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Participant
July 8, 2026
Question

Lightroom won't open

  • July 8, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 23 views

Lightroom won't open. I click it and it simply won't open. It has full disk access on my Mac as well. 

    1 reply

    Community Expert
    July 8, 2026

    @DBTH123 

    Do you get an error message?

    Which version of Lightroom do you’ve installed?

    What has been changed on your system before the error occured?

     

    In a first step you should  try to reset the Lightroom preferences.

    https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-do-i-reset-lightrooms-preferences/

    It's recommended to backup your preferences before you reset the preferences to the default settings:

    https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/preference-file-and-other-file-locations.html

     

    Another issue can be a faulty catalog. Hold the Ctrl-Key while starting LrC. This opens a catalog selection dialog.  

     

    First select the appropriate recent catalog and let it check it – note the checkmark "Test integrity of this catalog" to check its integrity. If that doesn't help, try to create a new one and see if this catalog works.

    If yes, you could then try to import your current catalog into the new one. Choose 'File - Import from Another Catalog' and then select your old catalog for import. In the import dialog choose all photos to import, but DON'T MOVE them. This will create an exact copy of your old catalog, but usually without the corruption.

     

    Another alternative is to try to restore the catalog from a recent backup -> Disaster strikes - a corrupted catalog! | The Lightroom Queen

     

    My System: Intel i7-8700K - 64GB RAM - NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 - Windows 11 Pro 25H2 -- LR-Classic 15 - Photoshop 27 - Nik Collection 9 - PureRAW 6 - Topaz Photo AI