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powerful_Everglow2921
Participant
August 28, 2026
Answered

15.5.1 and Tahoe 26.6.2 - issues with previews?

  • August 28, 2026
  • 7 replies
  • 150 views

I’m tearing my hair out - after updating yesterday I can’t seem to generate any previews at all in LRC. When I try to create them it seems to stick on the 5th photo for some weird reason. I’ve tried generating previews for a few different selections and it always sticks on 5. 

 

Troubleshooting already tried:

Purged Camera Raw Cache
Deleted and rebuilt the Previews.lrdata file
Confirmed adequate free disk space
Disabled "Use Graphics Processor"
Ran File > Optimize Catalog
Removed and reimported the photos
Tested in a brand-new, empty catalog — same stall
Fully uninstalled and cleanly reinstalled Lightroom Classic
Confirmed no third-party antivirus interfering
Granted Full Disk Access (fixed it previously, but issue has returned)
Checked Console.app during the stall — no Lightroom-specific fault, only routine macOS system activity

The only thing that seems to work is going back to an older version of LRC (currently using 15.2.1). That seems to work perfectly fine - but my current catalog has been ugraded to work with the newer version so I can’t open it!

 

Any ideas are appreciated - I’m on about hour 6 of going slowly insane...

      Correct answer BSAbbott

      I went back to 15.5.1. Everything seems better now. Imports are now rapid as I would expect. Not sure what I did right. Still on 26.6.2. Peace

      7 replies

      BSAbbottCorrect answer
      Participant
      September 15, 2026

      I went back to 15.5.1. Everything seems better now. Imports are now rapid as I would expect. Not sure what I did right. Still on 26.6.2. Peace

      Anshul_Saini
      Community Manager
      Anshul_SainiCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      September 15, 2026

      Thanks for coming back and confirming this, ​@BSAbbott. It’s useful to know that you’re now back on Lightroom Classic 15.5.1 with macOS 26.6.2 and that import performance has returned to normal.

      Since everything is currently working as expected, there’s no need to change anything or perform additional troubleshooting on your system.
       

      Best,
      Anshul Saini

      BSAbbott
      Participant
      August 28, 2026

      Yes I am on 15.4.1 and the catalog appeared to work. I lost things like export presets, but nothing painful so far. The import process seemed to take longer than previous versions. A little frustrating for professional priced software. Peace

      johnrellis
      johnrellis
      Legend
      August 28, 2026

      [View this post in your web browser. It contains formatting and images that don't appear in email.]

       

      ​@powerful_Everglow2921 The only thing that seems to work is going back to an older version of LRC (currently using 15.2.1). That seems to work perfectly fine - but my current catalog has been ugraded to work with the newer version so I can’t open it!

       

      Did you try rolling back to 15.4.1?  It’s catalog format is compatible with 15.5.1

      BSAbbott
      Participant
      August 28, 2026

      Me too! I tried a few of your ideas, but went back a version. Still slow to import and build previews, but it seemed to work enough. I’ve noticed a steady decline in performance. Lightroom desktop seemed to work as well as ever. So did DXO Photolab. I like what LRC does, but this implementation is terrible. I’m on a macbook 5 pro, should be fast enough. Peace

      powerful_Everglow2921Author
      Participant
      August 28, 2026

      I’ve managed the version back and it’s not even letting me import photos - I selected the photos to import and it imported aboiut 15% of them and told me there were already smart previews when there are clearly no smart previews...ffssssss

      Anshul_Saini
      Community Manager
      Anshul_SainiCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      September 15, 2026

      Hi ​@powerful_Everglow2921 ​@BSAbbott,

      Thanks for the additional testing. The fact that preview generation/import behaves differently after rolling back from 15.5/15.5.1 is useful, particularly since ​@powerful_Everglow2921 has already reproduced the preview stall in a brand-new catalog after rebuilding the preview cache and reinstalling Lightroom Classic.

      Rather than repeating the troubleshooting you’ve already done, could you please help us with a couple of comparisons?
       

      ​@powerful_Everglow2921: In 15.5.1, when preview generation stops on the fifth image, does it always stop at 5 of N regardless of which photos you select, or does it follow a particular image/file? If you select a completely different set of 10 images, does it stop again after 4 and hang on the 5th?

      Also, does the same thing happen with Embedded & Sidecar, Standard, and 1:1 previews, or only a particular preview type?


      ​@BSAbbott: Since you’re now on 15.4.1, could you let us know which preview type you’re building and whether the slowdown occurs when importing from the Mac’s internal storage as well as from your normal source?

      For both of you, please also share Help > System Info > Copy from the affected Lightroom Classic installation if possible.
       

      Thanks for helping us narrow this down.
       

      Best,
      Anshul Saini

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