Lightroom CC Classic - Phantom / Blank values in Smart Collection

[Aaron Roberts]

Searching the keyword "nightlife" which was set for images to be uploaded to the Flickr service, it seems that LR displays blank thumbnails. These images don't have a file name, nor do they show as missing anywhere. Searching the entire catalog for images containing "nightlife" displays the correct result. Trying to export from the smart collection causes a crash.

Here's an example:

[Sahil.Chawla · Accepted solution]

Hi Aaronlroberts,

We're sorry to hear about the gray thumbnails in Lightroom, could you please have a look at this article and try the steps mentioned on it, then let us know if it helps? Lightroom error on preview cache or displays gray thumbnails

Also, please let us know which exact version of Lightroom you're working on and which operating system are you using?

Regards,
Sahil

[Aaron Roberts]

Hi Sahil,

I've tried this, in fact, it was one of the first things I did. I removed all thumbnail resources from LR and let them all rebuild (took a long time).

However, whenever keying in "nightlife" into any smart collection, it will display these blank images. It makes me think that there's something in the LR catalog file which is giving these images.

I've also performed an integrity test on launch, still didn't fix.. also, search for missing images turned up zero.

[Bob Somrak]

I tried to reproduce this with a smart folder using the hard drive publish and it worked fine.  Instead of hitting cancel when you do the edit on the smart folder hit save instead.   I have seen random glitches like this in the smart collections and the content in the smart collection is only updated if you resave the smart collection edit or restart lightroom.  I know this isn't a solution but may narrow down the issue.

[Aaron Roberts]

Sadly, the narrowing down is only that it will consistently provide false images for "nightlife" keyword in a smart collection, in a normal search, there's no problem.

I ended up using a meta label instead, but far from ideal.