Lightroom Classic stuck at ~95% “Downloading Masking Models” (People/Object) – FIX

I wanted to share a fix for an issue that cost me days of troubleshooting and multiple sessions with Adobe support, in case it helps anyone else.

The problem

On Windows, Lightroom Classic would:

• Presets would not apply

• Hang at 92–96% “Downloading Masking Models”

• Only affect Select People and Select Object & Applying Presets

• Sky masking worked

Hardware was not unsupported (GTX 1080, Windows 10, I7 7700k) and these features had worked on this same PC previously.

What didn’t work

• Full uninstall/reinstall

• Creating a new Lightroom Catalog
• Downgrading to an earlier Lightroom Classic version

• Clearing CameraRaw caches

• Turning GPU on/off

• Switching NVIDIA Game Ready ↔ Studio drivers

• Copying AI model folders while online

• Network changes (hotspot vs home)

• Full windows factory reset

Lightroom would instantly jump to ~95%, indicating the models were present but failing during final initialisation/validation.

What DID work (the actual fix)

The issue turned out to be Lightroom validating / updating AI models online while trying to initialise them, causing a failure loop. You will need a second device - Laptop or Desktop with Lightroom that works. I downloaded Lightroom and used my Work PC to get the correct files for my home machine.

The fix was forcing a clean first initialisation while OFFLINE

Step-by-step fix

On a working PC (where People/Object masking works):

• Open Lightroom Classic

• Run Select People and Select Object successfully

• Close Lightroom

• Go to: %APPDATA%\Adobe\CameraRaw

• Copy these folders:

  • ModelZoo

  • GPU

• Paste them onto a USB drive or upload to the cloud (I used google drive)

On the broken PC:

• Download / Move the ModelZoo & GPU files from the USB or Cloud onto the broken PC

• With Lightroom Closed

• Go to:

   

  %APPDATA%\Adobe\CameraRaw

• Move existing folders out (or rename them):

  • ModelZoo

  • GPU

• (I renamed the old files 'ModelZoo_OLD' & 'GPU_OLD' and dragged them to my desktop)

• Paste in the copied ModelZoo and GPU

IMPORTANT PART

• Disable Wi-Fi / unplug Ethernet

• Restart the PC

• Launch Lightroom fully offline

Test:

• Masking → Select People

• Masking → Select Object

Once both work:

• Re-enable Wi-Fi

• Restart Lightroom normally (online)

After this:

• People/Object masking works

• Presets work again

• GPU acceleration works and is faster

• Issue survives restarts