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Gray thumbnails with no preview on import. Impossible to import photos.

Forum|Forum|24 days ago
June 2, 2026
14 replies
151 views

Hello, I need some help please.

I can't import photos into Lightroom Classic. When I try to locate the folder, the thumbnails appear gray with no preview. When I try to quit the software, it crashes. I've tried everything: updates, creating another library, uninstalling and reinstalling Lightroom Classic, restarting—nothing works. Thanks

Correct answer Scott255525676fz1

UPDATE:

Just got off the phone with Adobe tech support.

The tech person acknowledged some users are having trouble with previews, and rolled me back to Lightroom Classic version 15.2 from 15.3.

Everything is working as it should, including importing from an SD card.

The tech person suggested trying to upgrade again when the next new version is released.

Hope this helps someone, or many!

Show previous replies

M

malacca73

Participating Frequently

I am having this same issue. I have been creating and openings multiple catalogs every day for years and nothing has changed in my setup with the exception of updating LRC recently. Is it possible to downgrade to an older version? I have done the same thing - deleting preferences, having success for one catalog or even two and then having the same issue. This is absolutely maddening!

A

AxelMatt

Community Expert

@Alefa974 As @nik.m wrote we need more informations about your system.

Please provide a copy of your 'System Info'. This can be get from the Lightroom menu item Help > System Info. There's a copy button in the System Info dialog. Press this button and paste the info into a text file and attach it to your next forum post.

My System: Intel i7-8700K - 64GB RAM - NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 - Windows 11 Pro 25H2 -- LR-Classic 15 - Photoshop 27 - Nik Collection 9 - PureRAW 6 - Topaz Photo AI

nik.m

Community Manager

Hi, thanks for reaching out, and we're sorry about the trouble!

Thanks for trying the steps suggested by @AxelMatt. Please go to the Help menu in Lightroom Classic, then System Info, and copy the text. You can share the info with us by either pasting it as a reply here or in a text file and sharing the file with us.

Are the images saved on an external drive or on your computer's internal storage? To start, check whether Lightroom Classic has Full Disk Access enabled on macOS by going to System Settings, then Privacy and Security. If not, try adding the app to the list, restarting the computer, and trying again.

Thanks,

Nikunj

A

AxelMatt

Community Expert

Do you get an error message?

In a first step you should try to reset the preferences of Lightroom Classic: How to reset Lightroom Classic preferences (adobe.com)

It's recommended to backup your preferences before you reset the preferences to the default settings:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/preference-file-and-other-file-locations.html

Check also your monitor profile: How do I change my monitor profile to check whether it’s corrupted? | The Lightroom Queen

My System: Intel i7-8700K - 64GB RAM - NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 - Windows 11 Pro 25H2 -- LR-Classic 15 - Photoshop 27 - Nik Collection 9 - PureRAW 6 - Topaz Photo AI

Alefa974Author

Participant

Hello, thank you for your help. I did everything as you said. Lightroom then created a new catalog, and it worked for the first import. Then I tried opening my old catalog again, and the same problem occurred. So I went back to the new catalog, and the same problem occurred; it no longer worked. And it crashes again when I quit. (I'm on a Macbook Pro M1)

Alefa974Author

Participant

and in my new catalog, the "Develop" tab in the program where the photos were imported no longer works. It's all gray. I'm a bit frustrated to have bought a year's license for something that doesn't work, especially with no support.

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