Lightroom Classic (current version) wont open/launch on Windows 11

Bump, same issue again. Adobe, is there any movement on this? It’s infuriating. 

Some people report that letting LrC continue trying to open for hours (one person said it took 12 hours), most people report that LrC does open and runs properly, and the next time they want to open it, the amount of time required is reasonable and expected.

Lightroom Classic 14.5.2 works perfectly on the same Windows 11 PC, but the latest 15.x version won't launch after installation. The program attempts to load for 3 seconds. No error message appears. The program shows up in Task Manager.

Neither the latest NVIDIA driver nor the startup checks I’ve performed so far have resolved the issue. The fact that the latest version of Photoshop works further suggests that this isn’t a fundamental problem with Creative Cloud or my computer.

I have been having the same issue recently on a Mac. All of a sudden, my main archive catalog appeared to hang on opening. When it first happened, I let it run for a while (though not for hours), then force-quit it, assuming it was corrupted. I pulled a backup from Time Machine, and that worked. Yes, I tried all the low-hanging fruit like preferences. 

But here’s the strange thing: I quit LR one evening and then opened that catalog the next morning, and the issue was back. I have now been through that process several times.

It got me wondering if this is some issue related to the optimization process that is part of the backup process. To test this, I opened a catalog and closed it. It then opened fine. I did that a few times without issue. Then, the next time, when I quit LR, I chose to back up the catalog. My catalog is big, so this takes a while. The next morning, when I went to open that same previously working catalog, I ran into the problem. It no longer opened. What’s more, the backup of that catalog that had been created overnight was also broken.

This catalog was totally fine. It closed and opened just fine. Right up until the point that I chose to run a backup on exiting LR. That seems to be what killed it.

Another thing I noticed is that when I tried to open that backup, while watching the files in the Finder window, you can see LR creating all the additional files. The helper.data file grows in size for a long time. I would have assumed that if the catalog doesn’t open within a minute, there is an issue. However, I can see that LR is doing something long after that point because the helper file grows and grows. 

I did let the process run until it appeared that the helper had stopped growing, and all other file sizes in the catalog folder were steady. It was the best guess I could make as to when LR had finished doing something. Still nothing, though. The catalog doesn’t work.

Many people in this forum are experiencing this problem. They also report that if you let LrC take an hour to open, or 3 hours or one person even said it took 12 hours, then it runs properly and it will open in a reasonable time each time you open it after that.

Hi ​@Joanne_Foley7851, thanks for reaching out to the Lightroom Classic Community Forum! Let's try a few things and get you back to editing.

• Reset Lightroom Classic Preferences: Please refer to this Helpx article for steps.  https://adobe.ly/3HsQXpA It is recommended to back up your catalog before resetting preferences. You may refer to this article for more information:  https://adobe.ly/4dW8vqF.

• Uninstall Lightroom Classic via Creative Cloud: https://adobe.ly/4c2Mgzl

If you still experience these issues after trying these steps, we would like a few more details. Can you send your system info? 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

I did the upgrade to latest version and now lightroom classic will not open

You might be having the same problem as in this forum thread-

Open Task Manager, [Exit] from all listings of Lightroom-Classic, Open LrC (once only), wait and wait.  See what happens.

(   [Windows key + X] > [T] will also open Task Manager.  )

Many others are complaining that Lightroom does not open, but it is actually opening in the background. You should check that with Task Manager (ctrl+alt+delete)

Lightroom Classic will not open. It looks like V15 has been installed automaticly. For a month now my laptop does not open the app at all. I did’t receive any messages from the program to address. Please help!!!