Participant

Lightroom Desktop 9.5.1 – Generative Expand “Method” and “Generate” are always greyed out

Forum|Forum|1 day ago
September 26, 2026
1 reply
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Hi,

I'm experiencing an issue with Generative Expand in Lightroom Desktop 9.5.1 on Windows.

When I enable Enable Expand in the Crop tool and extend the crop boundary outside the original image, both Method and Generate remain greyed out. Therefore, Generative Expand cannot be started at all.

The issue is reproducible:

On every photo I have tested
With RAW and other images
Even when extending the crop boundary only slightly
After restarting Lightroom and Windows
On two different Windows PCs

My Adobe subscription is Lightroom 1 TB and I currently have 249 generative credits available.

Other Firefly features work normally. In particular, I regularly use Generative Remove in Lightroom Desktop without any issues.

I also tested Generative Expand in Lightroom Mobile using the same Adobe account and cloud library, and it works correctly there.

Generative Expand had also worked previously, shortly before this problem appeared.

This seems to indicate that the problem is specific to Lightroom Desktop rather than my Adobe account, Firefly access, generative credits or the images themselves.

Steps to reproduce

Open any photo in Lightroom Desktop.
Select Crop.
Enable Enable Expand.
Drag a crop boundary outside the original image.
Method remains greyed out.
Generate remains greyed out and cannot be clicked.

System information (PC #1)

Lightroom: 9.5.1 x64 [20260815-1945-84a45bf]
Windows 11 Pro x64
CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 @ 3.20 GHz
RAM: 16 GB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660, 6 GB
NVIDIA driver: 32.0.16.1062

Lightroom GPU status:
Loaded: Yes / Supported: Yes / Compute: Yes / Hardware: success / Software: success

Internal Camera Raw: 18.5.1 [2685]

The same Generative Expand problem also occurs on a second Windows PC with different hardware.

I can provide the complete Lightroom System Info from both computers and additional screenshots/screen recordings if needed.

F

Fulvi35099889q1u4Author

Participant

I think I may have found another important clue regarding this issue.

I'm using Lightroom Desktop 9.5.1 on Windows and Generative Expand is completely disabled with RAW files: after enabling Expand and extending the crop area, both Method and Generate remain greyed out.

I did some tests and obtained these results:

Canon EOS R8 CR3 → ❌ Method and Generate greyed out
DNG created from the same CR3 → ❌ still greyed out
JPEG exported from that exact same CR3 and reimported into Lightroom → ✅ Generative Expand works
JPEG taken with a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 → ✅ works

I can reproduce the same behaviour on two different Windows PCs.

My Adobe plan is Lightroom 1 TB, I have 249 generative credits available, and other Firefly features such as Generative Remove work normally.

I also tested Generative Expand in Lightroom Mobile with the same Adobe account, and it works correctly there.

So in my case the problem seems specifically related to the RAW/DNG processing path in Lightroom Desktop. The particularly interesting test is that the same EOS R8 image does not allow Generative Expand as CR3 or DNG, but immediately works after exporting it as JPEG and reimporting it.

System: Lightroom 9.5.1 x64 [20260815-1945-84a45bf], Windows 11 Pro, NVIDIA GTX 1660 6 GB. Lightroom reports the GPU as loaded, supported and compute-enabled, with both hardware and software tests successful.

I can provide an original EOS R8 CR3, the converted DNG, System Info or a screen recording if that would help reproduce the issue.

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