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Antoni Rybaczyk
Participating Frequently
Feb 19, 2023 1:16 PM UTC
Question

Lightroom Downloader "initializing download" for hours

I have 2.7TB of photos to download for backup.

I launched the Lightroom Downloader, it found 150k photos, 1k videos.

I began "download" and left it for the night. In the morning it was still @ "initializing download..." stage and nothing showed up on my drive. App suggests that something is being downloaded but I am not sure if it is correct. I've attached recording of the screen.

 

Can someone confirm if this is how it should look like and all I need is wait another week or so for it to finish?

 

Thanks.

13 replies

jschulte09
Participant
Oct 21, 2025 5:38 AM UTC

Hi all. Having the same problem here. I have deleted and reinstalled the application >3 times and also restarted my computer. I am able to log in fine, but when I click download, it goes into this endless "Initializing Download" cycle and looks exactly the same as in Antoni's video above. Has anyone found a solution?

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clausg18581747
Participant
Jan 5, 2024 7:44 PM UTC

Same problems here. 
I let the downloader "initialize " for 3 days and have 0 files downloaded. 
Hi there,
Details are in this post 

 

It seems that Adobe has no real tool to get the files out of the cloud. Did anyone succesfully used the Lightroom Download for Libraries > 500GB?

 

regards, Claus

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Antoni RybaczykAuthor
Participating Frequently
Jan 6, 2024 10:27 AM UTC

Hi Claus

 

i managed to do it after reinstalling the downloader.

 

 Basically if there is no progress after 5-10min you can restart it - when it works, you pretty immediately see the number of downloaded images.

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Chaz O'Berry
Chaz O'Berry
Participant
Jun 7, 2023 6:58 PM UTC

Hey there Antoni, I have the exact same problem as I'm trying to download 340 Go of photos. It keeps on initilizing all night all day without actually doing anything. As there no other way to transfer content to another adobe account, I really need this to work. Let me know if you have found a solution. 

Cheers!

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    Antoni RybaczykAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    Jan 6, 2024 10:25 AM UTC

    Hi sorry I only saw your question now.

     

     It worked after reinstalling the downloader.

     

     If you don't see progress within 5-10min it means you can restart.

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      Rikk Flohr-Retired
      Adobe Employee
      Rikk Flohr-Retired
      Feb 19, 2023 1:53 PM UTC

      If it hasn't started by now, I would recommend canceling the downloader, restarting your computer and then beginning the download again. Let me know how your progress goes. I would give it overnight to run and show progress. 

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      Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org
      Antoni RybaczykAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      Feb 19, 2023 1:58 PM UTC

      That's exactly what I did and actually the attached screen recording is from the second attempt after the restart. I've left it for now and will leave it for the night. I'll reply again tomorrow. 

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      Rikk Flohr-Retired
      Adobe Employee
      Rikk Flohr-Retired
      Feb 19, 2023 2:06 PM UTC

      Thank you. I will await tomorrow's report.

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      Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org
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