Skip to main content
Known Participant
August 13, 2025

P: v14.5 Lightroom has encountered problems reading this photo | Round circle ‘!’ warning on Images

  • August 13, 2025
  • 134 replies
  • 7924 views

OS: Windows 11
LrC VERSION: 14.5

A couple of days ago I upgrade to v14.5.
As for every update, I regurlay empty cache, optimise catalog, remove all previews and generate new standard ones (also, I wanted to test how was was the new option to use GPU for generating previews).
Never had a problem with this workflow.
After previews generation process was completed (1h 30m for 29.000 files, 23.000 jpegs and 6.000 raws) I got an error: for 21 RAWs the preview could not be generated. Looking in the catalog at those files, I realised they have an exclamation mark on a dark circle: this is not the missing photo mark. If I click on the exclamation mark, I see error "Lightroom has encountered problems reading this photo, you are not allowed to edit this image. "

Yet, I can still enter develop module and edit the photos without any problem: the editing history is there, I can zoom in at 100% (generating the 1:1 preview), I can change sliders, export... Everything... (PS: I do not use smart previews).

 

The 21 problematic photos are in different folders and have different dates.
The files can be opened by any other program, including Fast raw Viewer.

For a couple of problematic photos, I tried deleting the photos from file explorer, and the square light missing photo question mark replaced the round dark question mark.
I restored the files from three sources:
1- the original file
2- a backup from a second HD
3- a backup from Amazon Photos


In all three cases above the black round exclamation mark came back: this should prove that it's not a problem of corrupted files, I instead believe it's an issue in LrC.

134 replies

Known Participant
August 26, 2025

Do we have news?

Known Participant
August 26, 2025

News?

Known Participant
August 26, 2025

Is there any news?

Known Participant
August 26, 2025

Any news?

Known Participant
August 25, 2025

Any feedback here from Adobe?

Known Participant
August 24, 2025

Still waiting for a feedback from someone at Adobe 🤷🏻‍♂

Known Participant
August 23, 2025

Anyone here from Adobe?

Known Participant
August 22, 2025

Any expert human here who can take care of this annoying bug?

Bob321
Known Participant
August 22, 2025

Similar problem here since upgrade to Lightroom Classic version: 14.5 [ 202508061311-4cef2162 ]!

This very annoying problem seems to affect photos with "brush" masks, and only if the brush is used with "AutoMask ON".

After disabling the mask and restarting LRC, the photo is no longer in the  "Lightroom has encountered problems reading this photo" state.

This is definitely a bug relating to LRC version 14.5 or the corresponding Camera Raw version 17.5 [ 2318 ]!

Operating system: Windows 11 - Home Premium Edition Version: 11.0.26100

Please investigate and provide a fix quickly!

Known Participant
August 22, 2025

I.was 100% sure this was a big from day one, but you commen is a relief.

 

Luckily it's only a "fake warning" cos I can edit the photo without any problems, still...

 

Add that this upgrade is sluggish at UI level: even scrolling the right develop modules is horrible.

Known Participant
August 22, 2025

Can you please move this back to BUGS?
I am an IT MANAGER with 28 years experience and I have spent the whole mrning running tests, case by case, step by step, and I believe what I have found is indeed a bug of v14.5, considering that this was not a problem on previous version.
Thanks

Known Participant
August 22, 2025

Well... I found where the problem is, and still believe it's a LrC v14.5 bug.

Below the two problematic test images: by removing the brushes in the masks (one on top image, two on below image) the exclamation mark disappears.
Re-adding manually a similar brush in the same mask, the exclamation mark reappears.
If I completeky remove the whole mask and recreate it manually in the same way, the exclamation mark does not reappear.