Jim,
Thank you for your response. I think some of the difficulties in this thread are that there have been more than one person reporting issues, which may or may not be exactly the same or different from the initial one reported by the original poster. Then, anyone else commenting can easily intermix bits and pieces from any or all of the other posters interrelated issues. Also, I should have added to my last response in clarification what I meant about the overall dimensions. I was referring specifically to inches, not file size, not resolution.
My very first post was a thank you to Rusty's post for his comment about how he had noticed his Resolution setting had been changed from ppi to ppcm. I didn't say anything about printing. In fact, I never even stated what my issue was. I was merely thanking him for sharing information. So, for anyone to tell me that I didn't know what my issue is, that I didn't understand was quite laughable to me. And then the other two posters were almost equally ridiculous, who said that since they didn't experience the same conditions as myself and another person, it couldn't be a programming error.
Trust me, I understand explicitly about resolution, image size, dimensions, file size and how they are all interrelated. Resolution is essentially the density of pixels. (And I'm still used to dpi vs ppi, that's how long I've been working with the concept.) I often help other people understand in whichever mode is most comfortable for them to grasp the knowledge of how to know what size image they need/want to capture and print depending on the types of measurements shown on their equipment used and by whomever they might be working with for finish work.
I have a set process, I have set image sizes, I have an action recorded in Photoshop to shrink my images to 24" x 36" and save them in the proper folder with the proper name and another to shrink them to 8" x 12" and place them in the proper folder with the proper name. I am meticulous, so when the first image imported into Photoshop and it was 18.898" x 28.346", un-cropped, I couldn't figure it out. The file size was still just as large, the resolution was still 72, I hadn't changed any settings in Lightroom or Photoshop, the ONLY thing I had done was install an update. It didn't make sense to me that with the pixel dimensions still being the normal size, all of the sudden the inch dimensions were smaller. And I did need to be able to have the capability for a larger print size if/when I do want to print.
I hope that I'm being clear now. I really was just trying to post a thank you initially. I hadn't expected all of this excess.
I apologize for the troll statement. It wasn't meant for you directly, it was more for the grouping of comments which in my opinion didn't seem to be useful for the discussion and were instead just baiting. I shouldn't have allowed my bad mood to permeate my own comment regardless. I am also sorry for any other statements I made which might have come across wrong. I was trying to be funny with my first comment about programmers, but it might not have come across that way. I hadn't expected the rude and unnecessary comment back which I received, and that's where the trollish comments came from. That's why I only responded to that person once, despite the string of poking posts.