Lightroom has pixelated all my photos

Report · Mar 07, 2025

Hello!

I have been using Lightroom for a couple months now (my subscription covers Lightroom classic, desktop, and mobile) and recently all of my photos in Lightroom have become pixelated.

This pixelation occurred seemingly at random, and happened to all photos I have in Lightroom - it had never been an issue before and I adjusted no settings around the time this began. It makes the photos more difficult to edit, as I typically zoom in quite far to remove small background objects, and the pixelation best be seen once you have zoomed in. The problem goes beyond editing, however, as my photos save with this pixelation as well. This is happening on all versions of Lightroom I use (classic, desktop, and mobile).
I will attach examples photos to this post...

Here is the first photo, saved to my device in February, before the pixelation happened. This is how my photos used to look when editing them as well, even while zooming in as far as possible:

The second photo is another zoomed in version of the photo above, but is an example of how my photos now look when editing them. Again, they look this way on all versions I use and this had never occurred before.

And here is another good example of the pixelation...this is how my photos look when I save them. This is another screenshot of a zoomed in photo. (Again, on all versions, and regardless of whether I am trying to save to my phone or computer).

Please help! I have deleted all existing smart previews, and have messed around with export settings to try to get my photos to export at the highest available quality. I don't understand why this suddenly started happening and have now spent days trying to figure out how to fix it, but to no avail. I loved Lightroom before this began, but will have to cancel my subscription if I can't figure out how to resolve the issue, as this completely downgrades my photo quality.

I have no idea what to do! Any and all help is appreciated! Thank you in advance!

Report · Mar 10, 2025

Hello @Jordan_Avis6074

At a glance, this looks like you are zooming in on Smart Preview copies of your images, and not the original full resolution images. Smart Previews are downsampled copies of your images that are 2560 pixels on the long side. These exist for easier image sync & display across devices, while providing good image quality for most kinds of edits (aside from extreme zoom pixel peeping).

If you open an image and then tap on the cloud icon, see if you can choose 'Get this original.' Originals are uploaded to cloud storage from all the Lightroom Mobile apps and Lightroom for Mac and Windows. FYI, Lightroom Classic does not sync originals to the cloud, but rather uploads only the 2560 pixel Smart Previews. If it's important to you to see pixels 1:1, for the most detail possible when cropping, you should import and upload images from a LR app apart from LR Classic that can upload original images.

I'll try to attach a video of my own LR Mobile app, showing the relative pixelization on can see with extreme zooms on Smart Previews, then the more detailed / less pixelized appearance that will of course be available with larger, full resolution images

Report · Mar 17, 2025

Thank you for your response!

I have tried deleting all smart previews, and have also tried tapping 'get the original' under the cloud icon, however the issue persists. Even when viewing my photos in Lightroom classic, they are pixelated.

I was not having this issue on any of my devices or applications when I originally uploaded these photos to Lightroom, and was able to edit and export 10+ photos over the course of several weeks before this issue occurred. Now every photo is pixelated like this, and the pixelation remains after exporting them. I have hundreds of photos imported and sorted at this point, and am really hoping to avoid having to re-import, re-sort, and re-edit them all.

I'm really not sure what to try next, but will try anything you think may help (even if I eventually must re-import all of my photos). I loved Lightroom before this seemingly random issue occurred, and so hope to find a solution so that I can continue using it.

Report · Mar 17, 2025

Hi again @Jordan_Avis6074

"Even when viewing my photos in Lightroom classic, they are pixelated. "
This I can't explain, but I am not a Lr Classic expert.

Experts in the LR Classic forums may have ideas about this, and they may not be checking in this particular forum that serves the cloud-centric LR apps. That forum is: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic/ct-p/ct-lightroom-classic

Report · Mar 19, 2025

I tried to post in that forum, however it just was deleted from there and moved back here, and I was emailed and told not to make duplicate posts.

I so appreciated your replies and advice, and was really hoping to find more help in this other forum. I don't know what to do and am getting incredibly frustrated as I have been unable to use Lightroom for weeks now.

Is there any way to move this post to that forum rather than making a new one so that it is not considered a duplicate post again? (And also so that I do not have to attempt to retype everything in different words and repost again.)

Report · Mar 18, 2025

Hello!

I have been using Lightroom for a couple months now (my subscription covers Lightroom classic, desktop, and mobile) and recently all of my photos in Lightroom have become pixelated.

This pixelation occurred seemingly at random, and happened to all photos I have in Lightroom - it had never been an issue before and I adjusted no settings around the time this began. It makes the photos more difficult to edit, as I typically zoom in quite far to remove small background objects, and the pixelation best be seen once you have zoomed in. The problem goes beyond editing, however, as my photos save with this pixelation as well.

This is happening on all versions of Lightroom I use (classic, desktop, and mobile), and is also happening in adobe photoshop. The issue persists even after entering 'develop' mode in Lightroom Classic. When checking upload status of the photo, it will claim that I am looking at the original RAW file, and not a smart preview.

I will attach examples photos to this post...

These screenshots are from my phone, but the pixelation that occurs on my desktop is exactly the same...

Here is the first photo, saved to my device in February, before the pixelation happened. This is how my photos used to look when editing them as well, even while zooming in as far as possible:

The second photo is another zoomed in version of the photo above, but is an example of how my photos now look when editing them. Again, they look this way on all versions I use and this had never occurred before.

And here is another good example of the pixelation...this is how my photos look when I save them. This is another screenshot of a zoomed in photo. (Again, on all versions, and regardless of whether I am trying to save to my phone or computer).

Please help! I have deleted all existing smart previews, and have messed around with export settings to try to get my photos to export at the highest available quality. I don't understand why this suddenly started happening and have now spent weeks trying to figure out how to fix it, but to no avail. I loved Lightroom before this began, but will have to cancel my subscription if I can't figure out how to resolve the issue, as this completely downgrades my photo quality.

I have no idea what to do! Any and all help is appreciated! Thank you in advance!

Report · Mar 19, 2025

Please post in a reply more complete examples, that is screenshots, from LrC showing the issue. By more complete I mean full screen as to include the histogram, the filmstrip, the Navigation panel, and preferably the History panel. Many if those bit of info could give a clue. The Histogram foe example will show if the original is in use, and if a smart preview might be in use. Errors/issues in the Histogram, the Nav panel, and occasionally the filmstrip can give clues (blank, gray, or odd colors). And the NAV panel will show current zoom (in case it is significant) Various symbols like ! and ? can give clues.

As to what community your discussion is in, it looks like a moderator moved and merged it/them into LrC community, as your initial posting was primarily about LrC, yes you are having similar/same issues in Lr, but multiple posts are not helpful, also more members will look at the LrC community than the Lr community (quite frankly many if us old farts could care less about Lr as opposed to LrC, some of us think of Lr as LrPOS)

Oh, and as to screenshot quality, those examples you posted above, they have a look like something taken with a smart camera as opposed to a screenshot via the OS, see:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/learning-center/how-to-screenshot-windows-11

Report · Mar 19, 2025

I might as well make the following request, it will probably be asked by other members, especially if you follow thru with that requested more complete screenshot:

Please post your System Information as Lightroom Classic (LrC) reports it. In LrC click on Help, then System Info, then Copy. Paste that information into a reply. Please present all information from first line down to and including Plug-in Info. Info after Plug-in info can be cut out as that is just so much dead space to us non-Techs and it takes up vast amounts of scroll space making the reply less readable and less likely that others will bother with your post. Also large amounts of text in a post also render the Translate function inoperable.

Report · Mar 19, 2025

Thank you for your reply!

I will post the requested information once I return home this evening. I am willing to give any info that could be helpful, I'm just so new at this and terrible with technology that I generally don't know what info that would be...I so appreciate your detailed explanation of what information I should provide.

I will follow up! Thank you again!

Report · Mar 19, 2025

When you get home, consider this discussion:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/please-help-all-of-my-pictures-are-blur...

Report · Mar 23, 2025

I appologize for the delay. I believe I have now collected all of the requested information...

This photo (above) is a screenshot of one of my photos in Lightroom Classic. This photo includes the filmstrip, the navigation pannel, and the histogram.

This next photo (above) includes the history panel, and is also an example of the pixelation I experience when zooming-in on my photos in develop mode. This pixelation did not use to happen, and only began a few weeks ago. I did not change devices or accounts prior to or within the time that the pixelation began. This pixelation can now be seen on Lighroom Classic on my desktop, as well as in Lightroom mobile on my phone.

In contrast, here is what the same photo looks like when I view it in my computer's gallery. Although I have still zoomed-in on this photo to 400%, the same pixelation can not be seen.

Photos that I export from Lightroom retain this pixelation, even when viewing them in my computer's gallery.

Please find below the requested system information, as reported by Lightroom Classic:

Lightroom Classic version: 14.2 [ 202502071718-3869eef7 ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en
Operating system: Windows 11 - Home Premium Edition
Version: 11.0.26100
Application architecture: x64
System architecture: x64
Logical processor count: 8
Processor speed: 2.0GHz
SqLite Version: 3.36.0
CPU Utilisation: 3.0%
Power Source: Plugged In
Built-in memory: 10187.5 MB
Dedicated GPU memory used by Lightroom: 547.2MB / 2033.9MB (26%)
Real memory available to Lightroom: 10187.5 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 1314.9 MB (12.9%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 2188.6 MB
GDI objects count: 812
USER objects count: 2358
Process handles count: 3377
Memory cache size: 0.0MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 17.2 [ 2155 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 499MB / 5093MB (9%)
Camera Raw real memory: 510MB / 10187MB (5%)

Cache1:
Final1- RAM:147.0MB, VRAM:0.0MB, IMG_0189.JPG
NT- RAM:147.0MB, VRAM:0.0MB, Combined:147.0MB

Cache2:
m:0.0MB, n:146.7MB

U-main: 103.0MB

System DPI setting: 120 DPI
Desktop composition enabled: Yes
Standard Preview Size: 1920 pixels
Displays: 1) 1920x1080
Input types: Multitouch: No, Integrated touch: No, Integrated pen: No, External touch: No, External pen: No, Keyboard: No

Graphics Processor Info:
DirectX: AMD Radeon(TM) Vega 8 Graphics (30.0.13022.3)
Init State: GPU for Display supported by default with image processing and export supported in the custom mode
User Preference: Auto
Enable HDR in Library: OFF

Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom Classic
Library Path: C:\Users\19022\Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom Catalog.lrcat
Settings Folder: C:\Users\19022\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom

Installed Plugins:
1) AdobeStock
2) Flickr

Thank you again for your detailed explanation of what I should provide, and for your interest in helping me with this issue. Please let me know if I have missed anything, or if more information is required.

Report · Mar 23, 2025

At 400% view, any image will be pixelated.

The Mac application you're using (last screenshot) is obviously using smoothing to hide the pixelation. LrC doesn't do this, it shows you the actual image with no smoothing.

To assess the quality of an image, view it at 100%, where one image pixel is represented by one screen pixel.

This is the only view that presents you with a true representation of the image.

Any other view will be inaccurate and misleading because the image has been scaled.

The screenshots below are of a sharp, high quality image viewed at 100% and 400%.

Report · Mar 23, 2025

If my photos only showed this pixelation in Lightroom this would make sense, however when I export my photos from Lightroom Classic back to my computer's storage, they retain the pixelation shown in Lightroom. If my computer's photo viewer smooths the pixelation of my original photos, why would it not also smooth the pixelation of photos exported from Lightroom? It is imporant to note that even photos I have not edited or changed at all still export from Lighroom Classic with this added pixelation.

I did look up details about Lightroom export settings to ensure my photos were exporting at the highest available quality, however this did not fix the issue either.

Furthermore, pixelation of my photos did not previously occur to this degree when using Lightroom. I noticed this pixelation when zooming in a few weeks ago, and had routinely been zooming in on photos before that without experiencing this. It has been making it very difficult to edit/erase small background details.

I so appreciate your reply, as I know very little about this software and any advice or clues is helpful. Let me know if you have any further suggestions of what may be causing this, or if you would like me to provide any other information that could be helpful. Thank you!

Report · Mar 23, 2025

At what magnification are you viewing the exported images?

At magnifications higher than 100%, quality will degrade, even if smoothing is applied. The image only has so many pixels, and viewing beyond 100% means that the application will have to invent the missing pixels (interpolation), and it never looks good.

If you have a 100 x 100 pixel image, it contains 10,000 pixels.

When you view the image at 400%, the application will display 400 x 400 pixels, which is 160,000 pixels, but the image only has 10,000. So 150,000 pixels (93% of the displayed pixels) have to be invented , resulting in pixelation and low quality.

So you can't zoom in beyond 100% and expect to retain quality.

In general, there is no need to view images at more than 100%, except when editing small details.

The only other exception is if you're using a 4k or higher resolution monitor (which you are not, according to the system info). High resolution monitors have so small pixels that it's necessary to use 200% view to assess image quality.

Report · Mar 25, 2025

I appreciate the information, however I don't think this is the issue.

One of the screenshots I included in my prior comment was of one of my RAW photos, opened on my computer's photo app, on which I had zoomed-in to 400%. Another of the screenshots demonstrates an example of me zooming-in to 400% on the same photo but in Lightroom Classic, in which my photo is much more pixelated. If I were to then export this same photo back to my computer's hard drive and zoom-in to 400% on it again using my computer's photo app, it would then be more pixelated than it originally was, (as shown in Lightroom Classic) and no longer as smooth as my photos are when I originally upload them and zoom-in to 400%.

If the issue is simply that zooming to 400% downgrades quality, then this downgraded quality should also be experienced when zooming to 400% on the original photos on my computer's hard drive, and not only on the photos that have been imported to and/or exported from Lightroom Classic. Photos that originally appear clear at 400% on my computer's photo app are pixelated at 400% in the same photo app after being imported to and exported from Lightroom Classic.
If the issue is simply that photos that are viewed at 400% look different on my computer's photo app compared to Lightroom Classic due to software differences, then the pixelation experienced in Lightroom Classic should not be retained and still visible when photos are exported and viewed in my computer's photo app, which shows much more clear resolution on my original files viewed at 400%.

Furthermore, I will repeat that this issue is new - I used the software for a time before this began happening (which was a few weeks ago) during which my photos in Lightroom Classic (and Lightroom mobile as well) appeared to have the same quality and resolution as the original files viewed on my computer's photo app. If zooming in were the issue, this difference would have already existed, and would not have suddenly occurred.

Report · Mar 19, 2025

And another inquiry that might as well be asked, how are you calibrating your monitor?

Report · Mar 23, 2025

I am not very knowledgeable about technology, and must admit that I'm not sure what it means to "calibrate" a monitor, or how to answer this question. Over a month ago now I was using Lightroom without this pixelation issue, and I did not change anything about my device or its settings between then and when this issue arose.

Should I look into calibrating my monitor? I will make every attempt to figure out how to do so if you think it may help. I will also add, however, that this pixelation occurs now on every device I can access Lightroom on, which includes my computer as well as 2 different types of smart phones. This leads me to believe the problem may be related to import/export or cloud storage settings rather than the settings of a particular device.

Let me know what you think! Thank you again for all of the information so far.

Report · Mar 25, 2025

Looking at your latest screenshots, the more complete ones, I notice a few things,

In first screenshot we can see the camera make and model
In the first screenshot we can see that the image selected is JPEG
Cannot see in any screenshot the file location, but it may be assumed to be on a hard drive, not the cloud
In the second screenshot we can see the History, and it appears the image was downloaded from the cloud, Via mobile.Also shown in filmstrip preview badge as those double arrows.
First screenshot in Library, second in Develop-. By design, the Library is poorer at displaying the image, for performance reasons. I assume you know this and you are comparing only via the Develop module image.
Third screenshot, I cannot see much difference, oh the width/height appears different, but that is a minor issue around real estate in use.
~~Difference between second and third display may not appear the same online on an iPad, vs on your monitor (~~scrolling up and down helps the eye see the difference)

As to my point
It appears that the image is not the true original, but a copy brought into LrC via an import from the cloud, apparently Adobe CC cloud. As such it is a degraded copy.
Do you still have in camera SD card, the actual original. And is that RAW or JPEG, and either way, can you import it?
Part of issue could be how image got from camera, to cloud, to LrC

An observation that has nothing to do with your issue or solution, but..

In your Library Module screenshot. In the Folders Panel. I notice your iPhone is included. An iPhone is a flash media like an SD card, correct? Not to be trusted for long term storage, and can lead to accidental deletion.
Are you actually using that iPhone as LrC photo media, or is that a leftover bit from some odd import done badly?

An odd inquiry. Treat this as in just in case, or to avoid an assumption.

That third screenshot, the one outside of LrC. Yes, I see the same size file (may or may not be important, probably not). And you state from computers gallery, so perhaps the same exact file, but perhaps not. So, is the image selected in LrC and the image selected outside of LrC, the same exact file? Is one on a hard drive, the other in the cloud? The workflow involving mobile makes me ask.