Lightroom Classic Will Not Open

[davidlhoste]

I have been running Lightroom Classic on a PC with Windows 10 Home for several years. Lightroom has worked fine until today. When trying to open it via shortcut or "open with" dialog request I get a blue circle for a couple of seconds then nothing. I have tried resetting preferences but it didn't work. I uninstalled and reinstalled Lightroom and that didn't work. I looked for the metrics.json file in my Caches folder, but the only .json file in the folder is LocPrefs.json. I moved that file and LR still didn't work. I moved LocPrefs.json back into the Caches folder. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Sameer K]

Hey @davidlhoste. Welcome to the Lightroom Community. I'll help you figure this out.

What version of Lightroom Classic are you working on? Does Lightroom.exe appear in the task manager?

Try these suggestions:

• If you have a recent backup of your Lightroom Catalog > Unzip the package & launch the backup.lrcat file directly.
• If your catalog is stored on an external drive or a folder backed up with a cloud service, move the catalog to the internal storage & try opening Lightroom Classic from the .lrcat file directly.
• Sign out of the Creative Cloud desktop app > restart your computer & sign in again.

Let me know how it goes.

Thanks!
Sameer K

[davidlhoste]

Sameer K,

Thank you for your help.

1. I don't know how to tell which version of LRC I am running except to loook at the help tab when the program is open and it won't open.

2. Yes, in each instance I try to open LRC, by shortcut on my desktop, shortcut on Adobe CC Home, or directly from an lrcat file, on external or internal storage, the TaskManager shows LRC running in the Processes tab and LR.exe in the details tab. When each attempted opening has failed, I have then ended the task in TaskManager.

3. I tried to open a recent backup after unzipping it with the same result -- LRC would not open.

4. I moved the unzipped .lrcat file to an internal drive and tried opening it directly with the same result.

5. I signed out of Adobe CC, restarted my computer, signed into Adobe CC, and tried to launch LRC from the lrcat file and from shortcuts with the same result.

[davidlhoste]

Further to my above reply:

Although I don't knkow how to tell which version I am running. I did uninstall LRC yesterday and re-installed it from the Adobee CC Home site.

[Michael J. Hoffman]

When you reinstalled yesterday, did that fix it? When you looked for the metrics.json file, where did you look? The latest version should fix this issue, but just in case:

Win: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Adobe\Lightroom\Caches\metrics.json 
(Note this is a hidden directory by default on Windows)
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/view-hidden-files-and-folders-in-windows-97fbc472-c603-9... 

Also, see this thread:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-lrc-12-2-1-fails-to-start-launch-or-is-extre...

[davidlhoste]

Michael Hoffman,

Thanks for your help. The reinstall did not fix the problem. I have my explorer settings set to show hidden files. There is no metrics.json file in the Caches directory. The only .json file there is LocPrefs.json.

[davidlhoste]

To Sameer K and Michael Hoffman,

Thank you for your help. I uninstalled and reinstalled LRC a second time, but I opted not to save preferences when prompted during the process. I was then able to launch LRC directing from the lrcat file, and LRC said it needed to optimize and update the catalog. It declared the catalog corrupt. I tried to open the last backup and it would not open. I presume it also is corrupt. LRC did open up my second-to-last backup and it works. I have to update the catalog with imports since the working backup which is about three weeks old. But otherwise it appears to be working. LRC close and backed up properly and then reopened fine. Very relieved. Thanks again for giving the time and having the patience to help me work through the problem.