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Lightroom 5 slideshow shows a black screen

Explorer ,
Jun 19, 2013 Jun 19, 2013

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When I preview or play a slideshow in Lightroom 5 I see a black screen. I've tried it using various settings, images, lengths, and with the show saved or unsaved, all with the same result. In a preview I can see the show advancing through the slides; all remain black.

Sometimes (unpredictably) the screen isn't black, but rather two colors or color washes separated diagonally.

There are no videos in the shows. (A black screen for a slideshow with a video as the first slide is a known issue mentioned in the Lightroom Journal.)

Exporting to pdf works properly. An exported video shows as a black screen.

(Mac Pro, OS X 10.7.5, Radeon X1900 XT video card)

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

New Here , Aug 12, 2014 Aug 12, 2014

Hi

I had the slideshow black screen too.  I fixed it by checking (when slideshow is open) Template Browser on

left of screen and selecting "Default +"  click on it, it does not highlight so maybe I unchecked it somehow.

Prior to that I cleaned the computer fans so the video card would run cool.

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Explorer ,
Sep 26, 2013 Sep 26, 2013

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Problem exists since June and still not fixed? Is there no workaround for it?

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Explorer ,
Sep 26, 2013 Sep 26, 2013

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As I suspected, the problem seems to depend on the hardware configuration. I just got a new MacBook Pro. I installed LR 5.2 and the slideshow works fine there.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 13, 2013 Oct 13, 2013

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I too have this issue. The slideshow has not worked in any version of Lightroom 5 from the beta up through 5.2. I even tried the new calatlog thingy described above to no avail.

Mac Pro - dual 3GB Quad core Xeon processors, 16GB RAM, OSX 10.7.5 and a Radeon 1900XT video card.

What annoys me the most is no acknowledgement from Adobe on the problem and no fix at all.


Lightroom 4 slideshow works fine, Lightroom 5 does not. What gives here, Adobe?

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New Here ,
Feb 20, 2014 Feb 20, 2014

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I'm having this problem in my trial period of 5.3.  Shutting LR down and reopening seemed to resolve it, for now at least.

Adobe . . . do you care?  It looks like the problem was there in 5.1, and is still there in 5.3.  It will certainly factor into my decision whether to purchase the upgrade from 4.

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Explorer ,
Feb 21, 2014 Feb 21, 2014

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I had the same problem with my Windows System. My Windows Login User Name was (René van der Voorden) before and contains a special charakter (the french é). The Slideshows option only shows a black screens. Now I created a new User called (RVDV) with no special characters  like (é). Now Slideshows are working fine. Maybe this will also help with the MAC?

I hope Adobe will fix this bug. It´s present at least since V5.0

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Feb 23, 2014 Feb 23, 2014

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Thanks a lot. Now I can reproduce this issue with special characters user name. We will try to fix this issue.

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Explorer ,
Feb 24, 2014 Feb 24, 2014

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Unfortunately this doesn't help on a Mac with the problem. I don't have any special characters in my user name. Just to be sure, I tried a slide show in a new, empty user account on my 2007 Mac Pro (1,1). Still a black screen. (As I mentioned above, I don't have the problem on my 2013 Retina Macbook Pro.)

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New Here ,
Feb 24, 2014 Feb 24, 2014

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Thank you René, for me in Windows is this the solution. Now waiting until Adobe fix the problem because it is a lot work to put al my work in a new account.

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Explorer ,
Feb 21, 2014 Feb 21, 2014

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I had the same problem with my Windows System. My Windows Login User Name was (René van der Voorden) before and contains a special charakter (the french é). The Slideshows option only shows a black screens. Now I created a new User called (RVDV) with no special characters  like (é). Now Slideshows are working fine. Maybe this will also help with the MAC?

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Explorer ,
Jun 10, 2014 Jun 10, 2014

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Just bought a new laptop as I was having the same issue with LR5.4. Fresh install, new computer and still, the slide show will run and then a number of slides will be blanked out then after a minute or two, slides will come back all the while the sound track is playing. I've changed timing, went to zero transition, changed slide sequence. no change. and it's random. I've now invested another $600 and can't present a slide show in LR5.....Not a happy camper

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Jun 26, 2014 Jun 26, 2014

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Hi jsk09,

Do you playing slideshow in preview mode? If you playing slideshow in preview mode, I mean the filmstrip is shown, the slideshow maybe to blank after playing few minutes. This is an known issue. Would you please try to play the slideshown in full screen mode? Thanks.

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Explorer ,
Jun 26, 2014 Jun 26, 2014

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Hi fleping,

I ran the show in the "Run" mode, full screen attached to a TV via HDMI cable. I am using LR V5.5 running on a Windows 8.1 Dell laptop. What is confusing is that when I ran it the first time on one TV, it blanked out several slides while the sound track kept on. Then I ran it again a couple times and it was perfect. I took the show to a gathering and clicked on the saved slide show in library collections, LR went to the slide show module. When I hit play, it had to render all of the slides again, then the show ran in full screen, again missing about 4 slides. The bad part was I was showing how well the slide module works in LR5...... If there is something I need to do or set while creating the show other than what I did, any insight would be great. Thanks.

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New Here ,
Jul 10, 2014 Jul 10, 2014

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Hi


I recently upgraded from LR4 to LR5.5 and today encountered the same issue of black screen when selecting a set of photos and pressing the slideshow play button for the first time.  Previously, I had not used the slideshow feature in LR4 so not a problem.
After checking the slideshow settings I realised the program installation had set 'Playback' manual slideshow section to Sliders (0 seconds) and Fade (2.5 seconds).  Changing sliders to say 6 seconds, the slideshow and music works fine on Windows 7 64bit. I just wondered if other people on this forum had been caught out with the same setting problem?

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New Here ,
Jul 10, 2014 Jul 10, 2014

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I was able to fix the problem by replacing my motherboard, processor, RAM, and video card.

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New Here ,
Aug 12, 2014 Aug 12, 2014

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Hi

I had the slideshow black screen too.  I fixed it by checking (when slideshow is open) Template Browser on

left of screen and selecting "Default +"  click on it, it does not highlight so maybe I unchecked it somehow.

Prior to that I cleaned the computer fans so the video card would run cool.

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Community Beginner ,
Sep 05, 2014 Sep 05, 2014

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I'm having the same problem with LR 5.6.  The preview gives a few images, then mostly a black screen as it progresses through the slideshow.  However, when exported as a video, the entire slideshow plays as expected.   This is a slideshow with nothing by images.  Just thought I'd mention that in case someone can work without a preview.

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New Here ,
Dec 14, 2014 Dec 14, 2014

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Same problem here on Windows 7, no special characters on name. I got only the black screen and the export process stalls forever till you cancel it.

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Guest
Jan 03, 2015 Jan 03, 2015

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If you look at the first post of this forum, you will see this problem started as soon as the product was released in 2003, today is 2015.

Users tried everything, including ask the Pope to bless the product, still not working.

As if Adobe do not recognize this problem. There is nothing we users can do other than avoid products from Adobe. However, I don't think Adobe #$@#^ care.

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 15, 2015 Jan 15, 2015

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Purchased Lightroom 5.2 last week.  I have the same black screen problem when attempting to use the slideshow feature.  I do not have any special characters in my username.  My OS is Windows 7.  Sometimes, a white border outline of the photo appears, but usually just a black screen.

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LEGEND ,
Jan 15, 2015 Jan 15, 2015

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It’s possible something has been fixed since LR 5.2 came out, so the first thing to try is update to LR 5.7.1 from the Adobe Updates page or via the CC Desktop application if you went with the Cloud Photography Bundle:

http://www.adobe.com/downloads/updates

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 15, 2015 Jan 15, 2015

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Thank you very much for your response ssprengel and for the links you provided.  I'll give it a try ... crossing my fingers. 

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New Here ,
Feb 09, 2015 Feb 09, 2015

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I just got the bundle and tried it out. Black screen in the slideshow. I've got a couple of hours in this as it is. Not another minute, now that I see Adobe knows about it and doesn't want to fix it. Lightroom isn't the only fish in the sea.

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New Here ,
Jan 22, 2016 Jan 22, 2016

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I am having this same problem.  I have the new, updated LIghtroom and I can't get my slideshow to play (after spending hours editing photos and videos).  I'm frustrated.  Is there another fix?

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New Here ,
Apr 27, 2015 Apr 27, 2015

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I have the same problem (as many others). New computer, way more processing power / graphics card power / memory than Lightroom requires. How many people having problems are using a secondary screen (TV?) to display their slideshow? I saw at least one other person mention that. I feel my slideshow seems to work fine on my monitor (at least in a few tests), but when I slideshow on my TV, many times the images don't display (it'll skip one or a few). It's very odd.

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New Here ,
Aug 17, 2015 Aug 17, 2015

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Hi,

I have the same problem with the black screen with the slideshow. My graphic card is ATI RADEON HD4800 series (5110FA). My userid and password are both without any special character or Umlauts. I tried out all the recommended settings, all unsucessful. I have the latest update for Lightroom 6.1.1.

On my Notebook the slideshow works fine.

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