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14

Lightroom catalog cannot be opened because another application already has it opened

Community Beginner ,
Oct 22, 2008 Oct 22, 2008

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Engaged , Oct 22, 2008 Oct 22, 2008
Try looking into whatever directory your catalog is in and deleting the ".lock" file with the same name as your catalog.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 22, 2008 Oct 22, 2008

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I get this error message when I attempt to open my usual catalog; a new catalog opens OK. The problem began after a spontaneous reboot (never happened before or since) when Lightroom was loading. Re-starting the computer doesn't help. How can I unlock the catalog?

Windows Vista 64, Lightroom 2. 4GB RAMM, 2.6 GHz quad core processor, plenty of hard drive space.

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New Here ,
Apr 10, 2016 Apr 10, 2016

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How do you find the .lock file?

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LEGEND ,
Apr 11, 2016 Apr 11, 2016

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The .lock file is in the same folder as your catalog file. If you don't know what folder that is, then use your operating system's search feature to search for .lock files.

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Community Beginner ,
May 19, 2020 May 19, 2020

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THANK YOU!!!!!! You saved me a LOT of time.

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Engaged ,
Oct 22, 2008 Oct 22, 2008

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Try looking into whatever directory your catalog is in and deleting the ".lock" file with the same name as your catalog.

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Community Beginner ,
Aug 14, 2011 Aug 14, 2011

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Thanks for this solution. Worked great today for me!

Michael

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 09, 2011 Oct 09, 2011

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Thank you, I had the same problem.

But honestly Adobe… is it too damn complex to search for another lightroom process instead of asking the user to close a non existant process? If you don't find the process you can easily assume something crappy happened and delete the lock file by yourselves and then check the integrity of the database.

I mean… shouldn't be that complex right?

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New Here ,
Jan 27, 2012 Jan 27, 2012

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Thank you!   Worked like a charm.  I only encountered this error today for the first time after working with LR since release of version 1, and that was due to a sudden power outage.  Glad that finding the solution was this easy!

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Guest
Aug 13, 2012 Aug 13, 2012

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oh no,  i just did as suggested above. Great lightroom opens but all the grading i did on the pictures have gone! I even made a copy of the LRCAT file before deleting the lock file and LR was def closed as i just did a restart.

What happened to all the work i just finished? can i get it back. deadline 29 hours...

thanks.

info@stushapiro.com

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New Here ,
Dec 26, 2014 Dec 26, 2014

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Removing the lock file works. Thank you!

EOS

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 11, 2015 Mar 11, 2015

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I'm trying to find where to unlock this catalog but I cannot find it please help

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Community Expert ,
Mar 11, 2015 Mar 11, 2015

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The lock file is in the same folder as your catalog.

Unless you have told Lightroom to save it elsewhere, it wil be in the default location, which for Windows is somewhere in the My Pictures folder.

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New Here ,
Jul 21, 2018 Jul 21, 2018

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thanks so much! this worked for me!

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Community Expert ,
Mar 11, 2015 Mar 11, 2015

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You can also find the location under Edit > Catalog Settings > General,

Click Show.

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 11, 2015 Mar 11, 2015

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Thanks I found the file and deleted it and I am able to open the catalog now

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New Here ,
Oct 17, 2023 Oct 17, 2023

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LATEST

Thank you so much for explaining it so well. This helped me!! 

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New Here ,
Mar 17, 2015 Mar 17, 2015

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I made an account just to thank you! Thanks!

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New Here ,
Apr 12, 2015 Apr 12, 2015

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You helped a lot of people including myself, thanks a bunch!

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New Here ,
Apr 13, 2015 Apr 13, 2015

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Thanks Heaps. I was going crazy. Sue

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New Here ,
Aug 27, 2015 Aug 27, 2015

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Thank you for saving me so much work and worry!

Upgraded to Windows 10 and after a so called Critical update tried to run Lightroom and it asked for country and product code afterwards.  After update some programs needed product keys re-activated but all my Adobe programs seemed fine for almost 2 weeks until today.

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Community Beginner ,
Aug 30, 2015 Aug 30, 2015

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Worked perfectly for me, thanks! I was freaking out all day; should've looked for your wisdom earlier @DW_Harrison!

I had Windows 10 compatibility fears; looks like this has been a problem for awhile. So glad you asked the question @Harry_R_Matthews!

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New Here ,
Sep 14, 2015 Sep 14, 2015

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Thank you, deleting the .lock file worked!

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New Here ,
Nov 25, 2015 Nov 25, 2015

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THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

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New Here ,
Jan 31, 2016 Jan 31, 2016

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I have the same problem, using windows 7, and cannot locate the file that is keeping this program from running.  Can you be more specific with where the ".lock" is located.

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