P: Export large Sequences via simple custom export plugin crashes Lightroom 11.4

[Gunther Wegner]

This issue was reported to me by multiple LRTimelapse users that use my LRTExport Lightroom Plugin to export their timelapses.

Symptom: Exporting sequences of multiple thousand images via a custom export plugin consistantly makes Lightroom Classic 11.4 (and later prereleases) crash. This happens on Windows and Mac machines.

There is no problem, with shorter sequences of several hundreds of images, as it appears.

I could reproduce the reports from my users on my machine (Windows 10), latest NVidia drivers, etc.

To exclude the chance of any programming errors in my rather complex LRTExport plugin, I coded a very simple, basic custom export plugin. This simple plugin, also crashes when used to export several thousand images, you can use it to reproduce the issue:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4om4748izdlaw1y/Gunther_Wegner_SimpleExport.lrplugin.zip?dl=1

The more images I export, the faster and more often the crash happens. With 4000 images for example, often after 10 images Lightroom closes. In some cases it sends a crash report (which I submitted under my info(at)LRTimelapse email address) in some cases it just closes.

Another scenario that I observed a couple of times is that the plugin stops logging and updating the progressbar but the export actually continues in background (filling up the export folder). Then obviously you also can't stop the export via the X button.

I can reproduce these issues in 100% of all cases when exporting several thousand images.

I went back to Lightroom Classic 11.3.1, where everything works fine in the same scenario.

I already spent two days in analyzing this issue and I'm willing to help to provide more information, if I can. It is very important for the timelapse community that this issue gets resolved asap!

Thank you in advance,

Gunther Wegner

LRTimelapse.com

[gian luca burini]

The disk of the catalog is the C with 290 gb of free space which is more than 25% which would be 125 gb. and in any case in all previous versions of lightroom but had this problem. tanks

[kathy@organizedimages]

I do not use this particular plugin, but I have recently experienced repeated crashes when attempting to export large numbers of photos (over 1000) using both Jeffrey Friedl's Folder Publisher and another called LRTreeExporter. I cannot get it to run to completion. My hard drive had filled up before I realized that the export process was leaving a folder in a Temp directory (Windows - appdata > local > temp) that still contained large numbers of photos that were part of the export process. I did notice that it never contained the full set of photos, it crashed well before then but the number of files varied. If I target smaller groupings of photos, I typically do not have a problem and the process completes successfully. My crashing never results in any type of dialog box from LrC, it's just gone. 

[Gunther Wegner]

Hi Kathy,
That correlates exactly with my experiences. It seems to affect all export
plugins.
Let's hope that Adobe will fix this soon.

Best
Gunther

[willthisnamedo]

Issue: 

• Lightroom Classic Version Number: 11.4.1
• OS Version Number: Windows 10
  

Steps to reproduce:

1. ...Import 4000 CR3 raw files
   
2. ...Rename them to a preferred order
   
3. ...Export all to another drive as compressed DNG without previews (internal SSD or external) HDD)
   
4. Lightroom shuts down part way through the export.

Expected result: Export to complete
Actual result: Lightroom shuts down

This is a serious issue for me as it's part of my backup process. Finding out that not all of the files are backed up puts the clients image security at risk.

[Bill Sprague]

I don't know the answer.  But, do you have enough disc space?  What happens if you do it 1000 at a time?  Could there be a corrupted image file in there somewhere?

[willthisnamedo]

Hi Bill,

These are either 4tb drives or 2tb ssd's with a massive amount of free space. I've had no issues like this for over 2 years since I started using my current setup. 11.4.x is where things started to go wrong so I'm open to point at my hardware but think it unlikely.

This is with the same two cameras, and sets of cards. There's no issues importing the files or reading them. It could be due to the GPU acceleration but I'm sure it's a bug and not hardware related (imho). Nothing has changed here to cause this. It could even be an issue with ACR.

That the program itself shuts down suggests something bigger is at play, like it gets stuck and crashes. I walk away after starting the export and I find only 35% of the files have been converted.

There's other bugs but those have been reported elsewhere. 11.4.1 is better than 11.4.0 but some issues are still present.

[GoldingD]

Where do you keep your catalog, what drive? On that drive, how much free space exists , in percent? And I do mean percent. Needs to at least 25%some say 20%.

[willthisnamedo]

The catalog is kept on a 2tb SSD which has 50% free. Every edit has a new catalog.

It's been this way for two years. The problem started with 11.4.1

Also worth mentioning as I just realised I didn't put it in the original post, my wife on a seperate machine on a different setup has the same problem. We're both wedding photographers. Different businesses, different workflows and machines.

[Bill Sprague]

Can you try a 1000 at a time, not 4000?  It could be as simple as one corrupted image file.  Maybe an SD card is aging.   You are right, it could be a bug.  But it could be something else hard to find.  If I could figure out a way to come up with 4000 similar images I would try to duplicate the error!

[johnrellis]

A number of people have reported that exporting thousands of images at a time can crash LR 11.4 and 11.4.1, with and without using an export plugin:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-export-large-sequences-via-simple-custom-exp...

Are you asked to submit a crash report to Adobe?  If so, submit it with the email address associated with your Adobe login to Adobe can find it.

[johnrellis]

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography, please merge with this existing bug report:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-export-large-sequences-via-simple-custom-exp...

Note that a couple of people in that thread report the problem when not using an export plugin.

[johnrellis]

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography, 

please merge with this existing bug report:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-export-large-sequences-via-simple-custom-exp...

Note that a couple of people in that thread report the problem when not using an export plugin.

[willthisnamedo]

Hi John,

There isn't an option in the software to report the problem as lightroom sdoesn't report it as a crash, just closes. All I know to do is submit it as a bug here.

[johnrellis]

"There isn't an option in the software to report the problem as lightroom sdoesn't report it as a crash, just closes."

Someone in the other thread reported the same thing. Adobe has marked that bug report as "Investigating".

[gian luca burini]

Lightroom classic quits when exporting many files, without generating any errors. Intel I7 PC with 64gbram hard disck c MM2 500gb Free 290 secondary ssd disks.

[gian luca burini]

versione 11.4.1

[cgtway]

Yet another member of the global timelapse community here. Like many who have chimed in, I am a professional timelapse photographer. Lightroom and LRTimelapse form the core of my post-processing workflow, and this export bug is crippling.

I only found this thread today, having already spent at least 40 hours trying to solve the problem at my end, thinking that it was my own hardware/software/OS that was the root of the problem. Downgrading LR means I can finally get back to work.

I sure hope that this bug gets fixed soon, please!

[mathiasrh]

I can confirm this issue on my computer as well. Exporting 1000 images and more is not possible in 11.4.1. Downgrading to 11.3.1 helps. 

Please fix this issue asap.

[Bas_Timewriters]

I can confirm the issue on several PC's. Reverted back to 11.3 and no problems at all.

[gian luca burini]

How do I revert to version 11.3?

[johnrellis]

"How do I revert to version 11.3?"

See this article: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/roll-back-update-previous/

[OlivierA]

Same issue here:
3700 images export (LR Classic 11.4.1, LRTimelapse 6.0.6) hangs after 4 images. LR crashes after sometime (30-45 minutes).

Reverting to LR Classic11.3.1 "fixes" the problem.

Windows 10 Professionnel 64-bit (21H2)
Intel Core i7 5930K @ 3.50GHz
64,0 Go DDR4 @ 1199MHz (15-15-15-35)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980

[cgtway]

Arrgh, how do I prevent Lightroom from automatically updating? I downgraded to 11.3.1 to solve the export problem and last night I set up renders of 29,000 photos (several timelapse sequences), only to find that only 3 images had rendered this morning. Checked the LR version and, yep, it was 11.4.1. What a waste of my time. 

[cgtway]

Just checked: LR Classic was set to not autoupdate in Adobe Creative Cloud preferences, so I'm not sure why it updated. I've now turned off updating for all Adobe programs, hopefully this prevents this maddening problem from reoccuring.

[willthisnamedo]

Hi Rikk,

Any update on this please? It's been a month.

Thanks,

Chris