Lightroom 6 keeps crashing directly after starting up

[Tess2013]

Hi, I've got Lightroom version 6 (stand alone programm). Since a couple of months I opened the programm again but it crashed after a couple of tasks. And with crashing I mean the programm just shuts down out of the blue without a single (error) message. After starting the programm several times it seems to happen more often when deleting pictures from the database. I thought it might be a problem with my laptop. But now I started working on my desktop and the same problem occurs. Actually even worse. I could open it and started to import photos. It crashed during the import (as like the task was too heavy to execute...). And now the programm crashes as soon as I open it. Can't do anything anymore. 

I see some messages about windows updates but all these messages are well over a year old so no idea if this is the problem in my case. I did check on windows updates and found 2 which I installed.

Does anybody have any idea what might be the problem? Could the size of the library be a problem maybe? It's 225MB at the moment. 

Hope anybody can help me out. Bit of a disappointment because I had big plans for Lightroom these Christmas holidays.

thanks 

Tessa

{Moved from Lightroom Cloud to Lightroom Classic Forum by Moderator} 

[Tess2013]

It looks like my problem has been fixed. Somehow the external hard drive caused the problem. Unplugging and plugging in seemed to be the solution luckely. Hopefully this remains so. 

[Tess2013]

Unfortunately, my problem is not resolved. Far from it. Lightroom 6 keeps on crashing. Here and there I can do some tasks but eventually it closes. I just don't know what to do. Anybody?

[dj_paige]

Please state the version NUMBER of your operating system.

Problems with deleting photos causing Lightroom 6 to crash have been reported in this and other forums. You might want to search for this problem in this forum, and see if any solutions are found.

Size of the catalog is not relevant.

Please understand that Lightroom 6 is old software, not tested on current operating systems, and completely unsupported by Adobe since 2017 (which means that Adobe will not be fixing bugs).

[GoldingD]

See:

see:

 https://petapixel.com/2020/12/24/adobe-lightroom-v6-is-falling-apart/

and

https://en.techrecipe.co.kr/posts/12088

and

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic/crashing-when-creating-or-deleting-a-virtual-copy/t...

Apparently  Face Detection code used by Lr 6 is crashing Lr 6 

The cause of the Face Detection problem appears to be a dll that has aged out. A dll by a third party that Adobe was using for Face Detection.

Some have found that changing their computers system clock to 12/14/18 or older gets around this. A annoying workaround.that would have to be done each time before starting Lr.

Others simply remove the dll. However, doing that ends Face Detection.

DLL is:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom\CIT\Plug-ins\FaceRecognition\libfrsdk-8.6.0.dll

 (  https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic/crashing-when-creating-or-deleting-a-virtual-copy/t...)

[mikeponte]

Thanks this worked for me.

[waynew3288461]

Which solution worked for you? My LR 6 keeps closing after the splash screen. It's been working fine for years until yesterday. 

[Rob_Cullen]

"Which solution worked...?"

One answer was to turn off  'Face Detection'. This function ceased to work sometime about Dec2021? causing v6 crashes.

A new cause seems to be Lr v6.0 not starting in Windows- Maybe caused by changes in a Windows update. It is not known if Lr6 is even compatible with Windows-11.

Lightroom 6 suddenly fails to load

You could try an update to v6.14 from ProDesignTools-  Lightroom 6 (CC 2015) Direct Download Links - ProDesignTools 

But v6 is now obsolete and not supported. Time to upgrade to a v11.3 subscription!  $9.99 PHOTOGRAPHY PLAN (USA) 

[waynew3288461]

Yeah, I tried deleting the Face detection dll file and setting the clock back to 2018, no luck. I'm running Windows 10 and LR6 has been working flawlessly until yesterday. Last used a couple of weeks ago. I understand Adobe doesn't support LR6 anymore but there's no reason why it should work on my computer. I heard of v6.14 but couldn't find it anywhere to download so thanks for the link, I'll give it a try. 

[waynew3288461]

**no reason why it shouldn't work...I meant to say!

[waynew3288461]

Fixed! Downloaded and installed v6.14. Apparently the issue was with v6.0 which had been working fine. It just occured to me....last year I had to reinstall LR (for some reason that I don't remember) and I installed 6.0 instead of 6.14 which I previously had. Still though it's strange that 6.0 decided to stop working 2-days ago. Must have been a recent Windows update like you suggested. Thank you so much, Rob for helping me out!

[teacher275]

I'm using the standalone CD for Lightroom 6 and after reinstalling from the disc LR was shutting down on the opening title screen when I clicked the OK button on the dialog box that said I'd have to sign in to Adobe (or something to that effect). Updating as stated abobe with v6.14 helped, although I'm afraid to close down the program. Thank you for the tip. 

[Rob_Cullen]

While it is available, you should download and save a copy of the install file for v6.14 from here- Lightroom 6 End of Support 

But with time and OS changes it will eventually become inevitable that a subscription for Lightroom-Classic is required.

[teacher275]

Yes, thank you.