Lightroom Classic 16.0 freezes in Develop on a MacBook Pro M2 Pro running macOS 27.2.1. Disabling GPU acceleration resolves the issue.

Hi, thanks for reaching out and trying to troubleshoot the issue yourself to narrow things down.

Could you try a couple of things before trying the steps suggested by our Expert?

1. Under Preferences, set the option to Use Graphics Processor to Custom and uncheck the options for Use GPU for Export and Use GPU for image processing, while keeping the option to Use GPU for Preview Generation on Auto. Once done, relaunch the app before testing.

2. If you continue to experience the same behavior, disable the Use GPU for Preview Generation option and then test again.

Thanks,
Nikunj

Hi satisfied_expertsf129,

Thanks for the clear report — and for noting that turning off GPU acceleration stops the freeze; that lines up with Adobe’s own guidance.

The official troubleshooting steps for Lightroom Classic performance are these, please try them in order: first, update Lightroom Classic and macOS to the latest versions. Then, in Preferences > Performance, check the Use Graphics Processor setting — if the GPU is incompatible, set it to Off, as you found, and make sure the graphics driver is current. Next, increase the Camera Raw cache size and purge the cache (Preferences > File Handling). Finally, go to File > Optimize Catalog.

The full guide is here: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/desktop/technical-support/performance-guidelines/optimize-performance-lightroom.html

If the freeze comes back, it would help to know whether it happens with every catalog or just one, and whether the catalog is on the internal drive or an external one.

Best regards