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Export causes a system hang

Forum|Forum|5 months ago
December 12, 2025
3 replies
664 views

Not sure what's going on, but all of a sudden I'm finding that Lightroom CC on my MacBook Pro is wildly unstable. I've scanned a bunch of freshly-developed 35mm film and imported about 200 TIFF files. I'm able to work (light edits, crops, etc.) for about 15-20 minutes max before basic tasks like "Export to JPG" or even just quitting the app cause it to pinwheel, forcing me to do a "force quit" just to get past it.

I'm on Lightroom CC version 9.0 (20251017-1944-414afc8 Build). My MacBook Pro is a beefy M4 Max running macOS Tahoe 26.1 with 48GB of RAM and plenty of open space on the SSD.

Any tips or suggestions would be really appreciated, this constant freezing is bumming me out...

macOS

Correct answer Julie k

@Huxley5CC4 we have something more concrete for you to try. Please go into Lightroom > Preferences > Interface, and under the HELP section, turn off "Enable Animated Hover Tips". This will stop the small animation that appear when you hold your mouse over an Edit slider, among others. Does that help at all?

Julie kCorrect answer

Participating Frequently

@Huxley5CC4 we have something more concrete for you to try. Please go into Lightroom > Preferences > Interface, and under the HELP section, turn off "Enable Animated Hover Tips". This will stop the small animation that appear when you hold your mouse over an Edit slider, among others. Does that help at all?

H

Huxley5CC4Author

Known Participant

Hi @Julie Kmoch and @Sameer K: I'm very sad to report that Lightroom is once again crashing / freezing almost continuously. It doesn't require an attempted export - literally just opening the app and letting it sit for a while will result in a total hang, requiring a Force Quit.

I'm losing my mind here - what can I do to get past this??

H

Huxley5CC4Author

Known Participant

Hey, @Huxley5CC4. Thanks for the ongoing contributions to speed up the investigation.
We'd need some more raw info:
1 - Around the specific stages when Lightroom freezes for sure, do the following

Open Activity Monitor
Launch LrD
Select Lightroom in Activity Monitor
Select “Sample Process”. In the Activity Monitor’s Menu bar, select View -> Sample Process
Save the file and send it to us here, or via direct message on my profile.

2 - Verify the RAM usage before and after/during Lightroom's freeze.

3 - Does this issue consistently reappear whenever you launch Lightroom and export?

We hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks!
Sameer K
(Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

Hi @Sameer K - thanks for replying, but I'm at my wits end here. It's coming on two months that I've been unable to use Lightroom on my main computer, and I can't keep going in circles.

Can you please provide documentation on how I can do a complete uninstall + reinstall + resync my library?

Julie k

Participating Frequently

We're noticing a common theme in your crash logs involving video or media playback. Do you have videos in your catalog that you're interacting with when Lightroom hangs? Or are you playing any videos or music in the background?

Sameer K

Community Manager

Hey, @Huxley5CC4. Welcome to the Lightroom Community. I'll need more info to help you figure this out. I found crash reports submitted with the account you've signed in to on the community.

Did Lightroom close normally the last time it worked, or is this a fresh installation of Lightroom v9.0 on this machine? Try these steps to get Lightroom to launch:

Reset Lightroom by holding the OPT + SHIFT when you launch Lightroom and select 'Yes'.
Ensure Lightroom has the required permissions on macOS: https://adobe.ly/3DyUwsz
Go to the following location to launch Lightroom via the terminal.
In Finder > Application Folder > Open Lightroom Folder > Right-click on Lightroom .app > Show Package Contents > Contents > macOS > Lightroom—double-click to open.

Share the log of what you see in the terminal window when Lightroom Launches.

Let me know how it goes.

Thanks!
Sameer K

(Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

H

Huxley5CC4Author

Known Participant

Hi @Sameer K - thank you for the suggestions! Here's a few quick replies:

I did the Option + Shift thing and accepted the reset, but the app is still hanging frequently (i.e., it stalls out every time I try to rotate a photo, and after that happens, attempting to quit the app freezes entirely with a pinwheel cursor)
I have manually added Lightroom to the Full Disk Access permissions - no change in behavior
I'll attach a screenshot of the Terminal output after launching Lightroom from within the package as you instructed. I will admit that it's amusing to see the log output state in multiple places that whatever is going wrong "...
may cause spurious casting failures and mysterious crashes." A pretty good description of what's going on!
Screenshot 2025-12-12 at 4.25.51 PM.png

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