manually to clean up synonym sprawl that already exists in your catalog.

See Help: Keyword Deduplication and De-Clutter.

Troubleshooting

Something failed — where do I see details?

  • In Lightroom: after a batch task finishes, a Task Completion Dialog shows per-photo errors.
  • In Plugin Manager: click Show logfile or Copy logs to desktop.
  • On the server: check the terminal window where geniusai-server is running, or the log files in the server’s working directory.

Lightroom shows “Connection Refused” or “Cannot connect to server”

The backend is not reachable:

  1. Check Plug-in Manager → Backend Server — the status indicator shows whether the server responded.
  2. Verify the server URL (default http://127.0.0.1:19819).
  3. Restart the backend manually if it crashed.

For more detailed solutions see Troubleshooting.

I upgraded from an old version and search / metadata is missing

You may need to run the one-time Migrate existing DB IDs to photo_id migration:
File → Plug-in Manager → LrGeniusAI → Backend Server → Migrate existing DB IDs to photo_id

This is only needed once after upgrading from a version that used Lightroom catalog UUIDs as primary IDs.

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