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Rafael _ Oz
Known Participant
August 29, 2025
Answered

Metadata Search Crash in Lightroom Classic (macOS)

  • August 29, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 201 views

Possible Bug in Lightroom Classic (macOS – latest version)

Issue encountered:
While trying to search by metadata in the Library/Grid module, the user accidentally pasted an entire spreadsheet (many rows/columns of data) into the search field.

What happens:

  • Lightroom freezes immediately.

  • Even after restarting the app or deleting temporary files, the issue persists.

  • The problem occurs because Lightroom saves the last search query. So, whenever the catalog is reopened and search is triggered, the error repeats.

  • Tested: even switching to another catalog and back does not clear the problem.

  • Important: This happens even after resetting Lightroom preferences, so the issue is not cleared by a standard reset.

Workarounds tested:

  1. Open Lightroom with a “clean” catalog and avoid triggering the search field in the problematic catalog.

  2. If resetting preferences doesn’t work, create a new catalog and re-import photos/folders from the old one.

This bug can happen to anyone who accidentally pastes large amounts of text into the search field. Adobe might need to limit input here to prevent freezes.

Correct answer johnrellis

[This post contains formatting and embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser.]

 

If you're referring to the search field of the Library Filter bar's Text:

 

I see similar symptoms. I tried copying and pasting 300,000 rows x 8 columns of text and numbers from an Excel spreadsheet into that field.   After several minutes, LR hasn't technically crashed, but it's stopped responding, while continuing to consume CPU and huge amounts of memory:

 

 

After force-quitting and restarting LR, LR never fully restarts -- I just see the spinning wheel.

 

@Rafael _ Oz, you can clear the search field from your poisoned catalog with these steps

 

1. In LR, click Catalog Settings > General > Show, which will open Finder with the catalog folder selected.

 

2. Exit LR.

 

3. In Finder, with the catalog folder selected, do the Finder command File > Duplicate, which will make a backup copy of the catalog folder just in case. 

 

4. In Finder, right-click the original catalog folder (not the copy) and do the menu item Services > New Terminal At Folder.

 

5. Execute this command line in Terminal, replacing <catalog> with the exact name of your catalog:

 

sqlite3 '<catalog>.lrcat' "delete from Adobe_variablesTable where name = 'AgLibrary_lastUsedFilter';"

 

6. Restart LR.

 

 

 

2 replies

johnrellis
johnrellisCorrect answer
Legend
August 29, 2025

[This post contains formatting and embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser.]

 

If you're referring to the search field of the Library Filter bar's Text:

 

I see similar symptoms. I tried copying and pasting 300,000 rows x 8 columns of text and numbers from an Excel spreadsheet into that field.   After several minutes, LR hasn't technically crashed, but it's stopped responding, while continuing to consume CPU and huge amounts of memory:

 

 

After force-quitting and restarting LR, LR never fully restarts -- I just see the spinning wheel.

 

@Rafael _ Oz, you can clear the search field from your poisoned catalog with these steps

 

1. In LR, click Catalog Settings > General > Show, which will open Finder with the catalog folder selected.

 

2. Exit LR.

 

3. In Finder, with the catalog folder selected, do the Finder command File > Duplicate, which will make a backup copy of the catalog folder just in case. 

 

4. In Finder, right-click the original catalog folder (not the copy) and do the menu item Services > New Terminal At Folder.

 

5. Execute this command line in Terminal, replacing <catalog> with the exact name of your catalog:

 

sqlite3 '<catalog>.lrcat' "delete from Adobe_variablesTable where name = 'AgLibrary_lastUsedFilter';"

 

6. Restart LR.

 

 

 

    R
    Rafael _ OzAuthor
    Known Participant
    September 2, 2025

    thanks, I'll try that 

    Sameer K
    Community Manager
    Sameer KCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    August 29, 2025

    Hey, @Rafael _ Oz. Welcome to the Lightroom Classic Community. I'll help you figure this out.

    I just tried pasting about 10500+ Rows and columns, and Lightroom continued to behave as expected, as only the column headings got pasted. Was the input in a large chunk of text, maybe in comma-separated form? 

     

    Could you share a video of the steps that broke Lightroom Classic? 

     

    Awaiting hearing from you.
    Thanks!

    Sameer K
    (Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

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