Cannot access catalogue because "it is being used by another process?"

[keiththompson]

My Lightroom has become unusuable because when I attempt to open it I get the message " The process cannot access the folder because it is being used by another process." I have run out of solutions. I am running Windows 11.

[dj_paige]

This seems to have been fixed for Mac users https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-mac-ventura-known-issues-please-read-... but I don't know what is happening on a Windows 11 machine. @Rikk Flohr: Photography do you have any ideas about this?

[John R Ellis]

@keiththompson, ensure you've got the latest version, LR 12.0.1, by doing the LR menu command Help > System Info.

Also, try the troubleshooting steps here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/lightroom-error-catalog-cannot-be-opened-lrcat-lock.htm...

The error message you quoted doesn't match the error message in that help article precisely, but the steps are quick to follow, so let's rule it out.

[dj_paige]

I assume that the same person posted this, which shows the exact same error message as in the Mac case, but he has a Windows computer

Later in that thread, he says Adobe tech support took over his computer and fixed the problem, but gave no hint (so far) as to what the solution was. Perhaps Adobe Tech support has logs of who called and what they did.

[keiththompson]

The tech essentially did the steps outlined in this link:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-error-message-failed-to-initialize-pi...

[George_F]

I used to get this with a cloud backup service.  I had to exclude the folder the catalog lives to keep this from happening.  With the catalog being constantly updated from Lightroom, my cloud backup was constantly trying to re-upload the file.  I do make sure the catalog backups are set to upload.

I would make sure no other programs are accessing the file for any backup/catalog/indexing/mirroring processes.  You could try running Windows in safe mode as a way to troubleshoot.