LR Classic not working after Mac OS Updates

[HMcGowanPhotog]

Lightroom Classic issue after Mac OS Updates:

• Software: Lightroom Classic
• OS: Mac OS Sequoia 15
• Issue: Catalog freezing; Sync would not progress; Upon import, could not locate/existing Collections not displaying; endless/frozen Optimize Catalog

I've been having issues with LrClassic ever since the big Mac OS and Adobe updates in October 2024. Here are the issues I'm running into lately!

1 - Catalog Freezing: When I open LrClassic, it freezes for 2-3 minutes completely before I can do anything. Once it is unfrozen, if I want to import images to my catalog, I cannot add anything to existing collections (they do not display, the list is empty).

2 - Sync does not progress:

Sync is just stuck spinning, nothing syncs.

3 - Optimize Catalog does not work:

If I try to optimize the catalog, it sits infinitely and I have to force quit Lightroom.

I spent 4 hours on the phone with Adobe, and they got it working once we copied my catalog into a new catalog. And then Mac released a security update and I’m right back where I started. Please help! I’m behind on jobs and I pay way too much for this software to not be able to do my work!

[pas_gcm]

Hi, I've just installed the updated Lightroom Classic on a new MacBook Pro running Sequoia 15.2. It freezes on the opening screen when "Reading preferences" and won't do anything. Yesterday, before the newest Sequoia and LR updates, it simply crashed as soon as I clicked on it. Someone please help.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Please perform a clean install of the latest version (released today) 14.1. 

Clean Lightroom Install Procedure

Close Lightroom

Restart the computer

Use the Adobe Creative Cloud App to uninstall Lightroom

Restart the computer

Install Lightroom via the Creative Cloud App without launching any other programs.

Restart the computer

Launch Lightroom

Wait 5 minutes

[pas_gcm]

Hi Rikk, thanks for your kind answer. I tried your "spell" but LR Classic still freezes upon "Reading Preferences" as you can see from the attached screenshot. My MacBook Pro is brand new and I don't have any old catalogs in it or preferences, etc. 

I would use the new version of Photoshop instead but that's problematic too because it won't open my Sony ARW files. It says it doesn't recognize them.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

A Preference File will survive a Lightroom uninstall/reinstall. Sometimes weird behavior is corrected/cured by resetting the preferences.

Reset Procedure:

1. Close Lightroom.

2. Hold down [Alt/Opt]+[Shift] while restarting Lightroom.

3. Overwrite the Preferences when prompted by the dialog.

4. Close Lightroom.

5. Restart Lightroom.

Does the behavior continue after resetting the preferences?

[pas_gcm]

Unfortunately it freezes even after resetting the preferences. I've tried twice so far. Thanks so much.

[pas_gcm]

Yay!!! Success! Do you know what I did? I tried to install Lightroom (not the Classic one) and it said it needed to fix some folders so I let it and it opened. Then I closed it and opened Lighroom Classic and it worked! I can also open Sony ARW in it and suddenly Photoshop is recognizing the ARW files too.

[jvbandes]

There is clearly still a problem with Adobe Light Room Classic and Mac Sequoia Developer Beta 15.2 (24C101) when importing pictures. Not sure if it happens when importing to the local hard drive but when the catalog is on the Mac local hard drive and you save the photos to a synology NAS using SMB it does in fact hang. This is the issue preventing me from upgrading my Mac Studio from Senoma to Sequoia. I did just do a reset of the preferences and am going to try again. This time I am going to wait until the Other destination is done counting up. It is slowly climbing so far at 1420 and still going. On My Mac Studio (which is running Senoma) it works fine but on my Mac Mini M4 Running Sequoia it does in fact hang. I dont need to wait on the Senoma version before I can start importing but there are stability issues still on Adobe Light Room Classic (latest version) and Mac Sequoia. Not sure why it works on Sonoma but has issues on Sequoia. I have alterted both Adobe and Apple and I hope they fix it soon since I would like to upgrade my Mac Studio to Sequoia as well but this bug is holding me back from proceeding. Yes I do large imports (in this case its 3,784) and its now at 2095 and still updating. I am hoping that by waiting for the Destination to finish updating before I click import that it will work this time on this build. I am also using a high speed 10 GB connection to the NAS which should help. I can tell already however that the import is also much faster on Sonoma and as I said, I dont need to even wait for the destination to finish first before I click on the import button. Been sitting at 3,669 now for several minutes, It is not yet frozen or hung so I am still waiting on the remaining 115 to finish. They are not finishing so I am now going to attempt to import It could be that the 115 where duplicates. Import is running will update after it hopefully completes

[jvbandes]

It crashed. The SMB connection after copying only 48 images now shows the error Conld not copy to destination folder because it is not writable (Error 3621) This usually indicates that the SMB network share has diconnected. Again works fine on Sonoma so looks like its still a bug not resolved by Microsoft or Adobe. I am removing Synology from the problem since it works on Sonoma so its not the NAS or Synology its either Adobe, or Microsoft or both.

[jvbandes]

Just updated to the latest versions of both Mac Sequoia Beta 15.3 (24D5034f) and Adobe Light Room 14.1.1 - It now counts up the files quickly but still appears to hang on the copy procedure. This is so annoying and keeping me from upgrading my MAC Studio to Sequoia. Going to do a reboot clean and try again. Also tried over Standard Ethernet and 10 GB Ethernet same problem it hangs.

[jvbandes]

Just did a reboot and Reset Adobe Light Room Classics Preferences (Hoding down Option Shift) and click the app. On import the Destination location now counts up the files properly and does not freeze or hang however after clicking on the import button it begins to populate the Library in spurts. Now made it past 8 photos and is at 74 but again is just sitting at 74 so I beleive it is going to hange again. Still working the problem however its clearly still an issue and is either Mac Sequoia or Adobe Light Room Classic. I think we can rule out Synology (the NAS) since it works fine on Mac Sonoma. It is cleary a problem between Mac Sequoia.

[jvbandes]

I have it working now in Sequoia but I needed to import using NFS not SMB. Apparantly Sequoia still has some issues with SMB. Mac changed a few things in SMB protocol on Sequoia and that is probably causing the issue but I am happy to report that NFS works so I will upgrade my Mac Studio now to Sequoia and just use NFS for now.

[marjorieL]

I cannot even open Lightroom, much less reset preferences.  I have been on phone support for two sessions:  one for 4 hours and one for about 2 hours.  They say there is known bug and are working on it.