Participant

P: LrD v9.4 on macOS crashes, or does not launch

Forum|Forum|1 month ago
June 22, 2026
53 replies
684 views

I’m trying to open the Lightroom desktop app on a 2021 Macbook Pro. It looks as if the app starts to open, but then crashes immediately. I’ve tried restarting my laptop, uninstalling and reinstalling lightroom, and signing out/signing back into the Adobe Creative Cloud app. I’m still able to access other Adobe products on the laptop, it’s just Lightroom itself that’s unable to open. I can’t provide any screenshots, since the app itself won’t open.

It’s not Lightroom Classic, but the new Lightroom app.

Pinned Reply By Sameer K

Hi All! We are aware of a crash issue with Lightroom v9.4 caused by permissions problems in macOS folders. Please follow the steps provided here to manually resolve the permissions issues affecting Lightroom's directories: http://www.adobe.com/go/lr_user_permission_issue

If it does not help, please upload & share the Lr Console log by following these steps on macOS:

Hold down the Option key in the Finder when using the Go menu. The Library will appear below the current user's home directory.
Library > Application Support > Lightroom CC > lrcc_console.log

Let us know how it goes. Thanks!
Sameer K

Show previous replies

V

virgomoonmedia

Participant

I click on my Lightroom button to open it on my Mac and it bounces once and then stops. Nothing opens. I’ve tried reseting the starting option. I’ve reinstalled it. And have tried other tricks recommended online. Nothing will open my Lightroom app…

D

dpaullus

Participant

I have also been having these issues since Wednesday & worked with our company tech team to try to troubleshoot if it was any issues on my end. We did everything, ensured everything was updated, reset, had enough storage, etc. and nothing has worked.

This is extremely detrimental to my role at our company as I am our photographer and content creator, not being able to edit for 4 days has significantly disrupted my workflow and our abilities to launch creative campaigns.

I’m at a loss for what to do anymore.

Additionally, on my personal laptop Lightroom has been horrendous. It is constantly saying settings failed to paste, denoise failed to apply, remove won’t work, etc.

Seems like even though Adobe is one of the most expensive editing softwares to buy (and now have to continue paying a subscription for), it only continues to go downhill. Ever since they started integrating AI tools, the functionality of the apps are significantly worse.

Anshul_Saini

Community Manager

Hi @mrechst @MadelineInMuseums @dpaullus,

Thank you all for the additional reports and for sharing your findings. Based on the recent investigations, this appears to be related to a macOS folder permissions issue in many cases.

If you haven't already, please follow the steps in this HelpX article to verify and repair the permissions for the Lightroom-related folders and their subfolders/files.

The article also includes a shell script that can automatically repair the required permissions:

Download the script from here.

Extract LightroomCorrectPermission.zip
Open Terminal.
Drag the extracted/ unzipped LightroomCorrectPermission.sh shell-script file into the Terminal window.
Press Enter and provide your macOS administrator credentials when prompted.
Launch Lightroom again.

One additional finding from another user may also help. In their case, Lightroom wouldn't launch because:

~/Library/Logs/Adobe/LogTransport was owned by root rather than the user account. After correcting the permissions (or recreating the folder under their user account), Lightroom launched normally again. Please check the ownership and permissions for this folder as well.

If Lightroom still doesn't launch after following the HelpX steps, please attach your lrcc_console.log (as described in the pinned post by Sameer).

Thank you all for your patience.

Best,

Anshul Saini

B

Bracamonte

Participating Frequently

This isn’t just read/write permissions. I’m missing an entire Library Preferences folder somehow. Lightroom is doing something to cause this, and Adobe needs to fix it!!!

M

mackbooth

Participant

Hello,

I wanted to provide the root cause of my Lightroom launch issue in case it helps engineering or other customers.

System:

MacBook Air M5, 24 GB RAM
macOS Tahoe 26.5.2
Lightroom Desktop 9.4.1

Symptoms:

Lightroom 9.4.1 would not launch.
First launch after installation bounced several times in the Dock and exited.
Subsequent launches bounced once and quit silently.
No crash dialog.
Photoshop and other Adobe applications worked normally.
Lightroom 8.5 launched without any issues on the same machine.

Reinstalling Lightroom and using the Adobe Cleaner Tool did not resolve the issue.

Launching Lightroom from Terminal revealed this message:

Lightroom requires write permission to the folder:
~/Library/Logs/Adobe/LogTransport
Please make sure you have read/write permissions to the folders and all its subfolders, and you have cleared the existing ACLs...

We found that:

~/Library/Logs/Adobe/LogTransport

was owned by root:staff instead of my user account.

Deleting the LogTransport folder and recreating it under my user account immediately resolved the issue. Lightroom 9.4.1 launched successfully afterward with no other changes.

It appears Lightroom 9.4.1 fails to start if ~/Library/Logs/Adobe/LogTransport is owned by root, and the installer/updater does not automatically repair the permissions.

I hope this helps identify a bug in either the installer/updater or Lightroom's startup process, and that future versions can automatically repair or recreate the folder instead of failing to launch.

M

mackenziegilstrap

Participant

I had the exact same issue.

I deleted the LogTransport folder and tried opening Lightroom again. It worked!

S

StigO

Participant

Hi - I had the exact same issue with LR. LR Classic worked fine, just not LR that failed to start.

I finally found a solution that worked over at the LightroomQueen forum; please take a look:

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/threads/sudden-problems-with-starting-up-lightroom-desktop.55091/

M

mrechst

Participant

I down graded to 9.3.2 and that has fixed the problem of opening - seems as though it is 9.4.1 that is the issue

Claire H.

Community Manager

@mrechst, Thanks for letting us know the workaround that worked for you! We have several reports of this behavior. If you have the time, can you send your system info and a screen recording of the issue? You can find your system info by going to Help > System Info, copying and pasting it into a text file, and attaching it here. That will help us try to recreate the issue. Thanks! ^CH

M

mrechst

Participant

Hi Claire,

System info is:

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Air

Model Identifier: Mac15,13

Model Number: MXD23LL/A

Chip: Apple M3

Total Number of Cores: 8 (4 Performance and 4 Efficiency)

Memory: 16 GB

System Firmware Version: 18000.121.3

OS Loader Version: 18000.121.3

System Software Overview:

System Version: macOS 26.5.2 (25F84)

Kernel Version: Darwin 25.5.0

Boot Volume: Macintosh HD

Boot Mode: Normal

Computer Name: Michael MacBook Air

User Name: Michael Rechsteiner (michaelrechsteiner)

Secure Virtual Memory: Enabled

System Integrity Protection: Enabled

I resolved the issue by going into the Desktop Creative Cloud App. That gave me the option by clicking on the three dots by Lightroom to install the prior version - please see the attached screen shots. My conclusion there is a compatability issue with the latest version and Macs.

Regards,

Michael

M

mrechst

Participant

I have tried all of the above including running the Adobe cleaner tool and the problem persists - please help - all other desktop applications work Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, Bridge - I just cannot open Lightroom desktop version. Lightroom web version does work but that doesn’t suit my workflow.

B

barth33054259

Participant

I am having the same issue, tried all the fixes...nothing worked

M

MadelineInMuseums

Participant

Hi, all!

I’m running into the same exact issue and have been for a month now. I’m using Adobe Lightroom on my laptop. All other Adobe Apps work. The dock icon will bounce once and nothing. I have also tried all methods listed above and still nothing. There’s also no crash logged and it doesn’t appear in the activity monitor at all. Please help!

Claire H.

Community Manager

Hi @MadelineInMuseums, Thanks for letting us know! We have received several reports of this happening. To better help you with this issue, we would like a few more details. Can you send your system info and a screen recording of the issue? You can find your system info by going to Help > System Info, copying and pasting it into a text file, and attaching it here. Thanks! ^CH

M

MadelineInMuseums

Participant

Hi, thanks!

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: Mac15,10

Model Number: MRX53LL/A

Chip: Apple M3 Max

Total Number of Cores: 14 (10 Performance and 4 Efficiency)

Memory: 36 GB

System Firmware Version: 18000.121.3

OS Loader Version: 18000.121.3

Hardware UUID: 3CE45F54-F6B0-5F57-B4F5-A108F133BB00

Provisioning UDID: 00006034-000A61D43478001C

Activation Lock Status: Enabled

System Software Overview:

System Version: macOS 26.5.2 (25F84)

Kernel Version: Darwin 25.5.0

Boot Volume: Macintosh HD

Boot Mode: Normal

Secure Virtual Memory: Enabled

System Integrity Protection: Enabled

Time since boot: 4 days, 19 hours, 51 minutes

Claire H.

Community Manager

Hi @Bugz , Welcome to the Lightroom Community forum! We have received several reports of this type of behavior. To help us investigate, we could use a few more details. Can you send your system info, a screen recording of the issue, and a numbered list of the exact steps needed to replicate it? You can find your system info by going to Help > System Info, copying and pasting it into a text file, and attaching it here. Thanks! ^CH

M

mrechst

Participant

I have the exact same problem as well. Photoshop, Bridge and Lightroom classic open fine, Lightroom desktop version will not open. I looked at the steps for using the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool and it seems to be beyond my computer capabilities.

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