Lightroom Classic Startup Failure

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:

1. Launch Lightroom Classic 15.4.1.
2. Splash screen appears.
3. Startup stops at “Reading Preferences.”
4. 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.