LrC Repeatedly Closes Without Warning

[David Luery]

I am reposting this in Bugs as no one has responded when it was posted in Discussions.  I hope it is OK to repost it.

My computer is running Windows 11, Version 22H2, build 22621.3593.  My version of LrC is 13.3.1.

For the past 2 or 3 months, without warning LrC will simply close and I have to restart it. I have not been able to associate its closing with anything I am doing. I do not receive any error message at all when this happens.  When I do restart, LrC never displays the image I was working on when it closed and similarly it never opens up to the same folder in my catalog. I have uninstalled and reinstalled LrC using the CC app, but that has not solved the problem.  I assume that this behavior is due to some sort of bug. 

I have also noticed that LrC is using far more memory than it did in the past.  Right now Task Manager is reporting that LrC is using 6,883.2 Mb of memory; right now I'm working on an image from my Canon R5 (51.2 Mb).  Last evening, working on the same file, Lightroom was using over 10,000 Mb, which is far, far more than it has used in the past.

I have attached the System Info information, as I assume you will need that.

Any ideas on what is causing this to happen will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

David

[Sameer K]

Hey, @David Luery. Thanks for including the System info. We've moved this to the discussion for now.

Is there a crash report pop-up when Lightroom Classic crashes? Please submit the crash reports to us: https://adobe.ly/4cE76mn

Besides Lightroom crashing, check the Processes in the Task Manager (Windows) for unexpected read/write operations.

To begin troubleshooting, test some variables like:

• Unplug any external peripherals & use wired input devices.
• Unplug external drives.
• Temporarily, unplug extra displays & only keep one active at a time.

Let me know how it goes. Thanks!
Sameer K

[David Luery]

I do not receive any crash reports.  LrC just closes with no warning and no crash report afterward.  I haven't noticed any unexpected read/write operations, but then I haven't been looking Task Manager while using LrC.  I'll try to keep an eye open in the future.

As to peripherals, all of my input devices are wired and, so far as I recall, the only wireless devices I use with my main computer are a couple of printers.  The wired peripherals are my (somewhat older) LaserJet printer, the sound system and a multitude of external drives, all of which are USB, not not necessarily USB 3.  I can disconnect all the peripherals as well as my secondary monitor.  Thanks for the suggestions.

[GoldingD]

s no one has responded when it was posted in Discussions.

Well, unless you had two postings,, and one got ignored while the other had one reply, Then that is not quite correct.

I a not the member that reply, but i will go ahead and repeat the one inquiry, and add an observations.

ref: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/lrc-closes-without-warning/m-p/14673566

First up:

Graphics Processor Info: 
DirectX: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 (32.0.15.5585)
Init State: GPU for Export supported by default
User Preference: Auto

So GPU driver Windows Store version 32.0.15.5585. That would be NVIDIA v555.85. That is not the current version, the current version (Studio) is v555.99.

Update that and see if any improvement occurs. Probably not, v555.85 is not very old, but always check and correct that.

The various community members may have been waiting for your reply to that before replying in on your discussion.

______________________________________________

second up (edited)

Library Path: C:\Adobe\Lightroom\Lightroom Catalog\Lightroom Catalog v13-1.lrcat

How much free space in percent (And I do mean %) on that C drive? Looking for at least 20%, some say 25%

And do you have other hard drives, be they internal or external, to place that catalog on?

________________________________________________

Third up

Issue can be, a cluttered catalog can lead to errors. Best to keep plugins neat.

[David Luery]

Okay, let me start by answering questions.

> NVIDIA driver version currently installed is 555.85.  I will update to the latest release.  However, as 555.85 was not released until May 21 and my problems predated that, 555.85 is not likely to be the problem.

> Free space on C: is 1327Gb out of 1887Gb total, for 70% free space.

> "And do you have other hard drives, be they internal or external, to place that catalog on?" I'm not entirely clear what you are asking, but if you are asking whether I have other drives I could move the catalog to, the answer is yes; as you noticed, it is currently saved on my boot drive, C:, but I could move it to any of a number of other drives, including my internal data drive as well as external SSD and SATA drives.

> As to the installed plugins, I do not know what the DxO Photolab 7 Importer is, to be honest, and a Google search didn't turn up any information.  Similarly I don't know what "Plugin Parameters" refers to.  I am reluctant to do anything that would affect ProShow, as it is no longer possible to re-install and activate it if anything goes wrong.  But I no longer have any need for older versions of DxO's Nik Collection, so I will remove them.

[GoldingD]

can you also post a screenshot of LrC /preferences/Performance/ ?

[David Luery]

Here is a screenshot of the Performance tab:

I notice that compared to my setup, your cache is quite a bit larger, though perhaps you have a much larger number and size of images, and also that your cache is not residing on your boot drive, whereas mine is on the boot drive.  Would you guess that that might be affecting the problems I am having with LrC?

[GoldingD]

• My CACHE is on a separate SSD, allowing me to be over generous. Maybe I should create a example with a smaller CACHE limit.
• My CACHE on that separate SSD also avoids being on the root drive C very much on purpose ans to avoid being on the same drive as the Windows Paging file. That can be a small performance issue as the two folders can compete in read/wrights.
• Now that CACHE can relate to performance in the Develop module.
• And, typically 20GB is probably fine. Issue comes up when users have it at the default 5GB that even Adobe states is too small.
• Point if asking is too small a limit for the   CACHE (say 5 GB) and for Windows what drive (recommend not C if possible)

Other point in asking for that screenshot was to make sure no odd error was showing up for the GPU

[David Luery]

I just moved my cache off the boot drive, back to the data drive where is used to reside, albeit not in the last couple of years.  Thanks for the suggestion.  We'll see if that helps.

[GoldingD]

I just moved my cache off the boot drive, back to the data drive where is used to reside, albeit not in the last couple of years.  Thanks for the suggestion.  We'll see if that helps.

By @David Luery

Oh that was not a solution, just an observation and tip

This stated in case another member misunderstood. My replies have solved nothing.

[KR Seals]

Do you have to find and delete the catalog .lock file before LrC can be restarted?

Normally it is best to keep the catalog folder on your C: drive since it's usually the fastest.

When you are able to exit LrC normally, are you backing up, checking the catlog integrity and optimizing the catalog.

Do you see any indication that your computer is getting hot? Are the cooling fans all working ok?

[David Luery]

I am able to restart LrC without any problem, so I have not had to delete the .lock file.  And, to be honest, I don't think I have ever previously been aware of a .lock file. 

My catalog is on my boot drive which is an SSD and is the fastest drive I have.

As to backup, I have LrC backup "Once a week, when exiting Lightroom," and I just checked to be sure that both Test Integrity and Optimize are selected.

So far as I can tell, my computer hasn't run hot.  According to  CrystalDiskInfo, my two internal drives, one an SSD and the other a SATA drive, typically run at between 48 and 52 degrees centigrade, though I will try to remember to check while I am actually processing images in LrC.

[KR Seals]

The fact that LrC is not leaving the .lock file is an indication that it is just shutting down or closing normally as you said in your initial post. I would be looking at computer related issues, like failing keyboard or something else. That something else is something I have no idea about. I'm not sure we have ever heard of this exact situation on the forum. If you have the inclination, I would just reinstall Win 11 from scratch. If you do that, be sure to copy the complete lightroom folder to a safe place so you can put it back on C: drive.

Have you reset the preferences? I don't know for sure whether Adobe CC cleaner removes that file or not.

[David Luery]

Today for the first time I found a .lock file after LrC decided to close itself.  In checking Task Manager, LrC is definitely not running.  However when I double-clicked the LrC icon to see if LrC would start up, it in fact did, which I don't think was supposed to happen.  In any event, I closed LrC and the .lock file is gone, as it is supposed to be.  Either I misunderstand what the .lock file is supposed to do (prevent LrC from opening a supposed second instance trying to access the same catalog) or something weird is going on.

Regarding reinstalling Win 11 from scratch, that is just a step I can't bring myself to take.  The amount of work involved to get everything, all my programs with all their options and customizations, installed and looking/working like they are now is more than I want to do.  In fact, if I absolutely had to do all that, I think I would rather buy a new computer (and my current computer is only 2 years old) and put all that effort into setting up a new machine from scratch.

[KR Seals]

When you say "all" your programs, inferring that there are a great many. Is there a chance one/some of them are interfering with the proper operation of LrC? Take a look at all the programs that run on startup and minimize those.

[David Luery]

I tracked down a phone number for Adobe technical support this morning, and talked to a very helpful agent.  He took remote control of my computer and after checking things out, made the following changes:

> First, in Windows 11 Settings>System>Display>Graphics, he added LrC to the list of applications for which custom graphics settings could be specified, and for LrC he specified 'High performance'

> Second, in the NVIDIA Control Panel, under 'Manage 3D settings', in Program Settings he added LrC as a program to customize.  Unfornately I don't know which, if any, parameters he changed.

I should note that I do not recall whether he made the change in Settings before or after he made the changes in the NVIDIA Control Panel.  Nonetheless, so LrC is working better than it has in months, and I will update this if it turns out these changes did not fix the problem.

Interestingly, despite researching solutions to my problem as thoroughly as I could, I had not come across either of these steps in my prior research.  But I am hopefully, so fingers crossed.  And thanks to all in this thread who took the time to make suggestions, all of which (other than a re-install of Windows 11) I tried one time or another.

[David Luery]

It is now two months later.  In the interim I have updated to LrC version 13.5 and, while LrC no longer crashes without warning, it runs very, very slowly.  When working on an image in the Develop module, according to Windows Task Manager, LrC will often be using 15,000 Mb of RAM or more, sometimes as much as 30 Gb.  Operations become very, very slow.  For instance the mouse pointer will move slowly and with a noticeable lag.  I should note that I will often use 5 to 10 masks, and I am pretty sure that the more masks I create, the more RAM LrC uses and the slower it runs.  On the other hand, since my last post I have added RAM to my computer, and it now has 128 Gb of RAM.  Oddly the increased RAM does not seem to help at all.

Just now LrC was 'idling' in the Library module, using 3 Gb RAM.  Then I switched to the Develop module, clicked on an image that was almost 1 Tb in size but with no masks (it is the result of a focus stack); RAM usage shot up to almost 18 Gb, and the fan suddenly came on at very high speed.  I then clicked on an earlier version of the image which was only 132 Mb but with 4 masks.  Again the fan came on very loudly and at very high speed.  RAM usage kicked up to 18.5 Gb.  Whenever I click in the image or on a mask, the fan's noise increases substantially, the screen refresh becomes very slow, and response to mouse clicks is also has a very noticeable lag.  I have attached the System Info for anyone who might be interested.