Cannot startup Lightroom Classic even after reinstalling

[ZaneF]

Hello,

I've been having trouble booting up LrC version 14.1.1. When opening from start menu, desktop shortcut, or CC, LrC does not open a window. When opening Task Manager, it shows LrC running and using resources, but there is no visible window open. I have tried ending the task in Task Manager, rebooting, and even uninstalling/reinstalling LrC through CC. I don't recall any specific changes made that would have caused this, as I tried opening my Catalog one day and it suddenly appeared with this issue. Any help in understanding what is going on would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

[GoldingD]

Please share a screenshot of the file contents of the folder your catalog is in

[Raj_Hasmi7997]

The download lightroom classic

[AxelMatt]

If you've checked that there's no .lock file as @GoldingD wrote try to reset Lightroom Classic's/ Lightroom Desktop preferences. Preferences are immune to an uninstall/reinstall.

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.

[Fritillary]

I'm having same problem as ZaneF But I see there IS a lock file. what do I do with that?

 

[KR Seals]

Delete the .lock file.

[GoldingD]

What lock file, I do not see it in that screenshot. Is it lower down? But what is with that first file? PS icon, but LrC file, and a description of lock file but no file extension indicating such??

Ahhh, you did a search, that just confuses the issue. Actually select the folder your actual current working catalog is in, and show that folder.

Also, you clearly have MS account in use to log on to your Windows computer, fine, but that forced the use of OneDrive upon you, specifically auto sync of various user system library's with OneDrive. (User, Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Videos, Music, others?)  As a result your LrC catalog is syncing to OneDrive. Some say that is a solution made in heaven, others say hell. That situation can slow LrC performance down. Each and every edit in the catalog and it syncs to OneDrive. And if you are having a bad Internet access day, even worse. And in rare situations, the catalog can get corrupted. Consider either disassociating the folder the catalog is in with OneDrive, or create a root level folder, that Is not syncing to OneDrive, and move the catalog (make sure you have good backups) name the folder as you see fit, but not pictures, etc, perhaps something like MyPhotography, MyLightroom,Rumpelstiltskin, GrumpOldBugger, anything other than the existing user system folders.

[AxelMatt]

As far as I see your catalog is located on Microsoft's OneDrive.

This can be very problematic. Please move the catalog to the local hard drive.

How do I move or rename my catalog? | The Lightroom Queen

[ZaneF]

I have a .lock file as well and am located in OneDrive. I've had no issues with this, but I'll move the catalog to a local location. Here is the old location:

and the new location:

Is it still suggested to delete the .lock file here and try to reboot Lightroom? If so, should I still try the reset procedure even if the actual Lightroom window does not open up?

[AxelMatt · Accepted solution]

Is it still suggested to delete the .lock file here and try to reboot Lightroom? 

By @ZaneF

Yes!!

 If so, should I still try the reset procedure even if the actual Lightroom window does not open up?

By @ZaneF

Also Yes!!

If both doesn't help check if the catalog has a problem. First restore the catalog from the latest backup.

Is this doesn't help, hold the Ctrl-Key while starting LrC. This opens a catalog selection dialog.

First select the appropriate recent catalog and let it check it – note the checkmark "Test integrity of this catalog" to check its integrity. If that doesn't help, try to create a new one and see if this catalog works. If yes, you could then try to import your current catalog into the new one.

[ZaneF]

The reset procedure and opening this catalog dialogue seems to have worked for me (in that I can now open LrC). The problem definitely seems to be with that particular catalog, as I can now open other catalogs without issue. Of course, I'd still like to be able to access the catalog that's causing me issues, and it seems that opening backups is also an issue. How do you suggest going about importing the problem catalog into a new one and circumventing this?

[GoldingD]

Can you share a fresh new screenshot of the folder the catalog is in, and either annotate what file is the catalog in question (or tell us in words it's full name)

[ZaneF]

Here is the current location and catalog selected. As your recommendation below, I moved the backups out of the C drive. When loading this catalog, no LrC window opens, but the LRCAT-SHM, LRCAT-WAL and the LOCK files are continually created and deleted over and over again. Even when deleting the lock file, this occurs.

[KR Seals]

I recently experienced this exact situation in Win 11. It turned out to be a corrupt catalog (caused by defective memory module). 

Find your most recent catalog backup, unzip it and copy that to the Lightroom Classic folder where your catalog is located. First, rename the catalog that is not loading. Double click on the unzipped backup catalog once it's in the Lightroom Classic folder to get LrC to start with that catalog. Be sure any .lock file is deleted first.

[christyb-2026]

Thank you so much for this, @KR Seals! I have been trying to get LR classic to open for two weeks.  It stopped working after updating Windows, LR Classic and updating GPU drivers.   I have spent hours and hours on this forum every single day reading various solutions to similar problems.  Using many suggestions from some wonderful people who replied above and on those other forum question threads, I got closer and made some great changes going forward.  Once LR classic finally opened, it kept trying to open the same corrupt catalog and the "opening lightromm catalog....." banner would stay on my screen for 15 minutes.  I never got an error message.  I would end the task under the taskbar and delete LOCK and WAL files created each try.  Once learning that this probably meant it was corrupt, I found a recent backup, copied the LRCAT file and the accompanying LRCAT-data file into the folder of the corrupt catalog.  Then I changed the name of the corrupt catalog that LR-C was defaulting to, re-launched LR Classic and there it was again!  Well, the last back-up was pretty close anyway.  I learned from @GoldingD , that my original problem probably stemmed from storing my active catalog in onedrive.  I thought I was being smart, ensuring that I wouldn't lose it....but now I believe accessing via onedrive caused the problem to begin with, and may have lead to the corrupted catalog.  

Questions:  I had to download the catalog from Onedrive and then ended up renaming my catalog, all under my "downloads"  folder.  This is obviously not great.  I've since created a new LRC catalog folder on my c drive: (c drive: user: user name: documents: LRC catalogs.)  So my question is (1) how do I safely migrate my new catalog and helper LCAT-data file there?  I'm assuming I need to do this through Lightroom Classic so it can find it upon relaunching?  I really would love help on this as I just cant go through losing my catalog again.  

(2) Is there a way to restore some of my developing tools and export preferences?  They didn't show up in my new catalog (specifically my watermarks, brushes I've created over the years under the Develop module., and a few user presets I've created).  Are these things I can restore under App Data from my c drive?

Thank you to all the contributors who take the time to help those of us struggling with problems!  Your time and thoughtfulness are appreciated!!  Also, thank you @ZaneF for posting your original question that caught my attention!

Windows 11 Pro version 24H2, LR classic 14.2, RAM 32, Intel (R) Iris (R) plus graphic version 30.0.101.3118, NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 with Max Q Design version 31.0.15.7216, i7 processor 

[KR Seals]

Also, those highlighted file indicate you searched on ".lrcat" not ".lock"

Do the search again looking for ".lock".

[GoldingD]

Also, in that screenshot on December 19. I see a folder named Backups. Are you keeping both your  working catalogs and your catalog backups on C drive? Bad.

[Niclas29705198r4d2]

I had the exact same issue, which seems to have come with the latest update. Reseting Preferences had no effect, but starting Lightroom with the CTRL key and pointing it from the default install library to my own library opened Lightroom and it proceeded as normal. Go figure.