Corrupted CR2 files?

[Squidy666]

Hi all,

I have a problem I need some help with. I’ve got a few years worth of photos on a server and they’ve been fine (and the previews display fine on the server). However now when I view them in LR they randomly corrupt. It could be minutes later, it could be hours later, it can even be days later. They’ll just go corrupted and I can’t view them properly.

I can export them fine, before they corrupt, and they look fine. Then export them later, after they corrupt, and they look corrupt.

I’ll delete and reimport them and it will then show different photos as being corrupt. Today I went out and bought an entirely brand new system and get the same issue. None of the hardware is the same but it still shows up as some corrupting.

My system is

Windows 10 x64

Creative Cloud, all latest versions

Gigabyte 1080

i7 processor

32gb Corsair Ram

4TB WD Black drive

512gb Samsung PRO drive

None of my system is overclocked or overheating

However it still randomly corrupts my files. I’ve read somewhere people say it’s a hardware problem, and sometimes a card reader problem, but every backup of these photos I have corrupts at some point and it appears to be at random.

I’ve noticed something though, if I view them in Windows etc they never corrupt, they ONLY start corrupting when I bring them back into Lightroom. Does anyone know what else I can try?

I don’t have any AV software as I wanted to make sure it wasn’t AV interfering with the file.

[Just Shoot Me]

You say the images are on a SERVER? Where is that server and have you checked that out as the problem. Also could be how the images are being accessed from the server. Corruption in the connection path.

Move/Copy the images to the internal drive or a directly connected external drive and test. If no corruption then is has something to do with the Server or the connection between the server and your computer.

[Geoff the kiwi]

Windows will use the jpeg previews not the raw data.

It sounds to me like RAM going bad but it could be connection to the server as well. Lightroom reading raw file data stresses most hardware!!

[dj_paige]

Also could be the computer memory has a malfunction of some sort.

[Squidy666]

The memory has passed hours of stress tests and read/write tests. I've got 4 different backups, across many external hard drives and a server and they all seem to corrupt at some point. They only corrupt though after being imported in to LR. If I just open them in PS for example there are no issues, but once imported in to LR the previews even in Windows go corrupt, even though they're fine before that.

I've also disabled all the plugins in LR and changed hdd cables to see if that fixes it up but I don't think it will considering it's now doing it on 2 systems

[Squidy666]

I've just tried importing twice, both once from the server and once from my other external hard drive and the same issue is occurring

I think the only change was updating to the latest version of LR? It seemed fine before that

[Just Shoot Me]

Turn off the option to use the GPU in the LR Preferences under the Performance tab.

[Squidy666]

Have already turned that off and disabled all plugins but unfortunately it still persists

[Todd Shaner]

Please upload one of the corrupted files to Dropbox and we check it on our systems. I also suggest disabling the GPU in LR Preferences as shown below and see if that "fixes" the file corruption.

[Squidy666]

Dropbox - 049A4037.CR2​

Here is the link. Thanks for offering to take a look for me, it's greatly appreciated

[Just Shoot Me]

That "IS" a completely corrupted file. It is, IMHO, a hardware problem. Somewhere between your storage locations and loading into LR some piece of hardware is causing the file to get corrupted.

[Squidy666]

I can't think of what though, because that photo was imported fine for an hour or so then got corrupted. It's also happening on 2 systems with completely different hardware so I can't work out what's going on.

[Just Shoot Me]

Could be the memory card. What you are seeing initially in 99% of image viewing/editing programs is the embedded JPG image which looks fine in the LR import dialog window. And looked fine in the Library module before LR built a new preview of the file once I had sent it to the Develop module.

[Squidy666]

I dont think its the memory card, because these photos have been imported previously (at the same location) for editing, and I've spent hours on them and even got prints done from them. The corruption is only very recent, its driving me nuts

[Squidy666]

Also, the files are perfectly fine at first, I can copy them all over the place with no issues, its only when i import them to LR that the issue starts occurring. Once imported to LR then the previews start going wonky, but I have had them, some of them for months, without importing to LR and as soon as I do they go weird. Mind you, it only happened (that I can tell) since the last update

[Just Shoot Me]

Please link to DB that same file that is a backup and as far as you know is not corrupted. Or even 2 files of some other image, one copy that has been imported into LR and corrupted and one copy of the same file that has not been imported to LR.

I want to open each in ACR.

[Squidy666]

Here's a screenshot of the file prior to being imported, this is from DPP.

And here it is loaded successfully in to Photoshop

Now for some reason I can't upload the other file to dropbox, but DPP and PS seem to handle the files fine, but when they go into LR they go weird. Is there any way to roll back to the previous version to test?

[Just Shoot Me]

Yes.

http://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-do-i-roll-back-to-lightroom-2015-1-1-or-lightroom-6-1-1/

Only replace the reference to 6.1.1 with 6.8

[Just Shoot Me]

Just a question? Have you actually opened the LR Preferences and checked that the GPU option is Un-Checked on the Performance tab?

[Squidy666]

Yup, that and disabling the plugins were the first things I did. Just checked just then though and it's definitely unticked

[Squidy666]

Also, just to add, this is a legit version of Windows and also legit versions of Creative Cloud software so there's no cracks or anything that could interfere

[Squidy666]

Weird, I rolled back one version and it seems to be fine now?? I'm going to leave my computer on overnight (it's 4am here) but I'll let you all know what I find tomorrow.

[Todd Shaner]

Image files imported into LR are never modified or written to with one exception as shown below. This option is unchecked by default so unless you changed it your raw image files are never modified or over-written by LR.

You can still experience what appears to be file corruption when viewing images inside LR due to an incompatible graphics driver or monitor profile, but this does NOT cause file corruption. We know for a fact at least one or more of your CR2 raw files (049A4037.CR2) were corrupted so you still have an unidentified issue.

[Squidy666]

Checked that setting and its not ticked. Still having the corruption issue this morning, but only 4 photos are corrupt now as a few hundred were corrupt previously? Maybe it is something to do with the new Lightroom and the Canon 5d MK IV? All my shots on my Canon 5Ds look fine

[Rob_Cullen]

This may not be related-

Re-starting my Windows-10 i7 desktop, the graphics card would not 'start'. The screen remained blank with a 'no video' message.

On the advice of my friends at the local computer store I removed the RAM and GPU modules, cleaned all the gold contacts with a pencil eraser, brushed out all dust, re-inserted all cards and re-booted.

Graphics all now working- great!  Poor connections with the RAM was the problem.

I suspect that many graphics problems could be related to dust, dirt, and other similar hardware problems.