Lightroom 2015.7+: Panels and filmstrip black when switching to Develop

El Capitan is pretty old. You shouldn't hit this issue in Sierra or High Sierra.

Yes this issue will not go away until Adobe repairs the issue, they told me it was there issue and are working on it. It is not your computer! Have you tried to minimize LR and than expand/ It works most of the time but not every time fo rme.

Yes it is painful but this is better than spending hours on the phone with Adobe only to given the run around and still have the same issue.

This is so true!  Been through this myself and never again - Terrible support service. 

I am equally frustrated. The problem diminished for a while but is now constantly interrupting me. 

Unfortunately not. It would require fixes in the macOS.

Simon, sorry that is a very bad excuse. Photoshop doesn't have this problem, neither does Bridge, or On1, or Capture1, or any other app, yours or your competitors. This is clearly something specific to Lightroom that can be solved by a change in Lightroom.

Exactly Andy! In another post I suggested they not charge us the monthly subscription for something that doesn't work until they get it fixed! That should piss of executives and bring them down onto the LR team to get their sh_t together or they are gone! Maybe a social media blast all over every platform to let everyone know LR has now gone into the gutter of bad software! Used to love working in it....still do....UNTIL this past year!!!!

I was having similar issues with LR crashing, for me it happened most often when importing new photos.  While frustrated and troublehsooting, I found that it happened if I had PS open.  It's ridiculous that I have to close photoshop (and consequently any projects I was working on) in order to have LR import without crashing!

Forking this comment about a crashing issue to get more focused eyes on it. Please reference the new conversation here: Lightroom Classic 7.1 & macOS High Sierra 10.13.12 Crash

Well Melissa ....what thread do you guys have where we can just tell you to fix it!!!!!!  You guys really know how to hide behind these chats ...and only reply when you feel like it! Give us your phone number and have the guts to answer in person!!!!!

Hi Randy,

I've forked this user's comment because his issue is about a crash with Lr Classic 7.1 and High Sierra which is unrelated to the issue you're pretty passionate about: panels going black for users on El Capitan.

Forking it will help him get dedicated support for his issue rather than it being lost in this comment thread.

Hope that makes sense!

Thanks,
Melissa 

Hi Melissa and fellow sufferers. I had high hopes that the latest update to Lightroom would address this problem of panels/filmstrip going black in MacOS El Capitan, but no. If anything, the problem is worse. Clicking tools, such as crop, in the Develop mode causes it also. My hardware does not allow me to use High Sierra. I'm constrained to El Capitan. Why can't this problem be resolved for El Capitan users?

In the week after I posted this, I've had better luck. Why it was so bad initially seems puzzling. The main trick to avoid the problem seems to be to never minimize. I reduce the size of the window if I'm not working in Lightroom, rather than hide it.

I think the 7.3 version of Lightroom fixes the problem. Cautiously optimistic. I keep testing it, but so far, no side panel black-outs. Fingers crossed!

Shucks, side panels blacked out moving from web to develop. Very disappointing.

Well Melissa, FORK these comments to the higher ups and get something done!!!!

Well Melissa, FORK these comments to the higher ups and get something done!!!!

Andy Charnas and Thomas Postel please contact me at..... rotophoto@gmail.com. This is a secondary email than my main one just in case of spammers. Please send me info or I will send you my phone on a return email to discus this and how we possibly can get a conference call w/Adobe! Capture 1 is looking better all the time.

These blacked out panels indicate a video problem.  I have the latest version of LR and High Sierra.  I have never experienced this issue on any version of LR and on any previous versions of the operating system.  So, IMO the problem is not with LR and not with high Sierra. "heard it was worse in HighSierra" is hearsay from likely unreliable sources on the web. Unless you have seen the problem on High Sierra with your own eyes, this is not a reliable statement.  Upgrading your OS to 10.13.4 might just very well fix your issue.  Your operating system is 2 years out of date.  In computer terms this is practically antediluvian.

Now lets look at your problem as a hardware problem on YOUR machine.  That it happens with a mouse click also suggests  a video problem.  Are you using a 3rd party mouse?  If so is the driver up to date on your Mac?

Which Video card?  How much VRAM?  Is the GPU a supported GPU in LR?   How much RAM do you have installed?  How much free space on the Primary drive for Working storage?  Is you video card failing?   If you Mac looked like mine, I don't see how you could be having an issue.  Certainly not an issue that you can blame on Adobe. 

That must mean a lot of people I know have video problems. Professional commercial photographers with different machines. I am also not the only one with this problem on here! Mac user since 1985...... not one other problem with a very good machine... photoshop also working fantastic, camera raw stand alone ....not one problem!
24gb ram, 2x2.4 ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor, ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024mb,
L2 Cache 256kb per core, L3 Cache 12 mb per processor.... apple wireless mouse, 150 GB free on main HD, 1.5 TB free on scratch disk. Video card not failing... no other problems on this machine. Also remember what I posted...this has been going on for almost 2 years.

Until you are willing to rule out the hardware and operating system version as a cause, you can't say it is Adobe's fault.  Consider the fact that there are more people running LR Classic and High Sierra that don't have the problem and you will have to agree that there are differences that are unique to your environment that are causing the problem. If everyone running Lightroom on MacOS had your problem that I would say that you have a case.  Because they don't, you need to figure out what is different in your setup that makes this issue occur.I volunteer support at Lightroomforums.net and have resolved many similar complaints by solving the video mouse driver problem.   A corrupt color profile for your monitor is also a candidate. 

Run new profiles every month (with Spectraview for 2690wuxi monitor) software and have also done (compared) EyeOne software with EyeOne puck. I also would consider many other options but with not one other thing happening on a power used computer.....no other problems. Also looking at some of your posts....you seem to have other problems that I didn't have...... strange!!! many things do happen to other users that don't happen to you...kind of like getting a car that is a lemon or has problems that someone else dosen't have! I am not a dummy when it comes to Mac Issues.... have done tests on video card performance and disk utilities test, disk warrior tests, permissions tests, cache tests, , etc,etc......as far as people running High Sierra ...look back and there are people that have switched and are far worse off! ..Also when it comes to whether or not I should or shouldn't listen to someone with the same problem......or not....if they are wrong ....why should I listen to you???

"....why should I listen to you???"  You re right.  There are a lot of talking heads on the internet. Everybody is an expert. If you want to dig a little deeper in to my posting here, you will find that with few exceptions, they are responses to other people with other problems. The other were legitimate LR bugs that can be documented and are repeatable on other hardware.  The difference between me and those people with your problem is that I have a reputation for solving LR problems. (Over 13,000 posts at Lightroomforums.net) They most likely don't have a reputation for solving LR problems. 
This forum is not IMO the menu for solving an individual's computer problems that show up with LR. It takes a lot of back and forth and trial and error to isolate a problem like yours.  While I think I can eventually identify your problem, I can not change your attitude. 

> El Capitan, 10.11.6 (heard it was worse in HighSierra), LR 7.3, Camera Raw 10.3

It's not worse on High Sierra. It's a conflict with El Capitan. It's solved on High Sierra. Adobe worked with Apple to get it fixed. If you can upgrade to High Sierra, you can save yourself a lot of heartache. Bear in mind that El Capitan will drop off the supported list later this year, so you'd need to upgrade then anyway.