Lightroom Classic 8.0: Crashes on Launch

Hi Anthony,

Are still facing this crash in 8.2.1 Lightroom Classic.
Can you make sure if no devices are connected before launching lightroom.

Thanks,Prabal

Hi Prabal,

I don't know if this crash reported for Lr 8.0 five months ago is the same as the one I experienced two weeks ago with Lr 8.2.1. The latest crash report that I submitted indicated the problem was with a device plugged into my computer. I isolated this to my Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5.

See https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/lightroom-classic-crashes-on-launch-again

If I have the tablet plugged in before launching Lr, then Lr crashes within about two minutes.

If I launch Lr first and wait for it to be ready, then connect my tablet, Lr doesn't crash. If I open the Import dialog, then Lr crashes almost immediately.

Now knowing what causes this problem, I can easily avoid it for now.

Tony

Hi Anthony,
Does this crash happen with other peripheral devices connected ?

~Prabal Kumar Ghosh

Hi Prabal,

I also have a Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini phone. When this is connected to my computer (on the same USB port as I use for the tablet), Lr 8.2.1 doesn't crash when launching it after connecting the phone nor does it crash when Lr is already running before the phone is connected. I can also open the Import dialog without Lr crashing with the phone connected. I find this a little strange since it appears to me that the phone and tablet use the same Samsung mobile device driver.

As for other devices like USB memory devices, SD cards and portable hard drives, none of these cause any problems.

Could be a corrupt cache or application state.

Er, this is Windows Carlos.

Oops, the background fooled me! Thanks!

Jeremy, I located your crash reports and they reference this known bug. I will escalate it to the engineering team. 

Jeremy, for this moment perhaps the best option is to go back to the previous version so you can finish your project.

I ended up with LR 6 (2015) but it can't read my catalogue because it's too new.  Kind of screwed here.

Jeremy, can you revert to any version of 7.x by going to the Down Arrow > Manage >Other versions in the Creative Cloud App?

No.  I have options for versions 8.3.1, 8.3 or 6.0.  The first two crash, the last one can't read my catalogue.  "Find More Versions" link brings up v 6.0.

But 8.3.1 is one version back and 8.3 two. Did you try them?

Yes - all crash except v6, which won't open my catalogue.

I'm now using Bridge as a work-around. Wonder if I'll get a credit from Adobe since my subscription doesn't work?

Jeremy, my crash problem turned out to be my Samsung Tablet plugged into a USB port. Removed the tablet and no more crashes.

Do you have any devices plugged into your computer?

Just my external hard drives. Need them - they're where my photos are.

My external drive was fine, just the tablet. My Samsung phone didn't cause the problem either. Adobe know about it, but no fix yet.

Have you tried making a copy of your preferences file, then deleting it from its normal location so that a default one is recreated?

Just tried this and it seems to be working!  Awesome... thanks for your help.  It's been up and running now for almost 4 hours, which is about 3 hours and 58 minutes longer than I was getting before.

Still don't trust it though.

For those suffering from the same issue that I was, i. e. LR crashing ALL the time, here's what I did to resolve it.  Can't guarantee that it will work for you, but it seems to have worked for me (2 days without a crash):

1. Uninstalled LR and chose to remove all settings
2. Reinstalled an earlier version of LR (8.2.1 in my case)
3. Went to my preferences folder (in LR open Preferences/Presets/Show Lightroom Develop Presets) which will open File Explorer)
4. Close Lightroom
5. Double click the Lightroom folder, then double click the Preferences folder
6. Rename all of the files (should be 4).  I simply added ".old" to the end of each file name
7. Reboot the computer
8. Start LR

This got LR up and running and it seemed stable.  After it remained running for a day without an issue I opened Adobe Creative Cloud and updated my version of LR to the latest version.  It's been up and running overnight with nary a problem.

Thanks to Anthony Blackett for setting me on the right path.  However, I can't help but feel that if Adobe is charging me $14+/month (US-Canada exchange rate) I should have software that isn't buggy.  Which leads me to my next rant...

Not everyone uses a Mac - in fact, there are more Windows users than there are Mac users.  Can we all please get over the idea that serious users only use Mac hardware?  It's great that Adobe runs well on Mac systems, but let's not forget that most users are on Windows and software updates need to be tested on both Mac and Windows systems before being released.  I cancelled my Kelby One subscription when Scott Kelby opined that Macs were better looking computers and therefore more suited for artistic endeavours.  I swear I'll cancel my Adobe subscription if they try the same crap.

Here endeth my rant.  Good luck.

Jeremy, it is good that you have been able to get Lr 8.3.1 running again, but neither you nor any of us should have to go through all this angst. It seems to me that the development team have a very poor record regarding fixing known bugs with some still outstanding after years of being reported.

It might be helpful, maybe, to send your old preferences files to Adobe to see if they can find what is wrong and hopefully get it fixed.

Tony