P: LrC 12.2.1 fails to start/launch or is extremely slow launching.

[Micke, Finland]

Hi,

LRC 12.2.1 is not starting anymore, just launches as a background process using significant amounts of RAM and CPU, but the visible window never shows up. 

I have already:

- Tried the alt-shift-click thingie.

- Tried logging out and in from CC.

- Wiping all data files from the computer and letting LRC create a fresh Lightroom folder and catalog file (sometimes it does that, sometimes it hangs before the folder is created). 

- Wiping all Adobe products with the cleaner tool and reinstalling just LRC.

- I have even formatted and reisntalled the computer (becuase it was a good time to do that anyway).

But LRC still fails. What to do next?

Edition Windows 10 Pro
Version 22H2
Installed on ‎17.‎03.‎2023
OS build 19045.2728
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.4190.0

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Thank you for the report. I will forward to the team for review.

[sredline]

Several threads going on this and I have yet to see Adobe say anything, tried all the fixes and nothing works.  Had support on 3 different times spending at least 2 hours each, stripping down everything and rebuilding.  First they blamed MS One Drive which I dont use then they said something do do with user account so I started operating off a different user which initially worked, spent hours rebuilidng my catalog and now back to the same issue.  They just keep making the product worse.!!!!

[sredline]

Yeah i spent the last two days rebuilding my catalog and now back to same problem and will not launch, as I suspected would happen as the root of the problem is not being addressed.  With this many threads going on this issue it is amazing that Adobe is not responding, or is this par for the course?

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

The team is evaluating the threads for commonality and failure mode. 

To date, we've been unable to reproduce this failure in house and, so far no one has provided us with reproduction instructions. 

I pulled up six separate threads to show the team (there is a lot of overlap between the thread participants) and found 2 of the threads are marked fixed by the original posters. 

If you are afflicted with the slow launch prudent steps to take, in this order are to:

• Restart your computer
• Perform a clean reinstall of Lightroom Classic (instructions below)
•  Perform a preference file reset (instructions below and needs to be done after step 2)
•  Restart in Safe Mode - Launch Lightroom - Close - restart in normal mode
•  Create a test Windows User Account  with Admin premissions - Launch Lightroom -  Close - restart with original WUA.
  
  You should perform each test and then attempt to launch Lightroom Classic. If none of these address the issue, then we will need to await engineering's response. 
  
  FWIW, I have three Windows machines in my office and they all behave normally. Lack of reproducible cases is driving the delay. 
  
  As promised above: 
  
  Clean Lightroom Install Procedure
• Close Lightroom
• Restart the computer
• Use the Adobe Creative Cloud App to uninstall Lightroom
• Restart the computer
• Install Lightroom via the Creative Cloud App without launching any other programs.
• Restart the computer
• Launch Lightroom
• Wait 5 minutes

Preference File:

This procedure works for both Lightroom Classic and Lightroom Desktop.

If you are using Lightroom Desktop it can change the location of your local storage. Please review this setting after resetting preferences. 

Reset Procedure:

1. Close Lightroom.

2. Hold down [Alt/Opt]+[Shift] while restarting Lightroom.

3. Overwrite the Preferences when prompted by the dialog.

4. Close Lightroom.

5. Restart Lightroom.

Please report back when you've completed the tests if you are not working normally yet. 

Thank you for your patience!

[GoldingD]

Where do you keep your catalog? A hard drive, or a NAS, or the Cloud?

[Wurstkrapfen]

My slow start-up fixed itself after 2 days magically as it appeared.

But after that, my sync stopped working (it worked during the slow start issue), I could provide sync logs if anyone could make anything of those?

[Micke, Finland]

Thanks for your reply.

I had however already done all of that before posting, some things several times. And given LRC a lot more than 5 minutes to get its act together. I downdgraded to 12.1, restored my files and disabled all automatic upgrade functions. Works, so I'm going to stick to 12.1 for the time being.

Mike

[Wurstkrapfen]

That's a good point, I should have a backup from before the update.

[Micke, Finland]

Hi,

Just to be clear. 12.2.1 did not corrupt anything for me. I had removed all LRC data just to make sure the failure was caused by buggy software and not by some currupted data file. Therefore I had to restore, others should not need that.

Mike  

[jrsforums]

This just hit me last night.  Tried Rikk's procedure (before I say it), plus tried uninstalling all Adobe products plus cloud app....no good.  Finally, uninstalled again plus made sure ALL 'user' (windows) data was removed to ensure clean install.  That finally fixed.  Now I need to get everything back to working order....

BTW....I think a possible cause, on my end, might have been an update to Nvidia studio driver that hung up...not sure.  However, soon after I started having extremely slow start up....which I initially thought was not starting at all until I finally let sit for 5-10 minutes.

[sethbphotog]

Hello Rikk -

Like many on this forum, I have had issues running LrCC 12.2.1 beginning yesterday on Win11.  I can revert all the way back to CC 11.5 without issue, none of the 12.x versions boot.  In order to get back to CC 12.2.1 I have spent hours, followed all of your steps in order and only after the final step, am I able to run 12.2.1 - but as a test admin user.  While this will at least allow me to return to client work today, this is not what I want to do going forward.  What are your suggestions?  Thanks in advance, Seth

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9700 CPU @ 3.00GHz 3.00 GHz
Installed RAM 32.0 GB (31.9 GB usable)  Edition Windows 11 Home  Version 22H2
Installed on ‎3/‎5/‎2023
OS build 22621.1413  Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22639.1000.0

[bmh-images]

+1

Although I have to admit my money is on an Apple problem now (maybe I am too jumpy, but out of geb blue Safari shows similar symptoms for about an hour now).

Anyone else have that too?

[bmh-images]

Disregard that. I really was too jumpy. Sorry.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Thank you for the update. I've passed your comments on to the engineers.

Without more information, it feels like there is an incompatibility with something in your primary Windows User Account that is interfering with LrC.  If you can, work in your test WUA until our team can take a look at the new data. We may need some data logs from a couple of afflicted customers since we can't repro this in-house but I will wait for the team to respond.

Thanks for going through the steps. 

[Patricia193864717ld4]

I am having the same issue.  Opens to splash screen then I get the spinning wheel and I have to force quit lightroom.  I also tried all the above to no avail.  Help please!

My photoshop opens with no problem this is weird, right?

[jrsforums]

I have not changed my WUA….nor quite sure how changing it would affect my
network backup activity.

I forgot to mention that in all cases of uninstalling, I used the Adobe
cleanup up tool. In the last instance, which seems to have worked for 1/2
day so far, I used option 1 (All). None of the uses of clean up seemed to
clear all the items in ‘ clean User’ area..not sure it it should, but I
deleted everything in that last case….selectively copying back items later.

[sethbphotog]

Hello again -

I am happy to report that I am once again able to use CC with my everyday (non-temp) WUA. Earlier today, LR had been left running invisibly as a non-booting background task visible only in task manager.  After about 30 minutes idling, CC suddenly opened on screen - wait!what? Yes, it was back to normal for my system.

Note that I had moved the catalog earlier in the day to a fresh disk and gone through all of the above suggested steps.  But this was the 1st time in 2 days that LRCC booted up relatively normally.  I worked in LR for around 30 minutes rebuilding my catalog, preferences, etc, then closed it, rebooted the PC and voila, it now boots as if we never had these conversations or problems.  Strange behavior, and perhaps LR was doing some DB rebuilding in the background,  but I'll take the outcome after 1+1/2 wasted days. I am hoping this problematic situation is now behind me.

I still LOVE working within LRCC so thanks to all of the suggestions from the forum to help get me back on track.

Cheers, Seth

[mjt1316]

Hey. I'm a Mac user,. Been using LrC without any issues since 2018. Upgraded to 12.1.1 and then Ventura. Today, it ,ocked up first thing. Having reset the preferences and unzipped the backup I made a couple of days ago (when I last used it) I managed to get LrC open again. I've saved and backed up a couple of times since. I have this weird "folders with ?" on the left but my pictures seem to be ther and I can edit them. 

[jrsforums]

This is a different problem.  Suggest you start a new thread.

[Torsten28833205he7a]

Hello, I have logged on to the Mac with another user account - it is not the admin account, which I use regularly and it does not work there. LRC can be started, but I cannot synchronise with my database.

[xevigut]

Gehen Sie in den Ordner, in dem Sie den Katalog haben, und wenn Sie Dateien sehen, die auf .lrcat.lock, .lrcat-wal, .lrcat-shm enden, löschen Sie sie

[johnrellis]

[See here for the complete list of steps for working around this issue:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-lrc-12-2-1-fails-to-start-launch-or-is-extre... ]

"Ed" in the Lightroom Queen forum discovered that deleting this file on Mac cured his LR hanging on startup:

/Users/<username>/Library/Caches/Adobe/Lightroom/metrics.json

That file appears to record usage data that gets sent back to Adobe. So you might try exiting LR, deleting that file, and restarting LR:

Mac: /Users/<username>/Library/Caches/Adobe/Lightroom/metrics.json

Win: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Adobe\Lightroom\Caches\metrics.json 

If that avoids the problem, then consider disabling the Desktop App Usage option: Do the LR menu item Help > Manage My Account, then go to Edit Profile > Privacy And Personal Data, and disable the option Desktop App Usage > Share Information On How I Use Adobe Desktop Apps.

For a day or so, my LR had been very slow to start, and deleting that file seemed to cure it (though there were other things changing at the same time, so that may be correlation and not cause).

[johnrellis]

Try this, which worked for one person on Mac recently:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/lrc-12-2-1-fails-to-start-on-windows/m-...

Let us know whether it helps.

[Paul29053508h9hz]

Just today I have the same, or similar problem.  Win11 and LRCv12.2.1 - it simply won't run giving a missing .dll as a cause (mfc140u.dll).  I've unistalled, reinstalled, no joy, still refusing to run and out of ideas.  I expect my catalog, settings and whatever else is all foobar'd by now.  Really hacked off...

[GoldingD]

"If that avoids the problem, then consider disabling the Desktop App Usage option."

So, that last bit, that would be this?