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Constant Kernel Panics in Lightroom and ACR Freeze Mac and Force Reboot

Explorer ,
May 27, 2021 May 27, 2021

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When using the Develop module in Lightroom or ACR, after about 10 seconds my 2019 iMac's fans spin up to full speed, I get 100% cpu usage and the entire system completely locks up and then restarts about a minute later. If I disable the GPU acceleration in Lightroom I can use Develop but it is painfully slow to use in this way. I have an extremely large LR catalog that was working perfectly up until a week ago and my workflow has ground to a halt.

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Explorer , Jun 05, 2021 Jun 05, 2021

Just wanted to follow up on this in case it helps anyone else, particularly since I haven't seen this particular recommendation listed anywhere else.

 

After going through all of the official and unofficial troubleshooting suggestions, including deleting preference files, reseting the GPU prefs, making a new user account on the Mac, checking admin rights etc etc etc - the issue turned out to be a monitor issue. About a month ago I added a second external monitor to my iMac (one 27" either side of

...

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Explorer ,
May 27, 2021 May 27, 2021

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Forgot to add - this is with LR Classic 10.2. I downgraded to 10.1 to see if it fixed it and it made no difference. Running Big Sur 11.4  

 

2021-05-28_10-20-46.jpg

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Explorer ,
May 27, 2021 May 27, 2021

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Also - no antivirus software installed.

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LEGEND ,
May 27, 2021 May 27, 2021

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First thing to try is reset preferences:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/setting-preferences-lightroom.html 

If that fails, there are some other steps to try....

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

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Explorer ,
May 27, 2021 May 27, 2021

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Thanks. I reset preferences and then it crashed within 20 seconds of switching to Develop module. 

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LEGEND ,
May 27, 2021 May 27, 2021

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Try disabling GPU in the preferences (Preformance). Any better?

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

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Explorer ,
May 27, 2021 May 27, 2021

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As I mentioned in the original post, disabling GPU 'fixes' it in the sense that it doesn't crash. However it is also painfully slow with GPU disabled which is problematic when working through large folders of images to be processed. 

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LEGEND ,
May 27, 2021 May 27, 2021

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Well slow is better than crashing. If turning OFF GPU works, it's a GPU bug and you need to contact the manufacturer or find out if there's an updated driver for it.
Also see: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/acr-gpu-faq.html

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

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Explorer ,
May 27, 2021 May 27, 2021

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"Slow is better than crashing". Well thanks for that absolute gem of lovingly dispensed wisdom, Mr Adobe Community Professional. We can't fix the problem, so suck it up and deal with a severely handicapped bit of software? That's your solution? Perhaps we could have avoided your other pointless copy and paste fix suggestions if you'd bothered to read my original post properly in the first place, in which I mentioned that sabotaging LR by turning off GPU fixed the crashes but made it virtually unusable on a professional basis.

Nothing has changed on my Mac in terms of updates that provoked the Lightroom crashes. No new software has been installed, no OS updates applied. In either LR Classic Develop or ACR, Adobe's software triggers a kernel panic that completely locks the entire computer and requires a hard reboot.

"Hey Adobe dev team - no need to investigate - it's clearly nothing to do with us. Palm it off onto Apple instead. Nothing to see here."

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LEGEND ,
May 27, 2021 May 27, 2021

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Yes, the problem with your buggy GPU can be fixed. As outlined. You assume that affects every Mac and GPU which is wrong.

Nothing has changed on your Mac in terms of updates that provoked the Lightroom crashes. Lightroom just magically changed and spoils like cheese outside a refrigerator; right. 

Revert to an older build, update your GPU. Keep crashing the newer version of LR; all fine with me sir. 

This is a user to user support forum; don't get pissy with volunteers trying to help you! 
You want to get to the fix or get snarky? Let's try again then, if your attitude keeps going down hill, you'll be on your own:

Try logging into another account (you may need to make one), still crashing? 

Try starting up in Safe mode (hold down Shift Key when booting), still crashing? 

You might want to try running a free utility like Onyx: still crashing? 

https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

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Explorer ,
May 28, 2021 May 28, 2021

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Yes mate - I am sorry - I thought this was an official Adobe forum manned by Adobe staff paid in hard currency, not a volunteer site running on good will. I'll submit a support request via official channels instead of wasting everyone's time in here. Thanks for your help. 

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LEGEND ,
May 28, 2021 May 28, 2021

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When using the Develop module in Lightroom or ACR, after about 10 seconds my 2019 iMac's fans spin up to full speed, I get 100% cpu usage and the entire system completely locks up and then restarts about a minute later.

 

These symptoms (fans running followed by computer restarting itself) are a very clear indication of thermal problems, brought on most likely by some failure of the cooling system in your iMac.

 

I have an extremely large LR catalog that was working perfectly up until a week ago

 

Another clear indication of a hardware problem (almost definitely in the cooling system). Everything works fine until some point in time when there are no known changes to a computer; but hardware can fail at any time.

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LEGEND ,
May 28, 2021 May 28, 2021

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And perhaps a bad RAM module. But the OP should try a few software tests outlined first IMHO. 

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

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Explorer ,
Jun 05, 2021 Jun 05, 2021

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That would be fine, except that it is only LR and ACR causing the issue. I use FCPX, Ableton, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver and various other intensive apps and have no issues at all. 

 

 

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Explorer ,
Jun 05, 2021 Jun 05, 2021

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Just wanted to follow up on this in case it helps anyone else, particularly since I haven't seen this particular recommendation listed anywhere else.

 

After going through all of the official and unofficial troubleshooting suggestions, including deleting preference files, reseting the GPU prefs, making a new user account on the Mac, checking admin rights etc etc etc - the issue turned out to be a monitor issue. About a month ago I added a second external monitor to my iMac (one 27" either side of the main display) running off USB-C naturally, like the existing external monitor.

 

Basically Lightroom Classic (Develop module) and Adobe Camera RAW crash when I have two external displays running off USB-C on my Retina iMac. When I drop back to one display I get no kernel crashes and no freeze-ups. Since Lightroom doesn't support more than one external display this isn't a huge issue, since I can just pull the plug on the second display while working in Lightroom and plug it back in when I'm done.

No idea why LR and ACR meltdown when you have two external displays plugged into your iMac, but I guess it's not a very common setup and I doubt it would rank very far up the list of bug fixes Adobe software engineers have to fix up. Anyway - hope this helps someone down the line. 

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Community Expert ,
Jun 05, 2021 Jun 05, 2021

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I personally do have a mac and run 3 displays - and using Lightroom does not cause crashes.

I am on Catalina and not BIg Sur - maybe there is an issue with the OS, 2 monitors - did you add that second monitor just before LR started crashing?

 

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Community Expert ,
Jun 05, 2021 Jun 05, 2021

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Also, here is the info on using second monitors with Lightroom:

You can open a window that displays a second view of the Library. This second window displays the photos that are selected in the Library module, and uses the Library module view options that are specified in the primary Lightroom Classic window for Grid and Loupe view. The second window can stay open regardless of which module you’re working in, so it’s easy to view and select different photos at any time. If you have a second monitor connected to the computer that runs Lightroom Classic, you can display the second window on that screen.

When working with multiple windows, Lightroom Classic applies commands and edits to the photo or photos that are selected in the main application window regardless of what is selected in the second window. To apply a command to one or more selected photos in the second window, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the selected photos in Grid, Compare, or Survey view in the second window and choose a command.

 

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/displaying-library-second-monitor.html 

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Explorer ,
Jun 05, 2021 Jun 05, 2021

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quote

did you add that second monitor just before LR started crashing?

 


By @kentdesign

 

Yes. I was thinking back to when the crashes started happening and trying to work out if something had changed at my end and then I remembered that it was about the same time I added a second external display. So I tried using LR without the second external display plugged in and have experienced no crashes since. 

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Community Expert ,
Jun 05, 2021 Jun 05, 2021

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Just so we know, What do you consider and "extremely large LR catalog?"

 

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Explorer ,
Jun 05, 2021 Jun 05, 2021

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Currently 245,237 photographs.

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LEGEND ,
Jun 06, 2021 Jun 06, 2021

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Large catalog files not known to cause crashes or slowness (exception: making backups will be slow)

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Community Expert ,
Jun 06, 2021 Jun 06, 2021

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That is a fairly large catalog. I have known others with larger ones and no crashes.

And yes, dj_paige is totally correct. Back ups will be slower....logical!

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Community Expert ,
Jun 06, 2021 Jun 06, 2021

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On efinal follow up. I personally have an iMac Pro 2017 (27 inch) running Catalina 10.15.7 (with a 

Radeon Pro Vega 56 8 GB graphics card.) I have two external monitors, both those are 24 inch.

One is connected directly to the iMac, the other is connected to a THunderbolt 3 dock from OWC.

I just ran a test with all monitors on and launched Lightroom 10.2.

After trying mirroring the displays, not mirroring, moving Lightroom from one to the other, with both iMessages and Safari running, no crashes, no glitches, no slow downs at all.

So it might still be your connections or, as DJ_Paige said,  the possibilities of a hardware failure with your system...

 

 

 

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Explorer ,
Oct 04, 2021 Oct 04, 2021

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LATEST

Yes i have the sam problem with lightroom, i'ts painful to work and long time 😞

imac pro2019, osx 11.5, vega 56, 32gb ram i9

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