Lightroom interferring with image downloads.

[larryh8339837]

I have a Windows 10 computer and normally when I add new photos from a memory card or flash drive, I download them to my hard drive.  I can open and view the photos before and after I download them to the hard drive using the computers photo viewing system.  I put them in a folder and then decide if I want to import the folder to Lightroom Classic. 

Today, I plugged in a memory card and all the photo thumbnails were represented by the blue Lightroom “Lr” badge.  I could not see the images unless I clicked on the blue badge which then opened Lightroom and displayed the image.  It did not import the image to Lightroom but it seems to have taken over my computers default photo viewing system.

In addition, image folders that were already on my hard drive have been affected.  For example, if I have 100 images in a folder maybe ten of the images will be the blue “Lr” badge and if I click on one it opens Lightroom.  I did not change any settings in Lightroom, Lightroom Classic or my computer.  In fact, I have never used Lightroom only Lightroom classic.   All Adobe updates are current.

[Rob_Cullen]

The [Lr] badge is the Lightroom (Cloud based) app.

Somehow your default app to 'open' your photo files has been set to "Lightroom".  'Open' a file with the [Lr] icon will show it in the Import/Add dialog for Lightroom. -Not what you want!

Lightroom-Classic [LrC] cannot 'Open' image files so you cannot set it as the Default App for photo images (LrC will only 'Open' catalogs. .LRCAT).  In my system I have set Photoshop [Ps] as the Default App for all image files (JPG, TIF, NEF) thus they show with the [Ps] file-type icon.

You need to reset the Default App for your images to be something other than Lightroom [Lr], either by going-

[Open with] > [Choose another App] > eg. choose 'Photoshop' > Set to 'Always', or somewhere in Windows-10 there will be a way to set the Default App for image files (but it cannot be Lightroom-Classic!).

Viewing your images in Lightroom-Classic will always be done by the Import dialog in Lightroom-Classic.

ps. You can set preferences in Lightroom-Classic to automatically show the Import dialog when a memory card is inserted so you can Import directly from card to computer and the LrC catalog without the intermediate step of copying to folders first. Then do your culling in Lr-Classic!  Using Embedded or Minimal Previews makes the import faster, and the Reject flag is a good way to decide images to cull.