Lightroom catalog cannot be opened because another application already has it opened

[Just Shoot Me]

The .lrcat.lock file is in the exact same folder as your Lightroom Catalog file.

[pnorwegian]

deleted the ".lock" file and it worked. Thank you

[dwaynebridgland]

bloody legend! same issue here, rebooted laptop mid lightroom 6 load up-computer said no was warmly greeted with the same message-until i found this ever so helpful thread-beers on me cheers

[abbeym4537685]

how do I find the directory that my catalog is in?

[@KHPHOTOGRAPY]

Thank you I had the same problem when my computer crashed after some fault, deleting the lock file was the answer.

[денисх57649370]

OMFG! Thank you very much man, you saved me!

[jas4bg]

Thank you for saving my sanity this morning.

[_Harry_R_Matthews_]

Thank you! It worked.

[Guest]

Thank you, it solved my problem as well!

www.marciocavalcanti.com

Miami Wedding Photographer

[birddog14]

deleted the .lock file...worked for me...

my computer rebooted and I couldn't open my catalog....I was going crazy...it would open a different catalog fine, but not my large catalog....so I did a search and found this post...thanks so much

[deandra2004]

How do you delete the locked file?

[Per Berntsen]

The answer has been given in several posts in this thread, like here: Re: Lightroom catalog cannot be opened because another application already has it opened

Or see this article, Lightroom basics - scroll down to "Some common problems".

[Loulou711]

Great! Thank you!

[Guest]

I can not tell you how many times LightRoom 3.5 or earlier just freezes under Win 7-64 bit. You can  not CTL+ANT+DEL or anything else but manual shut down. This typically occurs when user enters something before a LightRoom task is completed. It is not acceptable!

When rebooting, anything might have happened but usually nothing. I failed to notice a lost folder of all 2011 photos. This occurred just after my last backup so some delay before even noticing since I was working on older folders. So all are now gone.

The most recent freeze was the typical several minute wait while loading the catalog and reading the camera's card. The inevitable reboot left the catalog locked so it was easy to simply delete the lock file after nearly an hour getting to this suggestion. Maybe we are using oppisite sides of the brain but the delete lock file suggestion would help on the actual error message. The real problem is frequent lock ups! Do you think enough 64 bit users might dump this product with similar lock ups / lost files or folders and long research time to find a solution? Release 4 is not looking likely!

[eszostak]

Hiya - just wanted to add my thanks as I was having this same problem and the solution has worked for me as well now.

[wellroots]

I was just having the same issue, and my problem is now solved!  Thank you so much, @DW_Harrison!!

[Guest]

I am presently having this same issue but cannot find any files with "lock" at the end to delete.  Any other suggestions?   I'm really in a bind as I needed the program to finish some baseball collages, etc and time is limited.  Any help ASAP would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Rhalene

[zitabm]

Thank you! Worked perfectly for me!

(Original post from 2008, and here I am in late 2014 using the same solution... C'mon, now, Adobe, it's not like this is a new problem.)

[Aymster]

Great! Now I am getting an error that says my catalog cannot be opened because it is not writable. I first was getting the file locked error from this thread. Then, I deleted the .lock file for my catalog and now this new error appears. Seems like I am having a lot more problems lately. Is it me?

[dj_paige]

Not writable means that the folder it is in (or the file itself) does not have write permission. Change your permissions!

[rsbjsb]

Where are the permissions? I deleted the lock file, reopened old catalog, saved that and still get the error code that the file may be in use or unwritable. Thanks..p.s. This only started for me with lr6 cc

[dj_paige]

Permissions are something you set and change using your operating system.

[rsbjsb]

Thanks.. For some reason lr is saving as zipped and I have to open that file each time to share. Never had this problem before. Am a neophyte..where in operating system do I go to change?  Thanks

[rsbjsb]

And why does it create a locked file every time?

[dj_paige]

Let's back up a minute, rsbjsb‌

Please describe your problem in detail. Please make sure you mention your operating system, and your version of Lightroom.