Horizontal colored bands appearing in imported raw files

Report · May 18, 2014

I just now started to have mostly magenta horizontal lines or bands appear in imported a Sony Nex 7 ARW files. When opening the same file with Sony’s raw converter or DXO Pro, the bands are non existent. I have noticed that sometimes but not always, the bands will disappearing in LR after I examine a photo by clicking on it to enlarge a selected area and the loading finishes. Exported photos will have the bands. Also, If I first open the files with IDC or DXO, the file will then import into Lightroom without the bands. I have run diagnostics on the SD card and the hard drive with no errors showing up. Running LR5.4 on a Macbook Pro. I’m totally confused. Any enlightening comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

These artifacts are exactly like those in the post Re: Why do I get Colored bands on some images in LR4 and LR5, but not in Aperture?

Report · Oct 03, 2018

I used the same card reader both for mac (where LR is installed) and on to windows PC (where LR is not installed). I am getting clear pictures in PC and colored bands in Mac

Report · Oct 03, 2018

I have had the the problem with Nikon NEF files as well with Sony ARW files and while the JPG files are fine, the RAW files have colored bands using different SD cards and different readers. The only solution I have found is connecting the camera directly to the computer and transferring the images that way.

Report · Oct 03, 2018

Does anyone relate this to the speed of the memory cards? I have a bunch of older ones that never presented this kind of problem, with the same card reader. But i bought two faster memory cards recently 50mb/s and 120mb/s and both of them are presenting these color bands wherever I transfer them: Lightroom or Finder or Photoshop directly. I lost my camera cable (dumb), but I am considering buying a new one just for the worth of a test.

So, any thoughts on that?

Report · Oct 03, 2018

It's worth a try, especially since another possibility is that the card reader itself is causing this problem. If you can do a test with one of the older slower camera cards, that would help narrow down the possible cause as well.

Report · Oct 03, 2018

leolaps wrote
Does anyone relate this to the speed of the memory cards? I have a bunch of older ones that never presented this kind of problem, with the same card reader. But i bought two faster memory cards recently 50mb/s and 120mb/s and both of them are presenting these color bands wherever I transfer them: Lightroom or Finder or Photoshop directly. I lost my camera cable (dumb), but I am considering buying a new one just for the worth of a test.
So, any thoughts on that?

Sometimes the speed of the card can be a good indication of a mismatch between the cards and reader.

After getting some new super fast cards, I needed to upgrade my card reader as it was not compatible with the new cards.

Report · Nov 06, 2018

I had a shoot earlier today and panicked when I had a bunch of these lines on my RAW files after importing to LR from my SD card reader. As much as I'd like to blame Adobe, I can't. Same thing happened when I imported them into Capture One Pro from the same reader. When I swapped out my card reader and used a different one, everything imported just fine and the lines were gone. This was definitely a hardware problem for me.

Report · Nov 11, 2018

Getting a headache reading all this. One common thread is a good 95% insist not hardware must be Adobe.

well, have you considered the following simple approach to attempting to isolate a possible issue with USB, be it a device, a cable, or a port.

First off, if you have a laptop, one with a Card reader, yep, SD only, disconnect ever single connected USB device, your mouse, your keyboard, an external card reader, that microphone, that external hard drive, the speakers, a headphone, etc, etc.

Second off, shut the laptop off, then turn it back on, just rebooting will not suffice, need to accomplish a cold boot.

Now, create a brand new catalog, this one on your hard drive. But yours on the external hard drive. Let me be rude, as apparently rude is called for, yes, internal hard drive, remember no external usb devices, just yet.

Go and shoot some images, many images, at least 10 per every usb device you had connected.

in that nice clean, boarding, empty lightroom catalog, accomplish a proper import from within Lightroom.Do they look Ok? If not, still continue with the next step if applicable to your available USB devices.

next up, an external card reader? Connect it, try a few more images, if the previous step came up AOk, and this step fails, guess what, possible bad card reader. If the other way around, sure hope it is not your internal card reader, see repair etc.

next up, keyboard, repeat, recommend internal card reader if SD.

mouse, repeat,

external hard drive, repeat (no, still that new catalog on internal drive)

on and on untill I’ll you run out of whatever was connected before all this mucky muck.

if you found a suspect device, consider the attached USB cable, go buy a new one.

NOTE, USB cables may work fine for one device and fail for another, digital cameras for one get very very picky

For non SD card users, CF and the like, yep, you start with the card reader plugged in.

For desktops, of course, you will need your mouse and keyboard connected.

extra note, do not forget any Bluetooth dongle for a wireless mouse and/ or keyboard, that communicates to the USB port(dips) after all.

Report · Jun 09, 2019

I'm sorry I don't have a solution. I am having similar issues after importing some of my photos from my photos app on my MAC to Lightroom. That tells me it is lightroom. It is very frustrating. The original photos in my app don't have any streaks of weird colors anywhere.

Report · Jun 09, 2019

Lightroom never changes your original images. The only known answer is that it is a hardware malfunction somewhere, could be camera card, card reader, hardware used to transfer to computer, bad hard disk, bad memory. You have to do some basic troubleshooting to isolate the problem. Some apps (perhaps the Photos app) display the embedded JPG in a RAW file, the RAW file is corrupted but often the embedded JPG is fine.

Report · Jun 09, 2019

When I have encountered this it was a problem with the card reader or the interface. If I re-imported them using a different device or even a new cable it would clear up.

Report · Sep 21, 2020

Just to add my experience into the mix for 2020.

I had this issue on both my Canon and Sony camera's out of the blue

Lucky for me, i had a spare card reader to hand, so was able to quickly narrow it down and yep it was a bad card reader. It seemed to hang when importing the pics too... 95% of my pics had purple lines / corruption. But changed the card reader and i was back up and operational.. Worth getting a backup card reader for what they cost.

Report · Apr 27, 2021

I was having the magenta lines problem with my Sony a6300 and found this thread. I had noticed that removing and inserting the card into the reader would give different corruption results each time, putting magenta and yellow lines into new picture and removing them from ones that had been corrupted. For me it wasn't my SD card reader, but a USB hub that the reader was inserted into. When I removed the hub, and put the reader directly into the computer, there's no corruption. Woohoo. But there goes my excuse to buy a new Sony camera... I guess I'll just have to buy it anyway.

Report · Jun 16, 2023

Hello! I'm encountering this SAME issue, which is absolutely maddening.

My process:

I cull images in Photo Mechanic (which I uninstalled and reinstalled to rule that out as the problem). In this program all of the images look totally fine. Then I copy those images onto an external hard drive (I've switched hard drives 3 times now, so it is not a hardware issue). Next, I import into a new Lightroom catalog for each session (yes, I've checked if the catalogs are corrupt, but this issue keeps happening, so it can't be that). When I preview the images in the Library everything looks fine, but the minute I switch to the Develop module (no presets, nothing but the RAW file) the banding will immediately appear on several images.

I work professionally as a photographer and I cannot afford to have this problem keep happening.

I have replaced SD cards, and uninstalled and reinstalled Lightroom Classic 3 or 4 times, but this line banding keeps popping up. My husband works in IT and he has checked all of my hardware multiple times. What's the solution? I'll attach a photo of what it looks like on my side.

Any suggestions would be amazing. Thanks!

Report · Jun 16, 2023

Here's what I would try, since mine was solve by removing my USB hub:
1. Open the same photo from the SD card but bypass Photo Mechanic. e.g., Just browse the SD, right-click, and open in Lightroom directly. Or browse in Adobe Bridge, right-click select "Open in Camera RAW." Is it still corrupted?
2. Use a different cable to connect your external hard drive. Get one that's Thunderbolt rated like this Belkin Thunderbolt 3 USB C to USB C 3.3ft/1M Long Data Transfer Power Cable with 20 Gbps Data Transfer Speed: https://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Thunderbolt-Type-C-Cable-F2CD081bt1M-BLK/dp/B01CEFESRO/

3. Make sure the firmware on your camera and lens are the most recent.
4. Don't use any USB hubs, plug straight from computer, to cable, to external drive.
5. You replaced SD cards, but not sure if you replaced your SD card reader. Remove it from the signal chain, (i.e. send photos wirelessly to your computer), or replace it with the highest quality one you can find.

Report · Jun 17, 2023

You’ve posted to a very old thread. It is highly unlikely that the issue described in this thread, though not impossible, is the same issue which you are currently experiencing. Rather than resurrect an old thread that is seemingly similar, you are better posting to a new thread with fresh, complete information including system information, a complete description of the problem and step-by-step instructions for reproduction.

In the unlikely event the issue is the same, we will merge you back into the appropriate location.

Thank you!

Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org