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_Harry_R_Matthews_
New Participant
October 22, 2008
Answered

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

  • October 22, 2008
  • 41 replies
  • 123199 views
    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer _DW_Harrison_
    Try looking into whatever directory your catalog is in and deleting the ".lock" file with the same name as your catalog.

    41 replies

    Show previous replies
    A
    Aymster
    New Participant
    December 25, 2014

    Great! Now I am getting an error that says my catalog cannot be opened because it is not writable. I first was getting the file locked error from this thread. Then, I deleted the .lock file for my catalog and now this new error appears. Seems like I am having a lot more problems lately. Is it me?

    D
    dj_paige
    Brainiac
    December 25, 2014

    Not writable means that the folder it is in (or the file itself) does not have write permission. Change your permissions!

    R
    rsbjsb
    Known Participant
    May 31, 2015

    Where are the permissions? I deleted the lock file, reopened old catalog, saved that and still get the error code that the file may be in use or unwritable. Thanks..p.s. This only started for me with lr6 cc

    Z
    zitabm
    New Participant
    December 15, 2014

    Thank you! Worked perfectly for me!

    (Original post from 2008, and here I am in late 2014 using the same solution... C'mon, now, Adobe, it's not like this is a new problem.)

      W
      wellroots
      New Participant
      October 30, 2012

      I was just having the same issue, and my problem is now solved!  Thank you so much, @DW_Harrison!!

      A
      Anonymous
      June 7, 2013

      I am presently having this same issue but cannot find any files with "lock" at the end to delete.  Any other suggestions?   I'm really in a bind as I needed the program to finish some baseball collages, etc and time is limited.  Any help ASAP would be greatly appreciated.

      Thank you

      Rhalene

        E
        eszostak
        New Participant
        August 18, 2012

        Hiya - just wanted to add my thanks as I was having this same problem and the solution has worked for me as well now.

        A
        Anonymous
        November 17, 2011

        I can not tell you how many times LightRoom 3.5 or earlier just freezes under Win 7-64 bit. You can  not CTL+ANT+DEL or anything else but manual shut down. This typically occurs when user enters something before a LightRoom task is completed. It is not acceptable!

        When rebooting, anything might have happened but usually nothing. I failed to notice a lost folder of all 2011 photos. This occurred just after my last backup so some delay before even noticing since I was working on older folders. So all are now gone.

        The most recent freeze was the typical several minute wait while loading the catalog and reading the camera's card. The inevitable reboot left the catalog locked so it was easy to simply delete the lock file after nearly an hour getting to this suggestion. Maybe we are using oppisite sides of the brain but the delete lock file suggestion would help on the actual error message. The real problem is frequent lock ups! Do you think enough 64 bit users might dump this product with similar lock ups / lost files or folders and long research time to find a solution? Release 4 is not looking likely!

        L
        Loulou711
        New Participant
        May 17, 2011

        Great! Thank you!

        B
        birddog14
        New Participant
        April 23, 2011

        deleted the .lock file...worked for me...

        my computer rebooted and I couldn't open my catalog....I was going crazy...it would open a different catalog fine, but not my large catalog....so I did a search and found this post...thanks so much

        jpwoods
        jpwoods
        New Participant
        July 20, 2017

        How do you delete the locked file?

        Per Berntsen
        Per Berntsen
        Community Expert
        July 20, 2017

        The answer has been given in several posts in this thread, like here: Re: Lightroom catalog cannot be opened because another application already has it opened

        Or see this article, Lightroom basics - scroll down to "Some common problems".

        A
        Anonymous
        December 1, 2010

        Thank you, it solved my problem as well!

        www.marciocavalcanti.com

        Miami Wedding Photographer

        _
        _Harry_R_Matthews_Author
        New Participant
        October 23, 2008
        Thank you! It worked.
          _
          _DW_Harrison_Correct answer
          New Participant
          October 22, 2008
          Try looking into whatever directory your catalog is in and deleting the ".lock" file with the same name as your catalog.
            M
            Michael_J__O_Connell
            New Participant
            August 15, 2011

            Thanks for this solution. Worked great today for me!

            Michael

              L
              luisferfranco
              New Participant
              October 10, 2011

              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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