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Huxley5CC4
Known Participant
February 4, 2026
Question

Lightroom Desktop on macOS freezes & crashes at launch and export

  • February 4, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 0 views

Hello Adobe team,

 

I’ve been suffering with frequent crashes of Lightroom (aka Lightroom CC, but NOT Lightroom Classic) since November. 

 

I had a busy / active forum thread going but it has apparently been made unavailable ~8 days ago when you re-launched the Community site, which is very frustrating. This was the link to the thread - perhaps you can see it still?

 

Summary: I am using Lightroom 9.1 (aka Lightroom CC, *NOT* Lightroom Classic) on my MacBook Pro (M4 Max CPU, 48GB RAM, macOS Tahoe 26.2). 

 

Sometime around November, the app began freezing with a pinwheel cursor while doing routine activities: editing a photo, exporting pics, or even just being left open but in the background. Attempting to quit Lightroom puts it into a pinwheel freeze 90% of the time.

 

I’ve submitted dozens of crash reports, hopefully you can see them (they’re linked to my Adobe account). I also have two fresh log outputs from today (a Console crash report and a Lightroom Diagnostic log) which I’m happy to share if requested.

 

I’ve had the same issues whether I run Lightroom as Apple Silicon-native or via Rosetta emulation. I’ve also done a complete uninstallation (including preferences and my full local library) and reinstalled multiple times, but the issues come back very quickly.

 

I’m utterly beyond frustrated at this point. I’ve been paying for my Adobe account and unable to use Lightroom for months, and going in circles with your chat support reps is making me lose my mind. If anyone else asks me if I’ve tried rebooting, I might throw my laptop out the nearest window.

 

Please, I’m begging you for help getting this resolved.

    1 reply

    Sameer K
    Community Manager
    Sameer KCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    February 4, 2026

    Hey, ​@Huxley5CC4. Thanks for creating this new thread. In one of my last responses on our previous thread, I shared that the team is actively monitoring this conversation. 

    We request that you share a Sample Process log from the Activity Monitor on macOS. It is recommended that you try creating the Sample Process closer to when Lightroom starts to freeze.

    Follow the steps here, or as mentioned below: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/how-to-get-a-process-sample-or-spindump.html 

    1. Open Activity Monitor
    2. Launch Lightroom
    3. Select Lightroom in Activity Monitor
    4. Select “Sample Process”. In the Activity Monitor’s Menu bar, select View -> Sample Process
    5. Save the file and send it to us here, or via direct message from my profile. 

    Additionally, do you notice an abnormal RAM usage spike? You can monitor that in the Activity Monitor as well. 

     

    Thanks!
    Sameer K

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