Lightroom 6 refuses to start / freezes on start

[Added_Order]

A few days ago I upgraded from 5.7 to 6 (standalone, not cloud). At first it was running fine but now I have problems starting the application (Windows 8). It opens but does not show any photos, sidebars etc. and Windows has it down as "not responding". I reinstalled Lightroom 6 and was able to log in once, but after a restart the same issue came up. I have also renamed my catalogue file - after doing that Lightroom starts and asks to create a new catalogue, but once I have done that clicking anywhere causes the programme to freeze again. Therefore I think it is not my catalogue that is to be blamed.

Any suggestions?

[Added_Order]

I have now also deleted my preference file, but it does not make any difference. Deinstalling and then reinstalling Lightroom allowed me to run the programme a couple of times, but it is now frozen again.

[DrewLambie]

I have the same problem. My standalone upgrade to Version 6.0 worked for about 3 days while I tidied up the face recognition and did some test panoramic stitches. This afternoon it refuses to start up. It is as though the splash screen of the trees is obscuring a black box underneath which may be expecting some sort of input. The cursor shows the rotating circle continuously. I have tried running the program while logged in as Admin and it will work with my current catalog and a new test one. I have tried changing permissions and giving my normal login administrator privileges but this has not corrected the problem. I now have no useful access to my photographs under my working login ID. How do I revert everything to Version 5 and undo the changes to my catalog?

[DrewLambie]

I have this error message when startup freezes

Description:

  A problem caused this program to stop interacting with Windows.

Problem signature:

  Problem Event Name: AppHangB1

  Application Name: lightroom.exe

  Application Version: 6.0.0.10

  Application Timestamp: 5523190c

  Hang Signature: fd75

  Hang Type: 0

  OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48

  Locale ID: 2057

  Additional Hang Signature 1: fd754a3ab31baaadc3b097f6ba66701c

  Additional Hang Signature 2: da65

  Additional Hang Signature 3: da65a7b794d37166700564ce61532b85

  Additional Hang Signature 4: fd75

  Additional Hang Signature 5: fd754a3ab31baaadc3b097f6ba66701c

  Additional Hang Signature 6: da65

  Additional Hang Signature 7: da65a7b794d37166700564ce61532b85

[Added_Order]

I have managed to get it working again. I deinstalled Lightroom and then deleted all Lightroom/Adobe folders under C:\Users\MYUSERNAME\AppData - it took a while to find them all and I lost all settings, profiles etc. But Lightroom seems to behave again, at least for now.

[thill57]

My Stand alone light room 6 was freezing up so I did the renaming of the folders and light room works fine but it says I must deactivate one license within 30 days also it screwed up my photo shop cs 6 it says I am using photo shop 6 extended trial!

WTF

please help

[Torsten_from_Hamburg]

Same here:

After startup problems that showed to be (silent) internet issues (see Win7: Lightroom 6: Install worked but start impossible ), Lightroom 6 (standalone) worked for first tries.

Now it refuses to start (Windows: ...not responding); trying with full administrative rights.

It does write a .lock and a .journal file in the catalog directory and starts another program "Adobe Lightroom CEF Helper" with this command line (as read by Process explorer):

".\Adobe Lightroom CEF Helper.exe" --type=gpu-process --channel="3424.0.91932854\213911764" --no-sandbox --lang=en-US --log-file="C:\Users\Fokuhl\AppData\Local\Temp\\cef_debug.log" --log-severity=warning --disable-image-transport-surface --supports-dual-gpus=false --gpu-driver-bug-workarounds=0,1,14,27,33 --gpu-vendor-id=0x10de --gpu-device-id=0x107d --gpu-driver-vendor=NVIDIA --gpu-driver-version=9.18.13.1115 --lang=en-US --log-file="C:\Users\Fokuhl\AppData\Local\Temp\\cef_debug.log" --log-severity=warning /prefetch:822062411

If I start it with pressed "Alt" key I can choose the catalog: I asked it to create a new one, it did, set up the files and freezed after the first click.

So it might be fine to have an update to 6.0.1, but with THIS installation  I am even not able to acces the "update" selection.

Apart from "HOW TO FIX?" I am again wondering whether there is a logfile hidden somewhere? Or a command line switch to turn on debugging?

Come on, Adobe, there are frustrated users who are still willing to help, so give us a clue.

Regards

Torsten

[JP Hess]

I suggest that you all go to the performance tab in Lightroom preferences and uncheck the box. There are issues with GPU acceleration that need to be addressed by Adobe. If that doesn't solve the problem please report back.

[Torsten_from_Hamburg]

In the current state I even cannot "go to" anything.

But what is the default?

The problem remains practically the same if I (brutally) remove the whole Adobe folder from C:\Users\<my user>\AppData :

Of course it welcomes me as new user, I choose a catalog location and name and then ... Lightroom @*#$&ly hangs again.

Is the GPU switch accessible somewhere in a config file?

Thank you for your support

Torsten

[ssprengel]

I believe the GPU switch is:

   useAutoBahn = true/false

near the bottom of the preferences file:

    Lightroom 6 Preferences.agprefs

in this folder:

    C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Preferences

Where AppData is a hidden/system folder so you may need to enter the folder name directly into your Explorer address bar or enable hidden/system folders in Explorer folder view options.

The default is useAutoBahn=true which is why deleting the preferences (and surrounding folders) didn't change how it worked.

[Torsten_from_Hamburg]

Thank you, that sounded really good - no problem to find and change the switch.

But, alas, it did not change the behaviour, Lightroom freezes again, the "CEF Helper" job is started and its command line starts with >".\Adobe Lightroom CEF Helper.exe" --type=gpu-process ...<

I retried with a nearly empty AppData...Adobe path, with only the mentioned agprefs file in C:\Users\<my user>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Preferences

I retried with that clean directory and a new catalog - still the same.

In the agprefs file there is no GPU line or something witch "accel" (substring search)

Thanks

Torsten

[h4xintl]

I have the same problem on Win 7. My copy of stand-alone L6 upgrade appeared to work properly on its initial boot.Now when I try to start L6, even after a cold computer start with no other programs running, L6 hangs at the splash screen. Sometimes I get this error notice:

Selecting [Switch To] only initiates the Windows 7 Start menu, with no indication what the busy "other program" is. Selecting [Retry] ultimately leads to shutting L6 down. Reinstalling L6 produced the same result.

Where is Adobe on this?

[LeeEKJr]

Problem is caused by HD spinning down.  Preventing the drives from spinning down (idle) solves the problem.

[dearnold]

Preventing the drives from spinning down does not solve the problem for everyone. I have Lightroom CC and none of the posted "solutions" in the forum have solved the problem.

Dell and Microsoft have been over my machine with a fine tooth comb and cannot figure out any hardware or OS reason this should be happening.

Adobe has still not been able to solve it................major frustration with expensive production software!

[LeeEKJr]

I don’t have the CC version. I still say it’s cause by slow drive response because for some reason when LR opens and sees what it thinks is a drive it recognize and assumes not running you will get that server busy error. It’s got to be LR looking for files whether it’s on those drives or not. I have had any problem since. I do have a mirrored drive on a raid card and LR doesn’t sense that drive and so does my O&O cloning software. Weird.

[h4xintl]

Has anyone found a solution to this problem?

Thanks.

John

[George in Seattle]

Same here. Doesn't matter what I do, LR 6 refuses to run on my Windows 8 surface Pro 3 I7.  Upon first install it accomplishes the first conversion then freezes. Thereafter, each restart of LR 6 simply hangs.  5.7 runs great and fast on Win 8.  LR 6 runs fine on my Windows 7 desktop.  This sounds like a LR 6 bug on Windows 8.

[DrewLambie]

I have managed to get LR6 working by removing the application from my machine (Windows 7) and removing the Adobe Application Manager and all the rubbish related to Adobe CC and then re-installing LR6. Every so often the application still reports something like " The other application is busy retry/cancel/somethingelse" at startup but cancelling has so far always enabled LR to start. I allowed a Lightroom update, which was advertised as solving startup problems, to be applied. However, there is still a problem lurking which I strongly suspect is related to CC and which I hope Adobe will fix.

The Adobe Application Manager and unwanted Creative Cloud Crap look pretty suspicious. On a couple of occasions the Application Manager tried to carry out an "update" which went on for ages before I killed it. I began to wonder if the 'update' was actually uploading my photographs and catalogs to Adobe's servers. I have not found an explanation of what the CC software is doing, when it tries to do it, and how it does it, all of which adds to my 'spyware' suspicion. I want to carry on using LR in stand alone mode and have no desire to 'share' my photographs with Adobe.

On a positive note - the software, when it works, performs well and the stitching feature is brilliant.

[George in Seattle]

OMG they said v6 was supposed to be standalone.  I paid for the standalone V6 (in addition to CC, btw) for a specific reason --so all the work in my catalog would never become unusable.

LR6 standalone version is working well on my Win 7 desktop, but not on my Win 8 Surface.  5.7 Works on my Surface.  I assumed it was either some bug only occurring only on Windows 8, or perhaps something to do with high resolution/touch screens, which my Surface pro has.  I wish it would get resolved.

This is all I get. Notice the second time I reinstalled it, converted the catalog to a "3" suffix, even though I had deleted the old conversion

The usual errors

This is some weirdness where forgets it already converted them and puts duplicates of catalogs in the directory.

[LeeEKJr]

I purchased LR6 about a couple of weeks ago.  Had the same problem with 'Server Busy".  Every time I got the error (which is not an error) I had to wait awhile.  During that time I could hear one of my HD spin up.  The "Server Busy" error is caused by drives that are idle and needs to spin up.  It's a Windows option.  Restricting the drive(s) from spinning down solved the problem.  If you are using 7200 rpm drives make sure you have enough cooling fans in your PC case.  5400 rpm drives are not a problem because they use less wattage when running continuously. 

[sojsoj]

I have same problem. already solved this freeze at start problem by reinstalling, but after couple of days of normal behavior it starts to freeze again. did anyone found solution for this?

[gabriellap37077481]

Has Adobe responded to this problem at all?  I have been using LR6 without any problems on a Windows 8 laptop since the end of April.  This morning Windows performed some automatic updates and now I am having the exact problem described in this thread.  I have tried implementing all the fixes listed above, none of them worked.  What's worse, I went to uninstall the program, and am not able to find a way to download LR6 again to attempt a reinstall.  It's not available on the Adobe website, even though it is listed as a product I've purchased on my Adobe account page.  I purchased my license from B&H and they are not allowing me to download again.  I was forced to upgrade my LR software because my older version was not able to read the files from a Nikon D750, so I don't even have the option to use the older version of LR.  This is extremely frustrating.  And I've been waiting to chat with an Adobe support person for over an hour.

[LeeEKJr]

I don’t use the CC version of LR and I have prevented my drives from spinning down. I have had no problem after that. It appears that when LR starts It is looking for files on drives and when it finds one that’s not responding you get the server busy error. I haven’t had the error since I stop the drives from spinning down. However, my mirror drive on s raid card I haven’t prevented from spinning down and LR doesn’t recognize the drive when starting. It does when you excess the drive from LR. My cloning software doesn’t recognize the mirrored drive either. It’s got to be the LR opens searching for drives that’s installed through Windows or the OS system you are using. Probably no problem with a Mac. I haven’t loaded it on the Mac yet and may not.

[Seabreezeof]

I have the exact same problem as #20 gabrielle.

I have stand alone LR6 since it has been available without any issues

Windows updated today, and now no launch of LR6

My hunch says Windows must have made changes, but what changes ??? How do you figure that out. What was it before, and what do you need to change it back to.

I will say windows has updated previously , and there were no issues. However one previous update my settings for my screen changed, and I had to go in and correct that.

I'm betting there was a change made when windows updated either in the preference or properties folder or both

Problem with preference, you cant get to it, because you cant get into the program, because it doesn't open.

So where do you go to get to preference's in the computer, and what changes need to be made to put it back the way it was previously.

All speculative thoughts.

[LeeEKJr]

Go to the control panel – be sure you’re in large icon - Action Center – and – Recovery (Restore your computer to an earlier time) . See if that works for you.