Zoom blank or green screen?

[Paul Tansley]

LR 14.0.1 
OSX 15.1

Installed LR 14 earlier this week. When using Z or Space key to zoom into an image, the image dissapeared. Jsut the background grey visible. On repeat, image came back as Fit. Repeatable on multiple images. Happens in E mode and D mode (Library + Develop). Restart the app - problem dissapears. 

However, after editing a few images the problem reappears. 

Now there is a new itteration of this same issue. Instead of the image dissapearing on Zoom - the screen where the zoomed image should be is going bright green!  I've attached a video to demonstrate. I'm sure a restart of the app will fix - but clearly there is something going on here, that isn't as it should be. 

100% or 200% same issue.

[GoldingD]

And if in /preferences/performance/ you turn Off the use of the GPU?

[Jao vdL]

Indeed looks like a GPU issue. What hardware do you have? Can you post a System Info (Help menu). If this is an older Mac with a AMD GPU that might be the issue.

[Paul Tansley]

Mac Studio M1 Ultra

Haven't tried turning off Graphics Acceleration. But a bit sad if that has suddenly become an issue. Its normally set to Auto, but today I did try setting it manually, with all boxes ticked apart from HDR. 

Lightroom Classic version: 14.0.1 [ 202410161356-30922cfc ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en-GB
Operating system: Mac OS 15
Version: 15.1.0 [24B83]
Application architecture: arm64
Logical processor count: 20
Processor speed: NA
SqLite Version: 3.36.0
Built-in memory: 65,536.0 MB
Dedicated GPU memory used by Lightroom: 862.4MB / 49,152.0MB (1%)
Real memory available to Lightroom: 65,536.0 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 4,499.2 MB (6.8%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 426,259.8 MB
Memory cache size: 17,447.1MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 17.0 [ 2043 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 69MB / 32767MB (0%)
Camera Raw real memory: 73MB / 65536MB (0%)

Cache1:
NT- RAM:0.0MB, VRAM:0.0MB, Combined:0.0MB

Cache2:
m:17,447.1MB, n:0.0MB

U-main: 144.0MB

Standard Preview Size: 1440 pixels
Displays: 1) 5120x2880

Graphics Processor Info:
Metal: Apple M1 Ultra
Init State: GPU for Export supported by default
User Preference: GPU for Export enabled
Enable HDR in Library: OFF

Application folder: /Applications/Adobe Lightroom Classic
Library Path: /Users/pt5/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Lightroom Cloud/240831 Annie & James.lrcat
Settings Folder: /Users/pt5/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom

Installed Plugins:
1) AdobeStock
2) Aperture/iPhoto Importer Plug-in
3) DxO PureRAW 2
4) DxO PureRAW 2 Importer
5) Flickr
6) HDR Efex Pro 2
7) Luminar 4
8) Topaz Photo AI

Config.lua flags:

[Paul Tansley]

Just tried turning off GPU acceleration - makes no difference at all. 

Library mode - Zoom = centre picture goes bright green
Develop mode - Zoom = picutre dissapears - just the grey background visible
Full Screen mode - Zoom = black screen

[Jao vdL]

This should not be an issue on a M1 Ultra for sure. You should set the GPU to auto on these. Only issue I see here is that your standard preview size is set too low which might make the machine slow in browsing in Library. Set the satndard preview size to auto and it should select 2880 for the standard size. Don't think that's the issue but possible.  Also many people have found that you should enable HDR in Library in the preferences even if you don't use HDR at all for best performance. Not clear why.

Lastly, have you by any chance set the performance setting to use smart previews instead of originals by any chance? You probably shouldn't with this machine and smart previews are too small resolution for your monitor anyway.

[Paul Tansley]

Jao - Yep, exactly why its odd. And this is not an issue that has happeend before updating to 14.0.1 - I'm a professional photogarpher and this machine is in permanet use editing photos. Its something new - for whatever reason. 

Preview size - interesting, I'll change that, but again it's been set to that for about 10 years now (probably longer) so cannot see why that woudl suddenly cause an issue. 

HDR - never use it. Coincidentally tho, I turned it on a few days ago - but then turned it off again. Doesn't seem to affect this issue, so far as I can tell. If it increases performance - then I'll turn it on. 

No, its not Smart Previews - I've never used them as I've never seen the point. As my Macs are always top of the range and can cope easily with the raws. 

[Paul Tansley]

OK - to add to the weirdness - I just went to LR (which was still open - its always open on my Mac). Issue has gone away. Like WTF?

Can currently zoom in and out with no issue - apart from a delay in Develop mode (lag). 

That's just weird. This bug has been happeneing to me the last couple of days. Not seen it just dissapear of its own accord before, as I've normally restarted LR by that stage. Will just have to keep an eye on now and see what happens. I mainly posted to see if anyone else was having the issue - but if not, then clearly it's something local to my machine. 

[Jao vdL]

Very strange for sure. I have an M1 Max with similar other specs and have never seen this. The standard preview size shouldn't matter except to make browsing full screen in Library faster if they are high enough resolution to fit your screen. If they are not, Lightroom will have to rerender a new high resolution preview every time. 

One thing to try is to wipe (purge) the camera raw cache which is also in the performance settings. Also you can try resetting the preferences. Lastly, what setting are you using in System Settings -> Displays for the screen? Best to use "default" there. All the other modes use non-integer scaling for the interface and can lead to slow downs. Doubt that has anything to do with this issue. 

[Jao vdL]

> Issue has gone away

Might have been a raw cache issue that took time to get purged. Or maybe some other app was running that put pressure on the GPU memory?

[Paul Tansley]

Have set previews to Auto - interestingly that's 5120 for my machine - Apple Studio Display. Will be interesting to see if that speeds transistions up. As I say, it's been set to 1440 forever. As I generate 1:1 previews manually anyway, as I go along. 

System Settings/Display - is set to Default, Apple Display P3-600 nits, no auto adjust or true tone set. 

Had already cleared the camear raw cache - one of the first things I tried. Had zero effect. Unless as you mention, it got somethign stuck and it's now cleared it. Will be interesting to see if the issue returns. 

[Jao vdL]

Yeah that is correct for your display. I forgot it is the horizontal dimension that is set here, not the vertical. After new standard previews are generated that should make browsing in Library much faster. 

Purging the cache in the preferences takes a while to actually happen. It doesn't immediately delete everything in the cache location on your hard drive. I think it just marks the cache files as out of date.

[Jao vdL]

Oh yeah and the standard size does not matter indeed if you have 1:1 previews. If that is your workflow, you'll be fine at any setting for standard previews.

[Paul Tansley]

Update - this issue is still there. It literally comes and goes. But is becoming extremely annoying, as I am unable to zoom into images to check focus etc. 

Turning off Graphics Acceleration - makes no difference. 
Clearing Cache - makes no difference 
Restarting LR - sometimes clears the bug - but often doesn't, the issue remains. 
Sometimes the issue goes away of its own accord (I have no explanation to that, but it does). 

HELP......!

As nobody else appears to be suffering this issue - is it possible its linked to the Apple Studio Display?  I ask, because at around the same time I updated to Sequoia, I also had a firmware update for the display. But I don't see how that would affect only part of LR - the zooming of the central image. 

[jenellek]

I've had this same issue and it is infuraiting!! However, I have been so busy with work that I haven't had the time to reach out and ask Adobe support. I am on a brandnew MacBook M3 Pro.

[Paul Tansley]

Thank you so much for confirming I'm not going mad. It's not just me. 

It's a weird issue, as for a period of time it can totally dissapear. But then comes back with a vengeance and even a restart of LR won't cure it - a few restarts does. 

[jenellek]

I did just find a small work around -- although it isn't helpful or fix the issue - but I created a new catalog and then imported the old catalog into it and it seems to be able to zoom now. 

But it would still be great if Adobe would help with this bug!! 

[Paul Tansley]

I wonder if that's a workaround - or simply a temporary fix - same as restarting LR seems to be. i.e the issue may return, even with a new cat.

[MarkCSquire]

I am seeing this issue today, I saw it on Mac Sonoma. I upgraded to Sequoia (15.1) and it's still there. It seems to dissapear for a while and after I look at some of the images I took yesterday it reppears (images on Zoom are black then green). Lightroom hung on me as well. I have 64gb of memory.

[richardb60793086]

I've had the same problem since installationof 14.0.1.  The screen goes bright green when I try to zoom using the z key.  I run Sonoma 14.6.1 on a Macbook Pro with M1 chip.  I seem to remember this happened a few years ago during a Lightroom upgrade.  I can restart Lightroom and it solves the problem for a brief period, but it always comes back.  It has only started since the Lightroom upgrade, so i presume it is a problem inside Adobe that needs to be resolved - soon I hope!

[Paul Tansley]

MAJOR UPDATE on this issue:  

By total luck, I've discovered a fix. When you zoom and get black/grey/green screen. Go back,  click on the left mouse button, to enable the + Zoom function (not the Z key or Space key). Image zooms in perfectly. Now, if you hit the Z or Space key, it works as it should. 

Has happened a few times this morning and each time, this fixes it without any need to restart LR etc. 

[vincent musi]

I've been struggling with this same issue for awhile and no concrete success. I use an M2 Max Studio with considerable RAM as well. I will say that in "full screen" mode, your cursor will zoom as it truns into the magnifying glass but the muscle memory of using Z for many years is hard to break. 

[RIPAperture]

Thank you so much for this weird but effective fix!  I've been experiencing this issue exactly as you describe it, and so far this quirky fix does the trick.  I'm using v14.4, so I'm surprised they haven't patched this by now.

[Paul Tansley]

Glad it helped. Still happens to me lots - but at random times. At least the workaround helps. But wish they'd simply fix it. It's clearly a bug.