Skip to main content
anthonyhibbert
Known Participant
Jan 2, 2024 3:21 PM UTC
Question

Lightroom crashing every time open. Huge memory leaks without even starting to use app.

Whenever I open Lightroom on Macos (Mac Studio M1 Ultra and MBPro Intel /Late 2019) the memory use rises very quickly (to 90GB+) until it freezes and crashes/freezes often requiring a reboot. I'm on latest Sonoma but this occurred before upgrading. Have tried updates when available with no effect. Have uninstalled/reinstalled and exact same thing happens.

 

I regularly use Lightroom on iPhone and iPad with no issues at all.

 

Am I missing something? It's totally unusable. Help appreciated Thanks.

    8 replies

    adaml60096233
    adaml60096233
    Known Participant
    Nov 18, 2024 4:44 AM UTC

    This is happening to me as well for over a year with no fixes. Kind of mind-boggling. Just got a new M4 iMac and can confirm it happens there too. See https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-ecosystem-cloud-based-discussions/memory-leak-crash-on-m1-macs/m-p/14240850

    Translate
    anthonyhibbertAuthor
    Known Participant
    Aug 15, 2025 2:20 PM UTC

    Did you ever get any further with fixing this? I wasted so much time with Adobe support and it stil doesn't work.

    Translate
    adaml60096233
    adaml60096233
    Known Participant
    Aug 15, 2025 2:30 PM UTC

    It just spontaneously stopped happening with later versions of Lightroom, so it's been working for me lately. They seem to have fixed the bug silently. There was never any acknowledgement of it, however. 

    Translate
    anthonyhibbertAuthor
    Known Participant
    May 12, 2024 9:28 PM UTC

    Has anyone at Adobe acknowledged this at all? it's been months since I first posted this and I still can't use the app on desktop. What am I paying for when I can't even get a response?

     

    If this were to happen with After Effects or Photosop I literally would not be able to do my job.

    Translate
      Clark Addison
      Participant
      Mar 6, 2024 4:43 PM UTC

      I'm having the same problem. Imac M3, 24g of RAM. Whenever I open LR Classic, it freezes. The only workaround is to reboot the computer. I'm running the latest OS and the latest version of LRC. 

      Translate
        GAntico
        GAntico
        Participant
        Jan 2, 2024 6:38 PM UTC

        I'm afraid you can't do anything other then waiting and pray for a quick update fixing the bug.

        I have the very same problem on a Mac with 64GB of ram and at least 50GB free. It's definitely a huge bug in Lightroom.

         

        My config:
        CPU: M3 Max
        RAM: 64GB
        OS: Sonoma 14.2.1
        SW: Lightroom 7.1.2

        Available free RAM: 52GB

         

        Before opening Lightroom, I have more then 50GB of RAM available. A couple of minutes after opening Lightroom I get the error message "Your system has run out of application memory" and I have to force quit it.

        Lightroom Classic works great, all the other apps from Adobe work great, (including the most demanding ones like After Effects and PremierePro), only Lightroom has this issue. 

        All the general advices about memory management doesn't fix the problem, there's a critical bug with Lightroom consuming more then 50GB without doing anything. I have a very small library in Lightroom, since I work mainly with LR Classic...

         

         

        Translate
          anthonyhibbertAuthor
          Known Participant
          Jan 3, 2024 9:57 AM UTC

          Thanks for the reponse. Pretty terrible from Adobe but at least I can stop wasting time trying to fix and just keep an eye out for a fix now.

          Translate
            Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
            Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices