Images from Lightroom iPad Freezes LrC 11.3.1 When Exported After Develop on macOS 11.6.6

[Anon65]

LrC: 11.3.1

MacOS: 11.6.6 

iOS: 15.4.1 (iPad where photos are processed)

Description: When you use LrC with jpg files that have been imported from an iPad, there are some conditions where the Lightroom Develop module hangs and becomes unusable. Sometimes it will correct itself after some time (~ 5 - 10 mins). Other times Lightroom won't quit and it requires a Force Quit. 

Steps to reproduce

• select a .jpg photo that has been imported from iPad, and that was processed with a 3rd party app (iColorama)
• open in Develop 
• make changes (crop, make color changes, etc)
• export, with "add to stack"
• return to original - try to use "reset" 
• at this point, Develop features stop working - reset will fail, and sometimes the Develop screen goes black. Additionally, the stacked files won't unstack (option is grayed out)

The problem does not occur with photos imported directly from the iPad, without any processing. 

Impact - I are hundreds of photo files that have been imported that are potentially impacted, making further development in Lightroom very problematic. Any insight or suggestions would be welcome. 

I realize it would be easy to pin this on the 3rd party app - but it doesn't explain why I can use the same files in other apps with no problems - such as Apple Photos. Also, it seems that the Lightroom problem is rather severe - freezing out a module so that a force quit is required. 

For reference - the Adobe CC subscription is under a different user name, but we do have a paid subscription and keep current with updates. 

{Thread title updated for better reach on moderator}

[Sameer K]

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out. If you can clarify a few things for me, we can get to the bottom of this.

Could you please share some samples with us here or via direct message that behaves as described?

Please go to Lightroom Classic > Preferences > Lightroom Sync > Specify location for Lightroom's Synced Images and check if this option is enabled. If allowed, please share a screenshot of this page or let us know if this is targeted to store on an internal or external storage device?

You can also reset Lightroom Classic's preferences by following the steps in this article (prefer using method 2): (https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/setting-preferences-lightroom.html)

Let us know if this works,

Thanks!
Sameer K

[Anon65]

Thanks @Sameer K for getting back to me. 

Regarding the LR Sync preference - I checked that and the option for Lightroom Synced Images is unchecked. So we don't us the sync'd images. (For reference, all images are stored on the iMac main internal HD - which is SSD. )  Does that provide you with any relevant information? 

I am reluctant to reset all Preferences. Do you feel that is needed here? Or is that just a precaution?

We did some more testing and found additional information.

1.  We do not have this problem when we export but do not "stack" the export file. (Leave the stack option in the Export dialog window unchecked.) 
2. We continue to have this problem with files that were imported from the iPad before a recent upgrade. We use a USB -> Lightning connected and MacOS asked for an upgrade due to a newer iOS version. We had ignorned that upgrade for sometime. Imports done after that update appear to work OK. 

[Anon65]

@Sameer K - we continue to have this problem but have narrowed it down. The problem occurs when we export with "save to stack" checked. When this is not checked and we don't save as stack, the problem seems not to occur. Do you have any steps we can take other than to reset LR preferences?