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Lightroom Classic Crashing

Explorer ,
Aug 04, 2018 Aug 04, 2018

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Hi!

Recently, Lightroom Classic has been unexpectedly crashing multiple times even when I close and restart the program. It pops up this error message:

"Lightroom encountered an error when reading from its preview cache and needs to quit"

I tried a workaround that was posted here, Lightroom error on preview cache or displays gray thumbnails. While it worked for a bit, the issue is back.

Anyone know what is causing this issue and what fixes it?

Thanks!

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Community Expert ,
Aug 04, 2018 Aug 04, 2018

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Can you upload a screen shot of your Lightroom folder? It should be in your Pictures folder....

Also can you go into Preferences > Performance and Purge the cache?

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Explorer ,
Aug 04, 2018 Aug 04, 2018

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LR folder.png

Here's a screen shot of the Lightroom Folder

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LEGEND ,
Aug 04, 2018 Aug 04, 2018

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If you try the solution and it works for a while and the problem comes back, then you have a malfunctioning hard disk. A temporary solution might be to place the catalog file on a different hard disk, but really you ought to consider replacing the hard disk that the catalog is on now.

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Explorer ,
Aug 04, 2018 Aug 04, 2018

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I never had this problem since I've had Lightroom installed on my laptop since March, the problem only recently started this week. My laptop is also just 6 months old, which is odd if the hard drive is malfunctioning.

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Community Expert ,
Aug 04, 2018 Aug 04, 2018

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"New" computers have been known to develop faults. (I know two friends with problem Macs recently!)

Sectors on a Hard-drive can have errors that only become obvious when the OS tries to read/write to those faulty sectors.

So, yes, as the Preview cache is having problems reading/writing, I agree with dj_paige​ above in Post#2.

Regards. My System: Lightroom-Classic 13.2 Photoshop 25.5, ACR 16.2, Lightroom 7.2, Lr-iOS 9.0.1, Bridge 14.0.2, Windows-11.

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Explorer ,
Aug 05, 2018 Aug 05, 2018

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I just find it a bit odd how the issue has now started, however, when I've edited photos a few months ago there wasn't an issue.

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LEGEND ,
Aug 05, 2018 Aug 05, 2018

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amandad83991895  wrote

I never had this problem since I've had Lightroom installed on my laptop since March, the problem only recently started this week. My laptop is also just 6 months old, which is odd if the hard drive is malfunctioning.

Hardware can malfunction at any time. It is not odd that a 6 month old drive could malfunction.

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Explorer ,
Aug 05, 2018 Aug 05, 2018

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If the hard drive is the issue, wouldn't that cause problems elsewhere? Not just Lightroom Classic? There aren't any issues occuring elsewhere on my laptop, even Lightroom CC works fine. It's just Lightroom Classic.

However, it seems the issue starts if Lightroom Classic has been left open over night on my laptop (for several hours).

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LEGEND ,
Aug 05, 2018 Aug 05, 2018

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amandad83991895  wrote

If the hard drive is the issue, wouldn't that cause problems elsewhere? Not just Lightroom Classic? There aren't any issues occuring elsewhere on my laptop, even Lightroom CC works fine. It's just Lightroom Classic.

No. If you have a bad sector on your hard disk, other software may not encounter it.

I think I will do that again if it crashes again today. I probably need to develop a better workflow as well.

A better workflow may be good for many reasons, but if it is a hardware malfunction, a better workflow won't prevent the problem you are having with Lightroom crashing.

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Explorer ,
Aug 05, 2018 Aug 05, 2018

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Is there any way to test for this specific problem and if so how? (I did run a scan on the hard drive earlier, and it didn't find any errors).

Is it likely that running the software for too many hours causes the issue as well? Similar to when apps need to have their cache dumped every so often. 

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LEGEND ,
Aug 05, 2018 Aug 05, 2018

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The only test I know of is, as stated above, try putting your catalog file on a different hard disk, and open it from there by double-clicking on it. If the problem doesn't happen again, then it's pretty clear that the original disk is the problem.

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Explorer ,
Aug 05, 2018 Aug 05, 2018

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So, I should take the photos that I'm trying to edit and put them onto another hard disk such as a SD card or drive, and attempt to reimport them into Lightroom?

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LEGEND ,
Aug 05, 2018 Aug 05, 2018

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No. None of this requires moving or re-importing photos.

You COPY the catalog file to another disk, and then double-clck on it to open it in Lightroom.

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Explorer ,
Aug 05, 2018 Aug 05, 2018

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Sorry if this is dumb, I'm just confused. I take the LR catalog icon found in the lightroom folder and copy it to another disk such as an SD card? I'm not super tech savvy lol

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LEGEND ,
Aug 05, 2018 Aug 05, 2018

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You want to copy the actual catalog file, not the icon. You want to copy it to some other hard disk, like an external HD, not an SD card which is not a hard disk.

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Community Expert ,
Aug 05, 2018 Aug 05, 2018

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How many images are in your catalog?

It's possible that your previews file is problem. A quick test would be to create a new catalog and import one of the folders that you used to be able to see just fine but can't now. If the new catalog works without issue then you can either keep going with the new catalog or try to repair the previews file.

Lightroom error on preview cache or displays gray thumbnails

In Windows:

  1. Exit out of Lightroom.
  1. Navigate to the folder that contains your Lightroom catalog. The default location is in the My Pictures/Lightroom folder under your user folder.
  2. Locate and open the [Catalog-name] Previews.lrdata folder.
  3. Drag the previews.db and root-pixels.db files to the trash.
  4. Restart Lightroom. If you continue to have the same issue. return to the folder you opened in step 2.
  5. Drag the entire [Catalog-name] Previews.lrdata folder to the trash.
  1. Restart Lightroom.

Note: You do not need to delete the [Catalog-name] Smart Preview.lrdata folder, if one exists. This folder contains smart previews, which are different from previews.

In Mac OS:

  1. Quit out of Lightroom.
  2. Navigate to the folder that contains your Lightroom catalog. The default location is in the Pictures/Lightroom folder under your user folder.
  3. Locate and drag the [Catalog-name] Previews.lrdata file to the trash.
  4. Restart Lightroom.

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Explorer ,
Aug 05, 2018 Aug 05, 2018

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There's currently 2216 photos in the catalog/all photographs.

I don't have an issue seeing photographs, I can view all of them fine. It's just the software crashes with the error message when I'm editing in develop. I used the method you suggested when the issue first started and it worked for a bit, then came back. I noticed that the issue seems to arise when Lightroom has been left open for several hours - overnight. This might be the problem? Since I'm currently editing and it hasn't crashed yet.

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Community Expert ,
Aug 05, 2018 Aug 05, 2018

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With so few photos in your catalog I would be inclined to just trash the previews.lrdata file then allow Lr to rebuild a new one.

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Explorer ,
Aug 05, 2018 Aug 05, 2018

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I think I will do that again if it crashes again today. I probably need to develop a better workflow as well.

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Explorer ,
Aug 05, 2018 Aug 05, 2018

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Alright, thanks so much. Looks like I will have to wait to do so since I do not have an external HD at the moment.

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LEGEND ,
Aug 05, 2018 Aug 05, 2018

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No external HD, that probably also means you don't have a backup of your catalog or photos on another disk. If that's so, then I would remedy that situation and get an external HD immediately. Backups to a different physical disk are mandatory, not optional. A word to the wise, you know...

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Explorer ,
Aug 05, 2018 Aug 05, 2018

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Yeah, I don't have an external backup of the catalog at the moment. Instead, I just have the images that I do need backed in dropbox. I will have to eventually invest in an external hard drive soon.

My laptops hard drive has 722Gb available out of 1TB, which makes me concern that there's so much space left, yet, lightroom is being a pain.

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New Here ,
Aug 06, 2018 Aug 06, 2018

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my problem is the same..

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New Here ,
Jan 21, 2019 Jan 21, 2019

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LATEST

This may be the solving for your problem.

Check if you are using any antivirus protection that prevents against crypto lockers activated.

For example, Windows 10 have this function under security settings and if our pictures or the lightroom catalogue is under the current running profile this files or folders will be protected the antivirus software.

Turn of this and try to run Lightroom again.

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