P: LrC v15.5 on Windows Assisted Culling triggers crash and memory leaks

I tested Lightroom Classic 15.6 using Assisted Culling followed by stacking by similarity on a folder that previously triggered the crash. The workflow completed successfully with no crash.

However, after processing, Lightroom retained approximately 15.15 GB working set and 39.59 GB private committed memory, with no meaningful reduction during a 15-second observation. After closing and reopening Lightroom, usage returned to 2.68 GB working set / 3.31 GB private, and the generated culling scores remained available.

Automatic Assisted Culling analysis is disabled for my catalog. So, in this controlled test, 15.6 appears to fix the heap-corruption crash, but unusually high memory retention may remain after processing.

I have the same problem. I think it is the AI module. I’ve tried everything to fix it (deleted the preview file and the data file). Nothing works. I opened the task manager and what I see is that the RAM used for lightroom just keeps going up. When it tops out at around 95% thats when it crashes. Which is really annoying I’m trying to analyze 20000 files. And you need to do that first before you can stack them. It does around 200 files then crashes. I have GPU turned off even though I have the latest driver software. They need to fix this. I have read the 15.3 works fine. So maybe I need to revert to an older version. 

Greetings all,

A new update for Lightroom Classic v15.6 has been released.  The September release contains an update regarding this issue.

If you do not see the update in your Creative Cloud Application, you can refresh it by pressing  [Ctrl/Cmd]+[Alt/Opt]+[R].

Note: It may take up to 24 hours for your update to be available in your Creative Cloud app.

Thank you for being so patient.

Same here. LrC 15.5.1 (also reproduced after rolling back to 15.5.0),
Win 11 25H2 26200, ntdll 10.0.26100.9444, exception c0000374, offset
0x161914. RTX 5080, 64 GB RAM. Five-plus crashes on 9/27 within about an
hour, no crash dialog.

It started right after importing about 5,000 photos, while Assisted Culling
analysis was running in the background and face detection was active.
Turning GPU acceleration off didn't help.

The crashes stopped after LrC prompted me to "Repair AI Edits Storage."
Afterward, AI Analysis showed as disabled in Catalog Settings, and I've had
several hours of heavy use with no crashes since. I'm leaving it off until
a fix ships. For me, this started after updating to v15.5.

Hallo,
ich habe genau das gleiche Absturzproblem (LR schließt sich einfach)  bei der Assistieren Bildauswahl und das schon nach dem 30/40. Bild. Völlig unbrauchbar. Nach dem 30 Bild stürzt es ab. LR muss neu gestartet werden und setzt mit der Analyse fort, stürzt wieder ab usw..
Windows/Lightroom/Grafikkarten aktuell und am letzten Stand.

Diese Funktion ist nicht brauchbar. Leider.

LG Eva

Same Issue.  During Assisted Culling,  after about 1-2 minutes, LRC closes and screen reverts to Windows main screen.  No failure message.   System is a Dell Laptop running LRC 15.5.1 on Windows 10.0.26200 build 26200

OS Name    Microsoft Windows 11 Home
Version    10.0.26200 Build 26200
Other OS Description     Not Available
OS Manufacturer    Microsoft Corporation
System Name    DESKTOP-7FV0SS1
System Manufacturer    Dell Inc.
System Model    XPS 14 (Dell 14 Premium) DA14250
System Type    x64-based PC
System SKU    0CE5
Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM) Ultra 7 255H, 2000 Mhz, 16 Core(s), 16 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date    Dell Inc. 1.12.0, 6/1/2026
SMBIOS Version    3.8
Embedded Controller Version    1.09
BIOS Mode    UEFI
BaseBoard Manufacturer    Dell Inc.
BaseBoard Product    0T8W4F
BaseBoard Version    A00
Platform Role    Mobile
Secure Boot State    On
PCR7 Configuration    Elevation Required to View
Windows Directory    C:\windows
System Directory    C:\windows\system32
Boot Device    \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale    United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer    Version = "10.0.26100.1"
User Name    DESKTOP-7FV0SS1\ptitu
Installed Physical Memory (RAM)    32.0 GB
Total Physical Memory    31.5 GB
Available Physical Memory    4.42 GB
Total Virtual Memory    39.0 GB
Available Virtual Memory    5.54 GB
Page File Space    7.50 GB
Page File    C:\pagefile.sys
Kernel DMA Protection    On
Virtualization-based security    Running
Virtualization-based security Required Security Properties    Base Virtualization Support
Virtualization-based security Available Security Properties    Base Virtualization Support, Secure Boot, DMA Protection, UEFI Code Readonly, SMM Security Mitigations 1.0, Mode Based Execution Control, APIC Virtualization
Virtualization-based security Services Configured    Hypervisor enforced Code Integrity, Secure Launch, SMM Firmware Measurement
Virtualization-based security Services Running    Hypervisor enforced Code Integrity, Secure Launch, SMM Firmware Measurement
App Control for Business policy    Enforced
App Control for Business user mode policy    Enforced
SMM Isolation Level    Firmware Protection Version Three
Automatic Device Encryption Support    Elevation Required to View
A hypervisor has been detected. Features required for Hyper-V will not be displayed.    
 

Having the same problem sine LrC 15.4

Detailed description and how to reproduce it in

I too am having a similar problem.  LRC suddenly just drops out.  Leaves no message.  And when restarts, I has forgotten where I was up to the most recent image.    However, I suspect the problems happens when Assisted Culling is running, and one is doing something else (typically Develop Module, I think, might may also simply running the Library module past film strip.  It is happening two happening with both of my PCs.

Same crash (0xc0000374) — crash dumps point to a double free inside CameraRaw.dll during the culling analysis

Hi all, hi Sameer,

I can confirm this crash on Windows and add what the crash dumps show. Five identical crashes so far: one on Sept 11 and four on Sept 21, 2026.

**Setup**

- Lightroom Classic 15.5.1 (build 202608131348), Lightroom.exe 15.5.1.1
- Windows 11 Pro 25H2 (build 26200), ntdll.dll 10.0.26100.9444
- Intel Core i7-13700K, 64 GB RAM, GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER
- Catalog on a local NVMe SSD, photos on a NAS (SMB), no third-party plug-ins
- Assisted Culling auto analysis was enabled for the catalog. lrc_console.log shows it starting at every catalog open ("AICulling:start" … about 3 minutes … "AICulling:complete") and after each import.

**Event log**

Exception 0xc0000374 (STATUS_HEAP_CORRUPTION), faulting module ntdll.dll 10.0.26100.9444, fault offset 0x117eb5 — the same signature others posted here.

**What the crash dumps show**

Windows kept a minidump for each crash (LocalDumps). I ran !analyze -v in cdb with Microsoft symbols. The faulting thread is the same in all five dumps: **a block is freed twice inside CameraRaw.dll, in the JPEG code path, called from the Lua layer.** Nearest exported symbols (so the names are only landmarks, not the real functions):

```
ntdll!RtlpHeapHandleError
ntdll!RtlFreeHeap
ucrtbase!free_base
CameraRaw!CTJPEGLibTerminate+0x1113f      <- identical in 4 of 5 dumps
CameraRaw!CTJPEGLibTerminate+0x1112f
CameraRaw!CTJPEGLibTerminate+0x1309c
CameraRaw!CTJPEGLibTerminate+0x101af
CameraRaw!AgRedeye_load+0x38ed47
CameraRaw!RCObject::getTypeName+0x14d
CameraRaw!ReferenceCount::~ReferenceCount+0x194
AgKernel!lua_getstack / lua_resume / lua_pcall
substrate!AgMainThreadAction_trigger+0x73f
```

WER bucket: HEAP_CORRUPTION_ACTIONABLE_BlockNotBusy_DOUBLE_FREE_c0000374_ucrtbase.dll!free_base (4 of 5), HEAP_CORRUPTION_c0000374_heap_corruption!Lightroom.exe (1 of 5). The stack hashes differ between dumps only because the Lua call chain above the crash has a different depth each time; the crash site itself is the same.

**What was going on**

Two crashes happened right after an import (Lightroom was still writing XMP sidecars for about 100 new raw files), one during a JPEG export, one on a plain catalog open — in every case with the culling analysis running in the background. Process memory was 4.5 GB at most, so in my case it is not the memory growth described above, "only" the heap corruption.

GPU acceleration, antivirus and plug-ins are not on the faulting thread, so I don't think they matter here.

**Workaround**

Turned off the automatic culling analysis for the catalog and I am not starting Assisted Culling or "Auto-Stack by Similarity" until this is fixed. [No crash since Sept 22 / still to be seen.]

I have the five minidumps (85–107 MB each) and can share one privately if that helps.
 

This version is still crashing repeatedly when trying to use Assisted Culling. Bypasses crash report option too.