Lightroom Classic will not open

Question

I cannot get my lightroom to open.I first noticed an issue when Lightroom Classic was not resuming at the previous pictures but returned  to a picture edited some days ago, however in other respects everything seemed to be working.  This may have started after the last update.It first failed to load after I had done a backup. I tried loading this backup and then a previous one but kept getting corupt catalogue message.I eventually got a backup from June 5th to load, though the catalouge had to be updated to the new format before appearing to open and operate correctly.  However on closing the program it would not open again.Since then I have reset preferences and reinstalled lightroom from the adobe creative cloud app, all without any change.Today I launched the reinstalled Lightroom with a new empty catalogue and imported an old catalogue (over 500000 pictures). It took some hours but after it loaded photos and then loaded masks it did open and appeared to function correctly.However, after closing the app, it will not reopen again.I can only open the app without a catalogue. I am using  V15.4.1 on windows 11 Any help appreciated

JohnLMac · Answer

I think my problems have been solved but I’m not certain about which steps got me up and running.

I am an amateur hobbyist and not a knowledgeable user so the post below is only intended as my story and not expert advice!

The issue with opening a correct catalogue but always at the same page and not the last page worked on at close down - this was definitely solved by removing any old catalogue files not associated with the current working catalogue from the folder that contained the current catalogue folder. Not sure why, but all the other documented solutions I found did not work. e.g. resetting preferences, checking catalogue selection, issues around graphics cards etc.

For the other issues, I went back to the most recent back up catalogue I could get to load. (Neither of the two back ups since updating to the latest catalogue format would load.)

My loaded backup catalogue had many files (over 2000) which had been edited with AI functions. Many of these (about 150) were now showing AI edit updates required. I tried doing batch updates of 100 files at a time using Library grid mode: Photos/Develop settings/ update AI settings.

I was getting a number of failed updates, particularly with files which had had remove objects; masks set or denoise, especially those files saved as dng files from previous versions. I chose to manually redo the failed files by making a virtual copy, syncing non-AI edits from the original and finally redoing the AI edits manually.

(I had seen advice that removing the .lrcat-data file and forcing it to be rebuilt might have been an option but when a tried this nothing would load so I went a slower route

When no files were requesting AI updates I exited and was delighted to find Lightroom reloaded with out any issues.

It has since been functioning correctly, though I did have to import my most recent pictures from the last month and do full edits on about 20 pictures.

Much as I enjoy using the AI edit features I shall in future be exporting final image files more often: the feeling of losing access to more than a decade of picture edits, even for a few days, was not pleasant.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.