Lightroom Classic Not Responding/Restarting on Windows 10

[sonoranhawk]

I use Lightroom Classis Desktop on my PC, Windows 10 Pro, 8 core processor, 64 bit, 32 GB memory. Two days ago, Lightroom Classic started acting erratically. I start the program and it loads about half of my catalogue. When I click anywhere in the program, the starting splash screen comes on again, then I get the transparent white screen and a note in the upper bar "library not responding". If that clears, I try to go to "Edit-preferences" but the "not responding" message appears again. I closed Lightroom and tried to reopen it, and a few times got a message that "the catalogue is being used by another program" and get the option to choose another catalogue. When I tried to select that option thinking I could load the backup catalogue, that dialogue window disappeared. So I can't get Lightroom open or functional to get to any repair feature or error report function nor change any settings. Does anyone have any suggestions? Do I need to uninstall and reinstall? I updated Lightroom Classic Desktop about a month ago and the Adobe Creative Cloud app shows I have the latest revision.

[nikunj.m]

Hi there,

We are sorry about the experience with Lightroom Classic.

You can try to reset the preferences of Lightroom using the steps mentioned in the link below to check if that helps.

https://helpx.adobe.com/in/lightroom-classic/help/setting-preferences-lightroom.html#restore_prefere...

If the application launches and you are able to access the Preferences of Lightroom Classic then the below mentioned setting might help.

1) Go to Preferences > Performance and increase the Camera Raw Cache size to 10.0GB or more.

2) On the same tab, check the option to Use Smart Previews instead of Original for image editing and uncheck the option to Generate Previews in Parallel.

3) On the Performance tab itself, select off from the drop down for Use Graphic Processor

4) Go to the General tab and check the box to Replace Embedded previews by standard previews during idle time.

Once you have made the above-mentioned changes, quit and relaunch Lightroom Classic prior to testing the application.

Regards,

Nikunj

[Lauca]

and a few times got a message that "the catalogue is being used by another program"

This means that the previous run of LR didn't end properly and therefore didn't remove the lock file (<Catalog name>.lrcat.lock) wich was created next to your catalog file.

Remove this lock file manually, you won't get the message on the next LR run.

[sonoranhawk]

I was finally able to load my backup catalogue and Lightroom now works OK. I made all the changes you recommended in preferences, hope that helps in the future. I also deleted the lock file recommended by Lauca below. Thanks to both of you for your help.

[sonoranhawk]

Sorry to bother you again, but I'm at a loss. Program worked good after I loaded the backup catalogue. Closed Lightroom and when I reopened 3 hours later, I was back in the same situation I described above. So frustration set in, I uninstalled Lightroom Classic and downloaded and installed a new copy. Opened the new copy and I'm still having the same issues. Loaded the backup copy from a small window that appeared when I tried to open Lightroom and that was just as bad. Can I just delete all my catalogues and start over, importing and creating a new catalogue? If I delete the catalogues, do I lose all my Lightroom edits? I looked at my photo files and everything I've edited has an .xmp file.

[Lauca]

It's not obvious the problem is in the catalog itself. It might be a hardware problem (memory or disk).

If you remove your catalog, you will lose all your edits (which are stored in the catalog). What you can do, however :

- Open LR and create a new empty catalog

- Select File>Import from another catalog and browse to your real catalog

- In the File Management dropdown list, select Add photos to the catalog without move

(Note I've translated from french, english labels might be a bit different)

This will create a new catalog with all your edits. Test with this new catalog.

[sonoranhawk]

OK, this latest recommendation worked. I've opened and closed Lightroom 3 times with no issues. I'm almost sure this was a catalogue problem because I haven't had any issues with any other program on my PC. Actually haven't had any issues with Lightroom Classic since it's inception till now. Thank you for the recommendation.