Error Message Server Busy During Startup

[SteveRuddy]

During LR startup I get a Server Busy Window that says

This action cannot be completed because the other program is busy. Choose switch to to activate the busy program and correct the problem.

This does correct the problem but why is this necessary and how to I get rid of the error during start up?

[christonabicycle]

Well, so far, it appears that the 6.0.1 update did the fix for me.  We'll see if it holds.

[Chrisinhouston]

I don't agree at all. I never have had the problem until the day I installed the stand alone upgrade to LR6 and have been on the Windows platform since I left Apple 15 years ago. First time I have ever seen this message and it only happens when I boot up LR6.

[christonabicycle]

No sure what you're not agreeing with, but I am the same as you, Chrisinhouston.  I have been using LR for years and years, and only had the problem when I upgraded to LR6 (standalone).  Seems the 6.0.1 update may have solved it for me.  Hope it does for you and everyone else!

[brendaf16586907]

WEll...my lightroom 6 at first opened up the program, then the server busy window appeared, when I used the swith to my windows program on task bar opened up, I waited and then the little window disappeared, I clicked on the open program window and it closed, and then the program loaded...but today...I opened the lightroom 6 (which had been updated to 6.1) and just the switch to and busy server window opened up on my desktop.  No program....at all.  So..i selected retry...nothing happened, I again selected retry..and the program opened up with the splash screen.  The window busy server appeared and I clicked on switch to...and finally it opened.  I don't think this new version is a stable version...let me know how it goes for you.  I am also thinking of reformatting my computer back to factory windows 7 settings.  This is very frustrating!!  Hoping the best for you....atleast when I see the posts on here I don't feel so alone and that I have done something wrong.  I have photoshop 6 ext and lightroom 5 which run perfectly.  So.....heres hoping if I uninstall and reinstall lightroom 6 and update...it will work this time.

Thanks for writing in!!!!! Everyone!!!!

[h4xintl]

I have never had this problem with Windows, either, until LR6 update. But I'm optimistic that the problem is solved.

I followed Photoguy's instructions:

"Try the following and see if it solves your problem:

    In C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe, find the SL Cache folder and move it to your Desktop.

    In C:\ProgramData\Adobe, find the SL Store folder and move it to your Desktop.

    R Click on your Lightroom icon and “Run as Administrator”.

    If it opens correctly, that shows it is working now.

    Close Lightroom and reopen the application normally."

(Rather than move the 2 files, I renamed them, adding old to the end of the file name.)

I had to reenter Lic. Nos. for both 6 & 5 and then 6 loaded. I successfully restarted LR several times Then I updated LR6 to 6.01 and it still starts properly. Time will tell if the fix holds.

John

[brendaf16586907]

Thankyou so much for your posting!~!  I could not find the SLcache flolder in my Common Files...will try again.  I use the find prompt in windows icon...and was in the right place.  Thanks again for your help!

Brenda

[brendaf16586907]

found files...thankyou for your clear instructions....will try now to do this..thanks

[judymaca]

Hi Brenda...

Hope the cache process works for you...I tried it several times...worked for a couple of days, but then...

Judy M

Sent from my iPad

[Ryadia_]

Chris... You're free to disagree with me all you like but when Corel Draw and CuteFTP ...to name just two of the several programs users are reporting identical error messages from, have exactly the same problems and none of the users I spoke to had any Adobe software on their PCs... I'm  inclined to think if it lives in water, has scales and smells fishy, there's a pretty good reason to suspect it might be a fish!

One of the problems in this forum is that everyone's an expert when someone points out a problem is strangely identical to other problems with totally unrelated software doing exactly the same thing. Not only that... But the fix for it is always removing a conflict in Windows services or drivers. But hey... I only write the stuff for a living. What would I know?

[Chrisinhouston]

Ryadia™, I am not denying the error message is Windows generated. And if you search for this message in Google or other sites and don't include anything about Adobe in the query you will see that it does happen with other software programs. But I contend the cause of the message is the application, in this case LR6. The application is asking for something that may not be able to respond. Something in the code may have changed. I run Windows 8 on my laptop and haven't noticed the error message so maybe it only will happen in 7 or previously.

I was talking about this issue with my wife about this and my step son this morning. She is a software system analyst and he is a senior solution architect. They help me understand some of this software stuff because it certainly gets complicated at times.

[Ryadia_]

This 'issue' everyone seems to be blaming Lightroom for is because another program you either still have running or just closed, is still waiting for input from the user. The most likely culprit is Mozilla Firefox but by no means the only one responsible for it. I'd like to suggest to you Chris that when you disagree with someone in a technical forum, its always a good idea if you publish why you disagree and what you did to fix the problem so everyone can share in alternative answers.

Microsoft have had a fix for this problem since 2005. Titled " How to prevent the switch to or Application busy error messages using OLE Automation". It's not new to Lightroom or Windows7,8, 8.1 or 10, for that matter. You can read all about it at: How to prevent the "Switch To" or "Application Busy" error messages using OLE Automation Whether or not you are capable of writing some code to fix it is another thing altogether. The original 'fix' that started this huge thread only removes the essential Authentication information Adobe uses to check for illegal or excessive copies. Naturally when you re-install it, you get assked to re-enter your authentication information and... The OLE request has timed out and the system runs smoothly — Until the next time the same unique circumstances occur.

This is why I suggested many messages back that buying a decent registry management utility or taking your PC to a capable technician was the best fix for users with no programming skills. Like I said Chris... You are free to disagree with me all you like. That's one of the good things about democracy. But surely when I wrote how to find a fix was to enter the entire error string into a search engine, You must have tried that before disagreeing with me? Doing that turns up the only answer from Microsoft that clearly identifies the problem and dates it happening as far back as 10 years ago.

Anyway... All water off a ducks back mate... Keeping firefox up to date and limiting the number of add-on's it has or changing to a different browser can eliminate the problem entirely where Firefox is causing it. But like Microsoft wrote, Even Microsoft Word or visual Fox Pro can cause the error message to popup. There are about 11 programs I've found capable of causing it. If you shut down any one of them and immediately try to start Lightroom, you can get that error message.

[Chrisinhouston]

Who the heck ever mentioned Firefox? Quit trying to discredit me as a way to inflate yourself and your ego! First YOU said it was a Microsoft issue. Now you claim it's a Firefox issue. Yet for almost everyone here the problem did not start with other programs but started when they installed or upgraded to LR 6.

Mention my name one more time and I will report you for personal abuse.

[Ryadia_]

Chris...

This is a moderated public Forum. Almost all of my posts are approved by a moderator before they are posted. The post you took offense at has been moderated and approved.

When you reply directly to me (as you've been doing) I'll always be courteous and reply back to you. If you stop replying to me, I will have no reason to do that. We've got 4 PCs that use Adobe CC in the design office of my company and the only time they exhibited one of these errors is when Firefox is shut down and an Adobe program started immediately after.

I solved the problem by removing Firefox from them. Why would I not think that and Microsoft's solution was relevant to your replies to me? For that matter, relevant to this entire thread? Had you not replied to me, I would have had no reason to reply to you or mention your name.  I thought I was offering you advice in response to your several replies to me which I took as looking for answers to this problem so many people are experiencing. It is unfortunate if you thought by me taking the time to respond to you in a courteous and informative way was offensive.

[Bob_Noyes]

I did a complete reformat of my internal (C) drive and installed Windows 10. I then installed Adobe CC 2015 (full package). I use Firefox all the time and never had one single problem until upgrading to Lightroom 6. The problem was intermittent but ever since the upgrade to 6.3 it is every single time I start Lightroom. Yes Firefox has a slow shutdown process, but when I boot my computer and then start Lightroom before attempting to open any other program (and all drives have spun up - I have 2 internal drives and 8 External drives and one "Cloud" Network Drive) I get the error. I also have turned off most startup programs and Windows programs as a normal process.

Personally I dont care who is responsible for the problem, it is a known problem and it needs to be fixed correctly, not doing a dozen or more "might be fixes"

[bobrcw]

I started getting this message intermittently when I moved from LR5 to LR CC. It happened when some of the hard drives attached to my system (Windows 8) had spun down due to my power settings. Changing my power settings to never turn off hard drives fixed the problem.

[Wags2015]

Thank you very much for this helpful advice. I have LR6 on an SSD and all the RAW files on a separate internal HDD. I have changed the power settings for the hard drives which were by default set at turning off after 20 minutes and so far (fingers crossed) there have been no server busy pop-ups on restarting LR6.

[Ryadia_]

Hey Wags2015...

Do you mind sharing with us who your ISP is? I've got a nasty feeling that while the problem is caused by Adobe for sure... It's likely made persistent by Internet Service Providers using a complicated 'proxy in the cloud' system to deliver your content. So that's one theory.

Another is your computer's power supply. Years ago I owned a computer repair shop. An alarming percentage of problems that kept occurring were due to computer power supplies being labeled as (for example) 400 watt but only producing that output in bursts, not continuously. The biggest culprit that overloads a power supply is a new graphics card. Followed closely by extra hard drives. With the arrival of USB3, came the ability to supply power to external devices... Enough to drive external hard drives. Tacking on extra storage might sound like a good idea but if you don't have enough power to feed one, might not be a good idea at all.

My assessment of a friend's PC that more often than not produced the 'Server busy' or 'switch to' error messages he got from Corel as well as Adobe software ...that his 400 watt power supply was inadequate to run his i5 system he had added a Gforce graphics card, 3 extra internal hard drives and an external drive to over time ...proved correct when I replaced his power supply with a certified 750 watt supply.

My own problem has nothing to do with power supplies and all to do with memory flooding. I could fix it by installing better quality RAM but as its due for replacement in a few months, I'll put up with the 'switch to' message for now.

My gut feeling on theory one is that either you are with a very large ISP who can provide cheap prices by using proxy in the cloud (don't expect them to admit it if they are) or your PC's power supply can't cope with the load. The fact you disconnected the external drives before trying to start the program again might kill that suggestion.

One last thing... You did start LR as Administrator after fixing the problem, didn't you?

As usual...

I won't accept blame  for anything that happens to your or your PC because you followed my advise.

Remember... This is the Internet and I'm a total stranger to you. Use caution believing anything anyone

on the Internet tells you. Always get a second and third opinion.

Good luck,

Douglas

[Wags2015]

Douglas,

My ISP is Plusnet (owned by BT) and I am on an unlimited high speed fibre package, but I have a perpetual LR6 licence (not CC), so am not sure how this would affect things.  My PSU is a high quality Corsair certified 650w and although I run an over-clocked i5 with 4 internal drives, I don't believe the PSU is lacking. I appear to have resolved my particular issue because the hard drive where the RAW files are stored was powering down after 20 minutes of inactivity, so changing the power settings in Windows 7 to keep them 'awake' for longer appears to have resolved this. The server busy pop-up only appeared on restarting LR6, so not on initial start-up when the PC had booted. I guess there are differences between LR6 and LR5.7 in how it starts-up and wakes hard-drives that have powered down. Many thanks.

[judymaca]

One last comment. Lightroom 6 once again refused to open with the Server Busy message and lock up routine and I was all set to settle in with a call to Adobe but this last time, three or four days ago, during the lockup I got a new window prompting me to Uninstall and Reinstall. I did that and (knock on wood!) Lightroom has opened fine ever since.

Judy M.

[Ryadia_]

I don't suppose you use any registry cleaner like Glary Utilities do you?

We've got a few systems here, not all on CC but when I look through the logs of them all I discovered that prior to the shutdown before these problems happened, all the PCs went into a 'sleep' setting. Unless you run a CRT screen, there is really not a lot of value in having a screen saver so we set our computers to turn off the screen at 30 minutes and power down the hard drives at 1 hour of no use. DreamWeaver won't recover from this sleep mode. It displays an error message and has to be shut down. The next day... We get the message "switch to or retry".

So Judy I'm thinking if you used a registry cleaner or removed any software... A critical DLL or registry entry might have been altered.

If that didn't happen I guessing in the day prior to or even the day it happened, your computer went to sleep while Lightroom was open and did the damage. What do you think?

Since I've made sure everyone here shuts down any Adobe program before leaving their PC, we haven't had a problem. Does any of this ring a bell with you?

[judymaca]

Hi Ryadia,

Just when I thought I was home free....When I opened LR 6 just now (wanted to be sure all was well before I responded to you), I got the old familiar Switch message again. Also open at the time was my email, Windows Live Mail. At first I thought LR had locked up again, but I sat on my hands so I wouldn’t click prematurely, and when the ball stopped spinning I chose Switch to and LR opened normally after a blink or two.

I’d never done anything with the power setting on this machine, but because of your comments I went in at changed the power down to 1 hour of no use from what was apparently the default of only 30 minutes of no use. My screen goes dark after 10 minutes. I didn’t change that.

I don’t have a registry cleaner. Does LR take so much power that it doesn’t want anything else open when it starts up? I know I can’t accomplish anything else when it’s doing a back up. I guess if it keeps opening, I won’t worry about the problem. Just hope Adobe soon sends out a 6.1 to get this bug out...

Such fun...

Judy M.

[m___m1]

I am getting the same message but I don't have LR (don't even know what that is) only the very old CS4, which I rarely use. I found another forum that said it is related to MS Word? Could someone help me with this issue in easy speak?

I have W7 64 bit SP1.

Thanks in advance.

[judymaca]

Hi Ryadia,

You were so right...after working for maybe 5 days, LR 6 now won’t open at all again...First time I tried it today, I got the Server Busy message, but Switch didn’t help....I restarted the computer and tried again and this time got nothing but the logo and spinning ball. Just went through moving SL Cache and SL Store again and when I opened as Administrator I was again prompted to enter my LR 6 and LR 5 serial numbers. Don’t have time to hang out here with Adobe support right now...Might try tomorrow.

No way would I join the Cloud with all these problems! FYI: I’m running Windows 7 on a Dell T1700, Intel Core i5-4570 CPU @ 3.20 ghrz, with 8GB Memory. (Though I have only a vague idea what that all means, unfortunately!)

Judy M.

[dearnold]

Now, I'm having this problem also - Server Busy During Startup of Lightroom

I've been online with Adobe phone support and Chat Support over the past 6 days debugging CC, LR, and PS startup problems. It seemed to have started with the coming of LR CC.............

Someone finally figured out that I had two instances of CC (the full subscription and a Photog bundle) attached to one email address. How that happened, I have no idea. I've had a separate Photog bundle on a totally different email address for at least a year. They transferred me to a Cust Svc Rep who said she fixed it and told me to log back in in 24 hours!! That was this morning -- and now I can't get Lightroom CC to open up without getting the Server Busy message -- and I can't get past it.

Tried moving the SLCache & SLStore (renaming, actually) and that doesn't help.

Unplugged an external HDD, rebooted, that hasn't helped.

Sick and tired of spending time in queue for Adobe support and not getting resolution.

[Slipshod1]

Just happened to me because I had put an SD card into a reader I don't normally use before starting Lightroom.  Once I removed the SD card both Lightroom and Photoshop came right up.

WTF Adobe?