Known Participant

Question

Invalid registry entry causes missing lrcat icons

Forum|Forum|4 months ago
March 19, 2026
4 replies
326 views

The Windows icons for .lrcat files have been missing for several months. See attachments containing “NOK”.

I fixed this for LrC 15.2 by changing the Windows registry entry HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AdobeLightroom7.lrcat\DefaultIcon from

"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom Classic\Lightroom.exe",5 to

"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom Classic\Lightroom.exe",1

See attachments containing “OK”.

After installing LrC 15.2.1, the registry entry reverted to '5', which caused the icons to go missing.

D

Daniel_Peterson

Inspiring

Just discovered this bug solution after having the same issue on my Windows 11 machine, I’d ignored it for a while but finally dug to see what was happening. Thanks for the solution!

Karsten.GAuthor

Known Participant

The proper solution is still with Adobe, but the workaround presented here is effective and acceptable as a temporary measure.

N

nickh34533502

Participant

Thank you for posting this workaround. I can confirm this bug 100% still exists.

Claire H.

Community Manager

Hi @nickh34533502, Thank you for updating the thread! 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

A

AxelMatt

Community Expert

... and a numbered list of the exact steps needed to replicate it? Y..

@Claire H. There’s only one step to do → installing the recent version of Lightroom. I’ve seen this already since November 2025 or so.

This is also independent of the system configuration. However, this only affects Windows systems.

@Karsten.G and I posted the reason (and the solution) for this issue here. @Rikk Flohr_Photography does always know about the issue. But apparently the development team cannot reproduce the problem. Very strange.

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

Karsten.GAuthor

Known Participant

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr_Photography

Can you please explain why my post been moved from Bug Report to Questions?

This is not a question. It’s a report about incorrect behavior of LrC installation on a Windows PC. Plus, it includes the root cause and description of the fix right away. Please move back to Bug Reports.

Thank you.

Rikk Flohr_Photography

@Karsten.G

When this was originally reported, the Classic team created a bug. Since then, no one at Adobe has encountered this issue, nor has anyone been able to reproduce it internally. (e.g., I have three Windows machines of various ages and capabilities, all running Win 11, and none of them exhibit this issue.)

The team has closed the bug, but would be happy to reconsider it, provided bona fide reproducible instructions are provided. As is the case with all non-reproducible bugs, which are closed, the accompanying thread (here) is moved to Questions.

Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org

Karsten.GAuthor

Known Participant

Thank you for getting back to me on this. Unfortunately, I can't provide any better instructions than those in my post. From his comment in this thread, it seems that @dj_paige has the same issue.

dj_paige

Legend

This worked for me, however I did have to reboot the computer to see the proper icons.

Karsten.GAuthor

Known Participant

Thanks for adding this; I forgot to mention it. After making the registry change, you need to either reboot the computer or restart Windows Explorer. To do this, open Task Manager, search for 'Windows Explorer', then right-click on the app item and select 'Restart'.

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