Participating Frequently

Answered

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

Forum|Forum|1 month ago
June 17, 2026
57 replies
354 views

It works fine for a few days and then won’t open. Task Manager says it is running but I see nothing. What gives?

I should mention my catalog is huge … don’t know if that has anything to do with it.

Correct answer Rob_Cullen

I have just had a similar problem- Nothing starts visibly except for intense hard-drive activity. No error messages. Repeat clicking of the LrC start icon results in multiple listings of LrC in Task Manager.

For some reason (went for a cuppa?) I let it continue with its disk activity thinking it might be a scheduled backup and eventually after about 10-15minutes it finally opened my catalog.

Since then the catalog has been opening and closing as normal, or even faster to open.

So I don’t have any answers and cannot explain what happened. These glitches are sent to try us!

Show previous replies

lauraf52386078

Participating Frequently

Work with LrC daily. Can confirm issues since updating to 15.4.1. PC appears to crash (went down general PC crashing dark hole checks initially) but the issues are very similar to what is happening to others: background running, catalog “repair” attempt due to closing/crashing. removed catalog it was trying to repair. on attempting to open alternative Catalog, PC appears to freeze/crash will leave running to see outcome (as others have suggested).

dj_paige

Legend

Work with LrC daily. Can confirm issues since updating to 15.4.1. PC appears to crash (went down general PC crashing dark hole checks initially) but the issues are very similar to what is happening to others:

PC crashing is not what others in this thread have been reporting, so this does not seem “very similar” to other reports.

Please describe your problem in full, from the beginning, as if no one else has reported any problems. Better yet, put your problem description into a new thread to reduce confusion.

M

Michael Jay802

Participant

My hard drive was replaced. Lightroom Classic said that my catalog was corrupted and that a repair is underway. Four hours later, I can’t believe that the best solution is to wait and pray.

dennisb94569757

Known Participant

Do you have a backup copy of your catalog? If so, try it.

M

Michael Jay802

Participant

Success. Thank you.

dj_paige

Legend

Restore a recent backup of your catalog file, and try opening that backup (unzip it first)

dj_paige

Legend

Many people are reporting that LrC doesn’t open, and many of them find that by just letting LrC run overnight (one person needed 12 hours), then it opens and launches properly after that.

Nevertheless, it would be helpful if you told us your operating system and version NUMBER.

K

Keystone-1956

Participant

Hello,

I really would like to get my LrC program to work again!!! I use Windows 11 OS. Can you help me with this? Please let me know.

Thank you, Alan

dj_paige

Legend

I explained one thing that seems to work for people. Did you try that?

K

Keystone-1956

Participant

I cannot open Lightroom Classic.

P

pollylew

Participant

when attempting to open lightroom classic, I get a message to say that the file is corrupt

dj_paige

Legend

Lightroom (Lr icon) or Lightroom Classic (LrC icon)?

If LrC, please read this suggestion:

T

Taylor36904674zfyt

Participant

The app doesn't open a window when i double click

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

This could be a catalog issue. Hold down the Option key while starting Lightroom Classic, till you get a dialog asking what catalog you want to open. Choose to create a new catalog to see if Lightroom starts correctly with that.

-- Johan W. Elzenga