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Answered

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

Forum|Forum|1 month ago
June 17, 2026
57 replies
355 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

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Ben_Poore2467

Participant

I am experiencing a repeatable startup failure in Lightroom Classic 15.4.1 on macOS Tahoe 26.5.2. Lightroom never progresses past the splash screen and remains indefinitely at “Reading Preferences.”

The application does not crash or generate an error message—it simply hangs.

Environment:

Lightroom Classic: 15.4.1
macOS: Tahoe 26.5.2
Hardware: Apple Silicon Mac
Adobe Creative Cloud: Current version

Steps to Reproduce:

Launch Lightroom Classic 15.4.1.
Splash screen appears.
Startup stops at “Reading Preferences.”
Lightroom never completes startup.

Expected Result:
Lightroom Classic should complete initialization and open normally.

Actual Result:
Lightroom remains indefinitely at “Reading Preferences” and must be Force Quit.

Troubleshooting Performed:

Uninstalled and reinstalled Lightroom Classic.
Confirmed Creative Cloud is installed and signed in.
Reset Lightroom preferences using the keyboard shortcut.
Deleted Lightroom preference files manually.
Removed Lightroom support files.
Restarted the Mac multiple times.
Verified Full Disk Access permissions.
Issue persists after reinstall.

dennisb94569757

Known Participant

My problems was different from yours. I’m afraid I can’t help. The Adobe Customer Care team wasted hours of my time; were unable to solve my problem. I received my solution via this forum. Good luck.

dj_paige

Legend

At least one person reported that letting it run overnight would allow LrC to launch, and then after that everything worked properly each time he launched LrC. I know that’s not a particularly pleasant workaround, but its worth a try.

M

Manal35695804xwff

Participant

Failure to launch at all. Unistalled/reinstalled and tried everything.

Rob_Cullen

Community Expert

There are several other people experiencing this problem- so it looks like there might be a bug in the upgrade system.

See this forum link-

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.4.1, Photoshop 27.8, ACR 18.4, Lightroom 9.4, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.3 .

Srishti Bali

Community Manager

Hi @Clive32973672lu8l

Sorry to hear you're experiencing this issue. Could you please share a screenshot of what you see when you launch the app? Does it display an error message, crash report, or any other unexpected behavior? Also, could you let me know:

Which operating system and version of Lightroom Clasisc are you using?
Have there been any recent changes to your system, such as OS or app updates?
Have you recently installed or updated any antivirus software, browser extensions, or plugins?

These details will help narrow down the possible cause and determine the next troubleshooting steps.

Thanks, Srishti Bali | Community & Engagement Strategist, Digital Imaging | Adobe

C

Clive32973672lu8l

Participant

Lightroom Classic no longer opening, yet seems to be running according to task manager in Windows 11.

Have tried uninstalling and reinstalling latest version, running system file repairs, rolling back to previous versions but none of these have resolved the issue.

dennisb94569757

Known Participant

I had a similar problem; tried many things; Adobe Customer Care team was no help.

I think that I have resolved my problem—by simply waiting.

I tried to open LrC, and--as it had many times--it opened in the background. I did not use Task Manager to close LrC. I simply waited overnight and the next morning LrC was open--in the original catalog--with everything intact and working properly! It showed all 801,000 photos, all Collections, everything.

I backed up the catalog. I then and closed the program and re-opened it--several times--with no hangups.

I thank KR Seals (in this forum) for providing me with the link to the thread that offered tis suggestion.

Good luck.

KR Seals

Community Expert

I upgraded LrC to V 15.4 on my main Win11 machine yesterday after testing the upgrade on both my MacBook Pro and backup Win11.

The upgrade went smoothly and the V 15.3.1 catalog was successfully zipped and save in the Old Catalogs Folder. Everything ran ok when the newly upgraded catalog was opened for the first time. Then, after closing LrC and attempting to restart with the 15.4 catalog, I got the same indications as @crockny64 and @Rob_Cullen. There was no visible response when I clicked on the LrC icon. Based on their comments, I checked in Task Manager and noticed that LrC was running as a Background Process with CPU, Memory and Disk activity. I decided to let it go and see what happened. I took a dinner break and watched some of the YouTube videos on V15.4 so it was a couple of hours later when I came back to the machine to see LrC up and running. LrC was also now running as an App in Task Manager.

Since that, I have tried opening and closing LrC several times. It’s now starting and quitting properly. It seems the previews are loading much quicker under 15.4.

Ken Seals - Nikon Z 9, Z 8, 14mm-800mm. Computer Win 11 Pro, I7-14700K, 64GB, RTX3070TI. Travel machine: 2021 MacBook Pro M1 MAX 64GB. All Adobe apps.

KR Seals

Community Expert

Your symptoms are just like I had when a new set of ram was defective causing the catalog to be corrupted. I’m not saying your issue is related to ram, only to a possibly corrupt catalog. Be sure any .lock file in the Lightroom Classic folder is deleted, then try a backup catalog.

Ken Seals - Nikon Z 9, Z 8, 14mm-800mm. Computer Win 11 Pro, I7-14700K, 64GB, RTX3070TI. Travel machine: 2021 MacBook Pro M1 MAX 64GB. All Adobe apps.

dennisb94569757

Known Participant

I am very upset with the Adobe Customer Care team. I spent many hours on the phone with several different members of the team. They were cluless regarding this problem. Do you have faith in them? Do you use them?

Rob_Cullen

Correct answer

Community Expert

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!

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.4.1, Photoshop 27.8, ACR 18.4, Lightroom 9.4, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.3 .

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crockny64Author

Participating Frequently

I have left it alone and come back to nothing … maybe I needed to wait longer …. so frustrating that this program I have come to depend on is so buggy ...

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crockny64Author

Participating Frequently

I waited 45 minutes after “opening” it and it came up today …. Geesh.

dj_paige

Legend

If Task Manager “says it is running”, then end the task using Task Manager. Right-click where it says Adobe Lightroom and then select “End Task”. Wait a minute or two and try opening LrC.

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crockny64Author

Participating Frequently

Thats an endless loop …doesn’t work

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