Interface goes black, except for photo

[jonholcombe]

Using the most recent version of Lightroom on a Mac Pro, El Capitan.

I leave Lightroom open most of the time, and when I am working on a photo in Develop module, I may switch to another app or leave the computer on overnight, the screen saver comes on, etc. The computer is not set to go to sleep.

When I come back to Lightroom after a long period of time, the interface is completely black, except for the photo. But everything else (all menus, top bottom, left and right) is gone, unclickable, innacessible. This started happening in past couple of weeks, not long after I updated Lightroom to the current version.

I am assuming this is a bug, but wondering if I am missing something simple, and I would like to avoid quitting and reopening Lightroom every time.

[dj_paige]

It always helps when you state the version NUMBER instead of words like "most recent version" because sometimes people think they are up to date when they are not.

I will assume you have Lightroom 6.8 (if that's not your version number, you can stop reading now), and you have encountered a known bug. The only solution at this time is to roll back to Lightroom 6.7. https://www.lightroomqueen.com/roll-back-update-previous/

[jonholcombe]

Thanks for the reply.

I am not sure where you see "Lightroom 6.8". I looked in "About Photoshop Lightroom CC" and found "2015.8 Release". I assumed that since CC menu app told me a Lightroom update was available, and I updated a week or so ago, I was using the most recent version. I clicked on the icon in the finder and found this: "Adobe Lightroom [1099473]".

Is there another place to find the version number?

[dj_paige · Accepted solution]

My mistake, I wasn't clear enough.

I should have said

"I will assume you have either Lightroom 6.8 or Lightroom Lightroom CC 2015.8"

They are essentially the same version of the software, so if your Lightroom is 2015.8 then this is the bug I mentioned.

[missyruns54]

I have Lightroom CC (2015.12) / 6.12 and it is behaving the same way.  The only way to get out of it is to restart LR.  This was supposed to have been fixed in 2015.10, but I am still seeing it in 12.  I am running on OS X 10.11.6.

[John Waller]

missyruns54  wrote

This was supposed to have been fixed in 2015.10, but I am still seeing it in 12.  I am running on OS X 10.11.6.

It's corrected in 2015.10.x+ on macOS Sierra 10.12.x.

Lightroom UI panels appearing black on macOS

Workarounds are offered at the link above for OS X 10.11 El Capitan and earlier.

Can you update to Sierra? Or do you need to stay with El Capitan for some reason?

[missyruns54]

I have been holding off upgrading, but I think it's ok now.  I will try it this weekend. 

Thanks