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Richard Makower
Participant
June 18, 2026
Question

Lightroom Classic "not responding" on startup on Mac

  • June 18, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 10 views

I keep having trouble when starting Lightroom Classic.  It hangs withg the spinning circle and I have to Force Quit.  I can usually get it going, eventually, by going through the routine of Shift+Option start to reset preferences.  If that does not work I do an Option restart and check the box to check catalogue integrity (which can take some time).  If these fail then I reboot the Mac, and sometimes have to repeat the above before LR will open properly.

This is on a New MacBook Pro with M5 chip, 32GB Memory and 4TB SSD running Tahoe 26.4.1.  It was happening before upgrading to this version of MacOS.  LR is on version 15.3.1 (LR Classic)

Does anyone know how to stop this happening almost all the time?

 

Hopefully, Richard

    1 reply

    Sameer K
    Community Manager
    Sameer KCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    June 18, 2026

    Hey, @Richard Makower. Welcome to the Lightroom Community. I'll move your post to Lightroom Classic.

    Lightroom Classic v15.4 is now available via the Creative Cloud desktop app. Where do you keep your Lightroom Classic catalog? Do you frequently work with multiple catalogs?


    Has this started to happen since a recent update? As a test, create a new catalog and check how it goes.


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

    R
    Richard MakowerAuthor
    Participant
    June 18, 2026

    thanks ​@Sameer K 

    The lightroom catalogue is on the Laptop’s native hard drive and has not been moved.  Photos are largely on an external drive.

    LR is used with a single catalogue

    The MacBook is new but initially there were no issues.  Updates are automatic so I am not aware whether that might have been the trigger.

    I did have to merge the catalogue with an older one. ( I updated the old one to LR 15 format before merging).  Again I am not sure if that triggered the issue.

    In creating a newe catalogue do you mean a limited one or a full catalogue of all images?

     

    Thanks

     

    Richard

     

    In creating a new catalogue

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