Lrc 9.3 Hung and would not respond. Rebooted System and mow Lrc will not start - Unexpected Error

[Birubi]

Thank you Brains Trust,

I use a Win 10 Home 64 (Ver 1909, build 18363.959) system with 16GB RAM, SSD and LR Classic 9.3 latest.

I had just imported some photos and was reviewing them when LrC hung and became 'non-responsive'. I left the app to run for a while to see if it would sort itself out, then when that failed I tried to kill the process with the Task Manager.

Finally, I rebooted the system.

Now, Lightroom will not start - Unexpected error opening catalogue.

In the Lightroom folder I have a file "Lightroom Catalog-2.lrcat-wal" which seems to have survived the reboot. I also have a process running Lightroom.exe. I cannot delete the -wal file (in use) nor can I kill the Lightroom process (Access denied). 

I have tried to uninstall/reinstall LrC but the app says to first shudown lighroom.

Can anyone help please? 

Thank you in advance.

[dj_paige · Accepted solution]

"Unexpected Error Opening Catalog" means you should use a recent backup of the catalog file, unzip it, place it in a new empty folder (not the folder where your existing LR catalog is located) and then double-click on the backup to open it in Lightroom.

[Birubi]

Thank you dj_page,

I did as you suggested and LrC started and performed as normal.

[Just Shoot Me]

Make sure LrC is closed then delete the WAL and the LOCK files that are in the same folder as your working catalog.

[Birubi]

Thank you for the advice and suggestions Just Shoot Me,

I was unable to close LrC, or stop the LrC process and therefore could not delete the WAL and LOCK files.

I unzipped the most recent back-up in a different folder to normal and started LrC from there without problem.

Thanks again

[DdeGannes]

Quote "I cannot delete the -wal file (in use) nor can I kill the Lightroom process (Access denied)." 

Can you shut down Lightroom? If not shut down the computer and then start in safe mode.

In this succeeds go to the Lightroom folder and see if there a file named "Lightroom Catalog-2.lrcat.lock", that is a LOCK file delete the lock file.

Reboot the system and see if you can start Lightroom.

[Birubi]

Thank you Denis, 

I was unable to shut down LrC and rather than start in Safemode I unzipped the most recent back-up to a new folder. Right clicked and chose run with Lightroom Classic and everything is back to normal.

Thank you again for the reply.

[Just Shoot Me]

This doesn't make sense. If you weere unable to shut down LrC then how were you able to start using it by double clicking on another catalog file? For that to happen LrC has to Close then restart loading the other catalog.

[Birubi]

Hello Just Shoot Me,

There was an LrC process running in Task Manager that I could not shut down
(Access Denied). That is what I was referring to when I said I could not
shut it down.

The -wal file would not allow me to delete it because Windows said it was
in use. I could not find any evidence of LrC running as an app anywhere
except for that single process in Task Manager under the Details tab, which
BTW was using no CPU and just 6MB of memory.

Now that I have unzipped the latest backup and started LrC using that
catalog, LrC runs correctly and when shut down, the process in Task Manager
is no longer there.

I suspect that LrC developed a loop that survived reboot because it was not
shut down normally. Now that it has started and shut down gracefully the
system has been returned to normal operation.

Thanks