Lightroom Classic crashes and damages original image files

[Tsvetelin Pavlov]

When I import files into the Lightroom Classic catalog, and it starts to generate previews, it crashes at some random time. I turned off the parallel processing of previews, but it still crashes. It stops crashing if I turn off the hardware acceleration. But I want to use it with hardware acceleration. My drivers are updated, as well as all Adobe apps on my machine. And what I found unacceptable with every Lightroom crash, it corrupts and damages my original photo files.

[kglad]

<moved from cc desktop bugs>

[dj_paige]

When I import files into the Lightroom Classic catalog, and it starts to generate previews, it crashes at some random time. I turned off the parallel processing of previews, but it still crashes. It stops crashing if I turn off the hardware acceleration. But I want to use it with hardware acceleration. My drivers are updated, as well as all Adobe apps on my machine. And what I found unacceptable with every Lightroom crash, it corrupts and damages my original photo files.

By @Tsvetelin Pavlov

More than likely, your hard disk is malfunctioning causing both LrC crashes and photo corruption.

[Tsvetelin Pavlov]

Thank you. But it happened no matter where the image files are stored - I've tried with at least two drives, just because my photos' directories are on several drives.

[dj_paige]

It is a design feature of Lightroom Classic that it never writes to the image portion of your photo files. So LrC cannot be the cause of damage to the files. If it happens on multiple drives, there could be other hardware problems. But this is a hardware problem.

[Tsvetelin Pavlov]

I know and I am surprised. 😕 But currently, I am using DNGs; it does not create sidecar files, and I guess when LR tries to set the preview back into the DNG, it corrupts them. 

It also happens only when hardware acceleration is turned on. I already turned it off, but the whole point of upgrading my PC was to use the acceleration - it is several times faster and I really want to use it. 

[John R Ellis]

Please do the LR menu command Help > System Info and copy/paste the entire contents here so we can see exactly which versions of hardware and software LR thinks you're running and important LR options that are set.

[Tsvetelin Pavlov]

Lightroom Classic version: 12.4 [ 202306052221-b70c0975 ]

License: Creative Cloud

Language setting: en

Operating system: Windows 10 - Home Premium Edition

Version: 10.0.22621

Application architecture: x64

System architecture: x64

Logical processor count: 24

Processor speed: 3,4GHz

SqLite Version: 3.36.0

CPU Utilisation: 58,0%

Built-in memory: 65345,5 MB

Dedicated GPU memory used by Lightroom: 429,8MB / 8031,0MB (5%)

Real memory available to Lightroom: 65345,5 MB

Real memory used by Lightroom: 12858,1 MB (19,6%)

Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 15014,6 MB

GDI objects count: 905

USER objects count: 3315

Process handles count: 3061

Memory cache size: 11908,4MB

Internal Camera Raw version: 15.4 [ 1508 ]

Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5

Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2

Camera Raw virtual memory: 8294MB / 32672MB (25%)

Camera Raw real memory: 7911MB / 65345MB (12%)

System DPI setting: 168 DPI (high DPI mode)

Desktop composition enabled: Yes

Standard Preview Size: 3840 pixels

Displays: 1) 3840x2160, 2) 3840x2160

Input types: Multitouch: No, Integrated touch: No, Integrated pen: No, External touch: No, External pen: No, Keyboard: No

Graphics Processor Info: 

DirectX: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti (31.0.15.3667)

Init State: GPU for Export supported by default

User Preference: Auto

Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom Classic

Library Path: C:\Apps\Lightroom\Catalogs\Tsvetelin-v12\Tsvetelin-v12.lrcat

Settings Folder: C:\Users\tsvetelin\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom

Installed Plugins: 

1) AdobeStock

2) Find Duplicates 2

3) Flickr

4) Nikon Tether Plugin

5) Topaz Photo AI

Config.lua flags: None

Adapter #1: Vendor : 10de

Device : 2482

Subsystem : 50521462

Revision : a1

Video Memory : 8031

Adapter #2: Vendor : 1414

Device : 8c

Subsystem : 0

Revision : 0

Video Memory : 0

AudioDeviceIOBlockSize: 1024

AudioDeviceName: $$$/dvaaudiodevice/SystemDefaultAndEffectiveDeviceName=System Default - Speakers (Realtek(R) Audio)#{comment}DVAAU-4201250: Open the audio hardware preferences page.

AudioDeviceNumberOfChannels: 2

AudioDeviceSampleRate: 48000

Build: LR5x19

Direct2DEnabled: false

GL_ACCUM_ALPHA_BITS: 16

GL_ACCUM_BLUE_BITS: 16

GL_ACCUM_GREEN_BITS: 16

GL_ACCUM_RED_BITS: 16

GL_ALPHA_BITS: 0

GL_BLUE_BITS: 8

GL_DEPTH_BITS: 24

GL_GREEN_BITS: 8

GL_MAX_3D_TEXTURE_SIZE: 16384

GL_MAX_TEXTURE_SIZE: 32768

GL_MAX_TEXTURE_UNITS: 4

GL_MAX_VIEWPORT_DIMS: 32768,32768

GL_RED_BITS: 8

GL_RENDERER: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti/PCIe/SSE2

GL_SHADING_LANGUAGE_VERSION: 4.60 NVIDIA

GL_STENCIL_BITS: 8

GL_VENDOR: NVIDIA Corporation

GL_VERSION: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 536.67

GPUDeviceEnabled: false

OGLEnabled: true

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[John R Ellis]

"It stops crashing if I turn off the hardware acceleration."

"DirectX: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti (31.0.15.3667)"

You've got the most recent Studio driver installed. Based on reports here, the last six months of Nvidia drivers have seemed pretty stable. But you might try rolling back to a driver from 6-9 months ago to see if still happens (and thus might be related to the driver):

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-us

[Tsvetelin Pavlov]

I have had this problem ever since I assembled my new machine - somewhere around February this year. I regularly update the drivers, and every time I check if the issue persists. So, I already tried the older versions.

I tried to switch to the Game ready driver, but the issue persists.

[John R Ellis]

"When I import files into the Lightroom Classic catalog, and it starts to generate previews, it crashes at some random time."

Are you presented with the window asking to submit the crash report to Adobe?  Are you entering the email address associated with your Adobe Id?  If so, Adobe's Rikk Flohr is pretty good about doing an initial look at the crash reports and getting an internal bug filed if necessary.

[Tsvetelin Pavlov]

No, when this crash happens, nothing is shown - just LrC kills itself.

I had two or three times when the dialog for crash report appeared, so I entered my e-mail and entered details, but I didn't receive a reply or further info.

Just to be honest, yesterday started a support case with Adobe's support; they made a remote session, witnessed the crash, collected logs, and scheduled a call with me tomorrow.

[John R Ellis]

I hope Adobe Support is helpful, but beware that for all but the most routine issues, they can be pretty random and have a reputation for saying anything to close a case. If the call doesn't go anywhere, upload the before and after DNGs here, which could form the basis of an actionable bug report.

[Tsvetelin Pavlov]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

[John R Ellis]

"it corrupts and damages my original photo files."

Upload an original DNG and its corrupted version to Dropbox, Google Drive, or similar and post the sharing link here. That will let us see precisely how the file is getting damaged.

[Tsvetelin Pavlov]

Thank you. This was an intriguing suggestion.

I am attaching a photo from the original import, which was damaged - it's DNG and it is zeroed. I am attaching the corresponding NEF SOOC image.

It appears that the image gets zeroed -it is with the size of the original, but full of 'zero' bytes.

I tried several times to reproduce the problem (reimported the same photos several times with 'Copy As DNG' operation and rebuild the previews) and I got three BSOD and 5-6 crashes. But most interestingly, there was no damaged DNGs. 

There was one time, I succeeded - but multiple NEF files got zeroed, not DNGs. So, I guess, while it was copying 'as DNG', it first copies the original file, and it is the one that gets corrupted while converting it to DNG. I am attaching example pairs of them too.

Edit: unfortunately, I can't upload the damaged files - the platform rejects them with error message "The attachment's * content type (application/octet-stream) does not match its file extension and has been removed." and I can't upload archives. But I will upload screenshots of the files side by side.

[John R Ellis]

"I got three BSOD and 5-6 crashes."

A BSOD strongly indicates a hardware problem or buggy graphics driver.  In general, an application itself can't directly cause the operating system to crash -- if the OS crashes due to something an application does, that's an OS bug that would be fixed at high priority by Microsoft or Apple, and such crashes are rare.

The issue doesn't happen when LR's use of the graphics processor is disabled, which suggests an issue with the graphics hardware or driver.  Try rolling back to a 9-month old driver, as outlined above.

But I wouldn't rule out some other hardware problem that is only triggered when LR uses the graphics processor.  Try running Windows memory and disk diagnostics.

[Tsvetelin Pavlov]

You were correct - not hardware failure, but an overclocking setting in the UEFI.

[Tsvetelin Pavlov]

Thanks to all for the support. 

I am writing to help if someone else finds this thread.

Regarding the support of Adobe - I couldn't even join the call/meeting - it was in inconvenient hour, and I couldn't reschedule it.

I try to strip everything down from the motherboard, including taking out SSDs. In the end, I had to reset the UEFI back to the factory settings. And the problem was gone.

It appears when I set up the machine for the first time; I choose the medium at the auto overclocking setting and that was the reason for the crashes. I left it on UEFI defaults with the studio driver and everything is stable now.

[Henry285327161tjo]

Have you find any solution on this ? Currently i have the simlar issue but only recently after a random windows 11 update. 
But ya during import it would crash if i get lucky it would still upload in the background with the pop up saying error LRC has crashed

[dj_paige]

Your "similar" issue should probably be placed in its own (brand new) thread, with full explanation of the problem you are having. People will be happy to try to help in a new thread.

[Tsvetelin Pavlov]

As I wrote - In my case, semi-automatic overclock, enabled in the UEFI was the reason. When I reset the UEFI to factory defaults, LR became stable.

Good luck.