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dpdp
Participant
July 15, 2025
Answered

Black borders in full screen on MacOS

  • July 15, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 1693 views

There are black bars on the left and right of the screen when LR Classic is in full screen.

It is reproducible when showing single photo in ful screen, or LR itself is in full screen. Please see attached screenshots of the both cases on 2022 M2 13" MacBook Air running latest MacOS 15.5 with latest LRC 14.4.

 

In order to make it more prominent, it is maximum brightness of the screen and increased brigness of the photos to distinguish between physical screen border (which is completely black) and the LR artifacts. Also note the small triangle in the bottom of the screen of LR in full-screen node.

 

P.S. I tried to reset preferences, it did not help.

Correct answer Conrad_C

OK. It helps a lot that your movies show the entire screen, because those include an important clue: You have a Mac laptop with a camera notch.

 

That clue tells us that what you are seeing is probably completely normal, and is not related to Lightroom Classic specifically…it’s probably controlled by a macOS option that you can change for most Mac apps. If this turns out to be the case, no troubleshooting is needed because it’s working as expected.

 

The short answer is, toggle the option “Scale to Fit Below Built-In Camera,” which you set in the macOS Finder, in the Get Info window that opens after you select an application icon (in this case, Lightroom Classic) and choose File > Get Info.

 

Apple provides this option so that an app can display full screen without the notch intruding on the image. Based on your videos, it looks like that option is enabled on your Mac. If you want an application to use all of the panel’s pixels (all the way to the top), disable that option, but that will cause the notch to be visible in full screen modes. There’s no right or wrong way to set this option, set it the way you prefer it.

 

For more details and a screen shot, read the post I made on this subject in 2022…

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/lr-on-new-14-quot-macbook-pro-not-using-all-screen-real-estate/m-p/12630259#M258828

 

2 replies

Conrad_C
Community Expert
Conrad_CCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
July 15, 2025

OK. It helps a lot that your movies show the entire screen, because those include an important clue: You have a Mac laptop with a camera notch.

 

That clue tells us that what you are seeing is probably completely normal, and is not related to Lightroom Classic specifically…it’s probably controlled by a macOS option that you can change for most Mac apps. If this turns out to be the case, no troubleshooting is needed because it’s working as expected.

 

The short answer is, toggle the option “Scale to Fit Below Built-In Camera,” which you set in the macOS Finder, in the Get Info window that opens after you select an application icon (in this case, Lightroom Classic) and choose File > Get Info.

 

Apple provides this option so that an app can display full screen without the notch intruding on the image. Based on your videos, it looks like that option is enabled on your Mac. If you want an application to use all of the panel’s pixels (all the way to the top), disable that option, but that will cause the notch to be visible in full screen modes. There’s no right or wrong way to set this option, set it the way you prefer it.

 

For more details and a screen shot, read the post I made on this subject in 2022…

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/lr-on-new-14-quot-macbook-pro-not-using-all-screen-real-estate/m-p/12630259#M258828

 

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dpdpAuthor
Participant
July 15, 2025

Thank you very much for you answer! Unchecking "Scale to Fit Below Built-In Camera" checkbox indeed resolves the issue!

Although, I cannot agree this is expected behavior - all other applications fully utilize available screen. They may choose not to display fullscreen items in the top bar (where the notch is), but none of them chooses to cut screen on the sides for no valid reason.

Examples of such expected behavior is a standard MacOS apps, like Photos, Quicktime, Maps and even Microsoft Remote Desktop (Windows).

Conrad_C
Community Expert
Conrad_CCommunity Expert
Community Expert
July 15, 2025

I just tried it out in other apps, and I think you’re right, I never looked at it that closely before, I only looked at the top edge. But as you said, when that macOS Scale to Fit Below…” option is enabled, other apps do not pull in the sides. Only Lightroom Classic does.

 

So other Mac apps only scale vertically for that option, but for some weird reason Lightroom Classic scales in both dimensions, taking less advantage of the available horizontal screen area.

 

To Adobe (@Claire H. ) — the author of this thread (dpdp) is describing a verifiable inconsistency between Lightroom Classic behavior and expected macOS behavior, in case you pass that on to the product team.

Claire H.
Community Manager
Claire H.Community Manager
Community Manager
July 15, 2025

Hi @dpdp, Welcome to the Lightroom Classic Community Forums, and thanks for reaching out! Let's try a few things to fix the issue you're experiencing:

1. Disable GPU Acceleration: Go to Preferences > Performance and uncheck "Use Graphics Processor." Restart Lightroom and test again. https://adobe.ly/4eUxnPS

2. Adjust Display Scaling: In System Settings > Displays, set the resolution to "Default for Display" or try a different scaling option.

3. Switch Full-Screen Modes: Try both app full-screen (Control + Command + F) and photo full-screen (F key) to see if the issue appears in both.

4. Test on External Display: Connect an external monitor to check if the issue is limited to the built-in screen.

If the issue continues, please let me know, and we can try something else. I hope this helps! ^CH

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dpdpAuthor
Participant
July 15, 2025

Hi @Claire H., thank you for your reply, I tried the actions mentioned, here are the results:

1. Problem still persists

2. Resolution is already set to "default" and problem persists for other resolutions

3. Problem persists in both cases - original post has photos of both modes of LRC

4. On extenal display there is NO problem, all is good.

Claire H.
Community Manager
Claire H.Community Manager
Community Manager
July 15, 2025

@dpdp, Thanks for testing those steps and sharing the results! Since the issue does not occur on an external display, it appears to be specific to how Lightroom Classic interacts with the built-in display on macOS 15.5. Check for macOS and Lightroom Updates: Ensure both macOS and Lightroom Classic are up to date. Minor updates sometimes address display-related bugs.

If everything is up to date, we would like a few more details to better help you with this issue. Can you send your system info, a screen recording of your issue, and a numbered list of the exact steps needed to replicate the issue? You can find your system info by going to Help > System Info, copying and pasting it into a text file, and attaching it here. Thanks! ^CH

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