Skip to main content
Participant
November 11, 2023
Answered

Lightroom Classic on Windows not launching

  • November 11, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 943 views

I had an issue where lightroom would not launch on my windows 11 laptop.  I would click the app to open and the spinning circle would happen briefly but then nothing.  I followed this thread resetting preferences which then allowed me to open lightroom. 

 

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/lightroom-classic-won-t-launch/m-p/11616454

 

However, once it launched, all my pictures showed up as gray boxes and nothing populated in lightroom to view the photos.   I then tried to launch a catalog from a backup and now it just stalls giving me the black text box saying "Lightroom - Opening Catalog: lightroom catalog-v12.lrcat" and nothing happens.  any idea what to try next?

Correct answer AxelMatt

unfortunately this did not seem to work.  I had to remove preferences and when i tried to reload the current catalog, all images were greyed out again.  When i tried to load a previous catalog backup (most recent before issues) it got stuck with the black text box again.  Any other ideas or just keep trying older and older catalogs till one works?


quote

... reload the current catalog, all images were greyed out again.  When i tried to load a previous catalog backup (most recent before issues) it got stuck with the black text box again.  ...


By @Sean335389048f70

 

Take a look here: Photos appear as black, gray, or blank rectangles in Lightroom Classic (adobe.com)

The gray previews can be caused by a defective monitor profile.

Gelöst: Greyed out images in lightroom - Adobe Community - 9747873

 

1 reply

Community Expert
November 11, 2023

If it were me, I would uninstall and then reinstall Lightroom with the Creative Cloud app.  Then I would make a copy of the most recent .lrcat file and try opening it. 

Participant
November 11, 2023

if i uninstall and reinstall, will that delete my catalog backups?  SHould i be making a copy elsewhere and then moving them back to the folder after reinstall?  I just want to avoid losing the catalog during that process. 

AxelMatt
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 11, 2023

On reinstalling Lightroom you don't loose your catalog and the appropriate catalog backups. On deinstall you'll be asking if you will keep your preferences. On the first try I would keep the preferences.

If you seen after reinstall it doesn't work try the reinstalling again and removing the preferences. 

But this doesn't affects your catalog. 

However it isn't wrong to keep a copy of the recent catalog and the backups to a safe place.

 

My System: Intel i7-8700K - 64GB RAM - NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 - Windows 11 Pro 25H2 -- LR-Classic 15 - Photoshop 27 - Nik Collection 8 - PureRAW 6 - Topaz Photo AI