Lightroom corrupting RAW files? Hardware issue?

[AdamCohn]

I've started having some issues with RAW files being corrupted when I open them in Lightroom. I've done a lot to troubleshoot and narrow down the symptoms, and here is what I can tell you. If anyone has any ideas for how to solve this, I'd really appreciate it!

Equipment

Canon 7D, 1 32GB CF card, 1 4GB CF card

Lenovo Laptop, Win 8; Lightroom 4

Dell PC, Win7, Lightroom 5

Here's what the corruption looks like in my Library view. Note that all of the photos are the same. I just rapid-fired a bunch of shots down the hallway to test this out.

I first noticed the corruption on the PC, pulling photos from the 32GB card. I bought a new hard drive (SSD hybrid), installed a clean version of Windows 7, and upgraded to Lightroom 5, then the 5.3 update. I re-downloaded some photos from the 32GB card, and they still show up corrupted. So here is my further testing:

• I shot a series of photos like shown above on the 32GB card, downloaded them on the laptop with a new USB cable. The photos look good.
• I shot a series of photos on the 4GB card, downloaded them to the laptop with the same cord, they look good.
• I imported the same photos photos from the 4GB card and from the 32GB card on the PC with my existing Lighrtoom Catalog and they are corrupted.
• I created a new Lightroom Catalog on the PC and downloaded the same photos from the 4GB card and from the 32GB card on the PC and they are corrupted.

So what gives? I think we can rule out corruption or issues on the hard drive, the OS, the USB cable, and both of the CF cards. It baffles me that a new HD, clean OS install, new catalog, new USB cable, and upgraded Lightroom haven't solved the problem. Is it possible that there is some other part of the hardware on my PC which is corrupting the files?

I'd love some insight if folks have any ideas!

Thanks,
Adam

[dj_paige]

Lightroom never writes to the image portion of your original RAW files. So Lightroom cannot corrupt the files.

The reason DPP is showing un-corrupted files is because DPP usually shows the embedded JPG preview, rather than some version of the RAW, and often the JPG preview is uncorrupted even when the RAW itself is corrupted.

Anyway, because of the above facts, you still need to investigate to see which component of your hardware has caused this corruption.

[Nardnob]

I had this problem on a MacBook and an iMac and corruption was only appearing through Lightroom, not PhotoMechanic or any other editing platform.

It wasn't until I was editing on the road without an Internet connection that I realized the problem was not occurring. That led me to believe something was wonky with one of my other services that was always on and connected to the Internet that had any contact with my files...

DROPBOX!

Then I did some testing by putting my raw files in another folder - same hard drive, but not a folder connected to any type of file-syncing service. No issues. None whatsoever.

Now this may not be the solution for everybody, but it worked for me. Frustrating to have another step added to the workflow - copy/pasting to a dropbox folder after editing, but hey, glad to have it figured out.

Happy shooting!

[Nardnob]

I suppose you could also pause syncing and see if that helps, then resume when you're done editing. I have not tried it.

[Geoff the kiwi]

Nardnob  wrote

I suppose you could also pause syncing and see if that helps, then resume when you're done editing. I have not tried it.

Backing up/syncing while using Lightroom is a recipe for disaster for both the image files and catalog. Two applications trying to read files at the same time is not sound practise!!