LR Error "attempt to index a nil value"

[_Mike_Fulton_]

As of this evening, Lightroom has stopped working. At various times including startup (2x) I get a message saying "?:0: attempt to index a nil value". Then when the program is loaded, it appears to have an empty catalog.

At first I thought the problem might be a corrupted catalog file. However, if I hold down ALT at launch and specify another catalog, or if I create a new one, I get the same results.

Within the program, I see the message again when I switch modules to DEVELOP, or SLIDESHOW but not when I switch to WEB or PRINT. Once I've moved away from the LIBRARY module, any attempt to move back to it results in the message and staying on the same module I was on.

I am running Windows XP Pro SP2. There is 2gb RAM on the system and 24gb free disk space on C.

I tried UNINSTALLING the program then re-installing with the 2.1 update, but that made no difference.

Something that may be related: I installed the MS .NET 3.5 framework in between the last time I used LR successfully and the first time I saw it fail. I don't know if there is a conflict there... everything else I've tried seems fine and I've got a BUNCH of software installed.

[_Julie_Kmoch_]

The .NET framework shouldn't be a factor. I suspected your catalog at first, too, but your note that multiple catalogs exhibit this makes me suspicious of something in your preferences.

What I'd suggest trying:
1. Launch LR. Go to Edit > Preferences > Presets tab > click "Show Lightroom Presets Folder"
2. In Win Explorer, rename the "Lightroom" presets folder to "Lightroom-x"
3. Quit and relaunch LR. It will ask you to manually find your catalog.
4. See if the problem went away.

If that fixes the problem, I'd appreciate getting a copy of your problematic presets folder (most likely the prefs file) at jkmoch at adobe dot com.

If it doesn't fix the problem, you'll probably want to get rid of the new Lightroom presets folder that was recreated when you launched at step 3, and restore the old -x one. Then we'll have to look at your catalogs.

[Guest]

Help! I tried this and now my catalog has reverted to a previous time where thousands of images are not showing up...I renamed the preferences folder. it didn`t work so i changed it back and now I appear to have lost thousands of images from the catalog..any ideas anyone??

[ptsmantua]

We can team viewer or your fav controls to gather intel u need and detemine

what intel I need to solve

[JMGant]

Hey Julie, I know this is an old thread, but it popped up while searching for a solution. I tried what you suggested and then later restored my preset folder. Everything seems to be good now, but for some reason, my identity place and module fonts have all changed back to default. Can anyone let me know where those are stored and how to restore them to how I had them previously?

[JMGant]

I also just realized that one of my publishing service apps (Pass Plus) is now missing? Ugh, trying to correct this caused more of a pain than it was worth.

[nicolasm38558463]

Hi, I know that this answer is very old, but I bought a new computer and saved my presets on an external disk.

With this computer, I downloaded the applications that I occupy in adobe and I kept throwing the error in LR, since I did what was proposed in the answers. the truth is I am very urgent because those presets are very important for my work

[Left Mouse]

I had indexed photo files on drives R: and S:. R: became a much larger drive and I moved all the S: photos over to R:.

When I asked LR to find the S:...Pix folder ("Find Missing Folder"), and browsed to R...Pix, LR cataloged many of the sub-folders formerly on S: in their new R: location.

Not all of them.

I can individually find a remaining folder that was on S: and LR will then show it on R:. But LR doesn't notice the other nearby AWOL folders, so this recovers only one folder (typically, one day) of photos at a time. Then I wait for LR to process for half a minute, digesting the change.

When I try again to "Find Missing Folder" the S:...Pix folder, and browse to R:...Pix, I get the pesky window,

   An internal error has occurred: ?:): attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)

After I dismiss the Error alert, LR does not complete the Find Missing Folder request.

I use the SmugMug publishing service plug-in. I think that is all.

I reproduced this after upgrading to LR classic CC to 8.0, Camera Raw to 11.0.

Build 1193777.

Windows 10.

Dick

[_Mike_Fulton_]

Julie, that did the trick!

I'll email you a ZIP file with the old presets folder right away.

Thanks very much!

[jpsnuffy]

Had the same thing happen to me, but I thought it had something to do with the size of my catalog. I was creating a new catalog with LR3B and it was creating 1:1 previews when it hung at 34%. I have 340GB+ pictures that I wanted in one catalog (don't know if that is best practices or not, just what I have been doing). I had to kill the program (end task) and when I reopened it I got this same error as the previous gentleman: "?:0:attempt to index a nill value"

I did what you recommended above and it fixed the issue, but upon restarting LR3B it didn't ask me for the location of the catalog. All my pictures are there, but my Develop Presets and possibly other things are not, oh well.

If you want my Prefs folder let me know.

Glenn

[Gary_Rowe]

I get this message randomly as I delete unused keywords - when I try a second time they ususally delete Ok ... but it is annoying!

I just ignore it, but when my wife gets stuff like this she doesn't know what to do - and usually then I get the grief for telling her to use shoddy s/w 😞

Gary

[Jeannine_c]

While uploading images to smugmug for a wedding I just did I got this message.  It really freaked me out so I just started backing up all my stuff.  Here is my concern, is it in one of my presets that I used to edit my images?  Is there a way to figure out which preset it is.  I have only 347 images left and I could look for the presets left that are on those photos.  Maybe I could then just delete that preset instead of all my wonderful presets?  I haven't had any issues but an error message when my computer is trying to finish the last 347 images of 1580 already uploaded.  LR still seems to be working just fine.  So I went in and exported all the images to a folder on my desk top because I don't have a current back-up....lessoned learned and cross your fingers for me.

Any explanations or advise would be so amazing...thank you ahead of time.

[jpsnuffy]

Jeannine,

     If you follow the advice of the previous poster Julie Kmoch and then gradualy add presets back in one at a time you might be able to find the one that is causing the issue. I may be guessing, but I believe the issue has something to do with either an incompatible Preset setting (eg a older preset in newer version of LR) or a corrupt Preset.

Say you bought LR2 and imported a bunch of Presets from the internet, cuz 'Hey these effects are cool and I don't have to recreate the wheel', and then you upgraded to LR3 (not a clean install) and now one of the Presets that calls a certain slider setting or value that is different in LR3 doesn't work anymore. This might be why it throws the error, but again I am just speculating.

Location of LR Preset folder in Windows Vista/ Windows 7

C:/Users/<YourUserName>/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/Lightroom/Develop Presets

If you do not see the folder AppData, you may need to change the settings in Windows Explorer to 'Show Hidden Files and Folders'. To do that in Windows Vista/ Windows 7, open a Windows Explorer window, Click on Organize, then Foler and Search Options. Then click on the View tab and select the option button next to Show hidden files, folders and drives.

Hope this helps a bit,

Glenn

[sportshots]

I just received the same message when I tried to upload to one of my SmugMug pages. I was able to upload the same images to my other SmugMug page with no problems. Any suggestions? everything else works fine

[John R Ellis]

Make sure you have the most recent version of the plugin. Go to File > Plug-in Manager, select the Smugmug plugin, and then scroll the right column to the Status pane, where you can see the version number. The most recent version is 3.0.9: How do I install or update the Lightroom plugin? | SmugMug

[sportshots]

I have the most recent, but it says 'installed may not work'

But I'm uploading to my other page, they both use the same plugin right.

[kfc41447913]

I got the same error ("attempt to index a nil value") when I tried to preview or play under "Slideshow". In fact, I tried to create a video clip by using "Export Video Slideshow", but it hung until I stopped the action. I guess they may be of the same cause.

Both features (preview/play slideshow and export video slideshow) were working fine last August under Window 7 and previous LR version(6.6 - I guess). Now, I have Window 10, and LR version is 6.10.1.

I have tried to remove preference files, preset files and remove/re-install LR (version 6) with update to 6.10.1. None of these work.

[Rob_Cullen]

Nobody (in my search of forums) seems to have an answer to this cryptic error message. But here are some comments-

Have you checked that every photo in the slide-show is 'available'?  ie. Have you checked to see that none are 'missing'. In the library (or collection) grid view, missing photos show the exclamation mark on the thumbnail border [!]

Do you have a background image option checked, but again a 'missing' image?

If you are using a music track, Is the music file suitable and available?

(A different appearance of the error has been seen in the Export dialog when the field for "Post Processing : After Export: " is empty. It needs to show "Do Nothing" to prevent the error.)

So maybe in your slideshow set-up options (overlays, etc)  there is something not available or workable with the slide-show.

[kfc41447913]

I cut down the number of slides from 200 to 6 and ensure no abnormal sign from each of the pictures (jpg files).

To simplify the case, all options in the right column for slideshow are disable, no overlay, no music, no border...

However, the same error message (attempt to index a nil value) still occurs. The same message for both version 6.0 and 6.10.1.

Is there anything I can try to find any clue?

[Rob_Cullen]

This thread has some other suggestions-

An internal error has occurred: ?:0: attempt to index a nil value

Have you tried the procedure of creating a "New" catalog and then importing the "Old" catalog into the "New".?

Note: This is NOT importing images- it is "Import from another Catalog".

Some earlier versions of Lr  (are you sure you have 6.10.1 ? ) would not accept "Portrait" format images, only "Landscape" images would work.

If you have very large original files, could you export them to a smaller pixel dimension (eg. 1920x1080) with the "Add to this catalog" option, add these re-sized images, then see if these re-sized files work in the slide-show.

[kfc41447913]

I am using only 6 pictures for debugging purpose, and they are all landscape images, no portrait. My photos are not big, but they were exported to much smaller size (1080x720 pixel, only 65K).

These 6 small size photos were imported to a new catalog. The same error message shows up again when click on "preview" under slideshow.

One thing needed to mention: once the error shows up, the preview and play button (under slideshow) were grey out and unable to click again, until close and re-open LR.

[kfc41447913]

I also tried to redo as the link suggested: creating"new" catalog and importing the "old" catalog into the "new" one. The same error message shows up.

[Rob_Cullen]

Now beyond my "pay grade" sorry. As a user with limited slide-show experience I can only offer suggestions-

Also seen in forum posts-

're-imported' my images to the 'Library'  this time it worked. 

I contacted LR's helpdesk. The problem does not occur with a newly created admin user. It seems the original user account has a glitch.

Maybe time to contact Adobe support and see if they can login to your computer and get it going.  Hint: Backup your catalog and presets first!

[johng85125277]

Same problem for me too, has been since version 6.2 or 3 now on 6.10 win 7 etc.

[Rob_Cullen]

Hi Johng

What "Same Problem"?

It might help if you could add some more details- Like -When do you see the error message? (quote it exactly) When you start Lr, or in a Slideshow, etc.

Some screen-clips also help us (other users) provide possible answers.

Do you have any 'missing' photos in your library?

Have you tried resetting the Preferences file?