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geegee_8790
Participant
October 3, 2025
Answered

Previews disappeared, new previews will not generate

  • October 3, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 469 views

So randomly this week my standard image previews disappeared. Consistent advice was they were corrupt, delete the folder and generate new ones. 

I ran Lightroom all night to generate new standard perviews, and nothing. Progress bar didn't move for 12 hrs. Generating Smart Previews progress bar completed but nothing showed.

 

Tried importing images with the "embedded and sidecar" build previews option like normal and it gets stuck and will not generate new previews. When I try and close Lightroom and back up the catalog, it gets stuck on preview section and will not close. For context, all files are stored and backed up in SharePoint. It's my first time using cloud storage with Lightroom and unsure how or if that factors here. 

Correct answer geegee_8790

Did you reset the preferences?


I did but nothing. Just got it to work and unsure how or why. I downloaded the catalog file folder from SharePoint, and then transferred it to an external drive. Raw files are still in SharePoint, and the catalog is on an external drive and now all the preview images are back, and load very very fast. Unsure what happened that having it on cloud stopped working tho

2 replies

dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
October 3, 2025

Please state the exact version NUMBER of your Lightroom Classic. Please state the exact version NUMBER of your operating system. We need the version NUMBERs and not words like "latest" or "up-to-date".

 

Have you tried re-starting your computer?

 

Also, you might want to try resetting preferences. https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-do-i-reset-lightrooms-preferences/

G
geegee_8790Author
Participant
October 3, 2025

I'm using Lightroom Classic 14 . 5 . 1

MAC OS M3 Tahoe 26.0

 

Yep, restarted the laptop, but nothings changed or working differently. If I have "optiomize catalog after backing up" enabled, it just buffers in the progress bar for ever and have to force quit to close. 

dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
October 3, 2025

Did you reset the preferences?

dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
October 3, 2025

In the Lightroom Classic Library module, are there exclamation point icons (like in Figure 2 here) on the photos? 

 

Have you moved anything using your operating system or other (non-Lightroom Classic) software just before this happened?


Regarding the advice that the previews were corrupt, I am skeptical. That wouldn not cause the abvsence of standard image previews, but it might cause the previews to appear corrupted or the wrong preview appears for a photo.

G
geegee_8790Author
Participant
October 3, 2025

Hey, nope did nothing, moved nothing. I have all the files and when I go into develop mode, i can see the picture but in library mode they just look like this. 

L
liquidchango
Participant
November 17, 2025


Same is hapening to me. Have a Mac M3 running OS 26.1  Updated LR to 15.0.1  Ehen importing Images from a folder in external HD to Lightroom the "Generating Standard Previews" process just get stucked and does nothing.  I had to close LR and re open it. The images were there but I am uncertain about the integrity of this process now.  I don't want to loose any of my work.  If this is not fixed urgently I will migrate to other platform.

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