Lightroom Classic: Red and blue artifacts randomly appear on previews and exported photos

Thanks, Rikk. Fingers crossed!

Thanks Rikk, also for merging the issue with the main one. I didn't find this topic while searching posts, probably just the keywords I was using.

For now we only have CC Classic installed on one pc at our office. The artifacts will appear at random when we are switching between photos in LR. If it appears and we switch to another photo, it will stay there forever even when exported if we don't go back on the file again which might make it disappear.

So the issue as far as we have seen only happens when we load a photo in develop mode and come and go randomly when we switch between photos.

having same issue. Did you get an answer? 

Write a commentI have proceeded to reset the preferences and the issue is still present in LR and on exported files. In the test we just ran, I noticed that seeing the artifact in LR didn't necessarily mean that this particular photo would be exported with the artifact. It seems that seeing it in LR is completly random and which exported photos will have it is also random.

If a preference file reset doesn't help, I am going to recommend a reinstall. Please follow this procedure:

Close Lightroom
Restart the computer
Use the Adobe Creative Cloud App to uninstall Lightroom Classic CC
Restart the computer
Install Lightroom Classic CC via the Creative Cloud App without launching any other programs.
Restart the computer
Launch Lightroom
Wait 5 minutes

Hello Rikk, reinstalling Lightroom Classic CC did not solve the problem. The artifacts are still present in LR and in our export.

Thank you

Has each photo which exhibits the artifact been to Photoshop?

Our workflow is as is :

Our photographer takes the photos
We export the files to a computer and then to our server or cloud
Our photo retoucher imports them in Lightroom to sort and calibrate the photos
We export the files out of Lightroom to our server
Our other retouch team take those files to Photoshop for the final retouching


Usually no photos will go into Photoshop before going through Lightroom.

Let me re-ask the question this way then. On every image that exhibits this visual anomaly - has the image been to Photoshop once? 

Do you have any images showing the visual artifact that have not been to Photoshop?

I see that our topic relating to Lightroom CC (not Classic) has been merged with this one, since Classic is also exhibiting this bug. To answer your question, Rikk, no, these red artifacts appear on any image in Lightroom, both during editing and on saving to a final destination, such as Apple Photos on iOS or Finder on macOS.

While the visual anomalies also occur on photos sent to Photoshop for editing, it happens regardless of whether a photo ever touches Photoshop. And though the red boxes frequently appear while editing in Lightroom, they almost always appear on saved photos—and in a different position each time the photo is saved.

This suggests that this bug is unrelated to Photoshop and that the anomalies only appear there because they are added during the export/saving phase (in addition to appearing while editing).

Oddly, simply selecting a tool such as Crop and then deselecting it will sometimes make the red boxes disappear. Other times, closing out from an otherwise unaffected image will then add red artifacts to it. Sometimes they are permanent and seemingly impossible to remove until a random adjustment during editing makes them disappear.

That's the weirdest part—there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to their appearance or disappearance. But this all occurred for every one of my devices—iMac Pro, MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and iPhone XS Max—after the most recent Lightroom CC release.

See example screenshot below. Again, each time this photo is saved out of Lightroom (in this case to Finder), the red box(es) change sizes and appear in different areas.

Gotcha! The artifact is there in any photo viewer or editor we tried.

I am experiencing  same issue

Me too

You need to look at the exports too. I have not seen it in my Raw file edits while in LR, only on the jpg or tif after exporting.

Out of all the years I've used LR and PS this is the most serious problem I have run across. The randomness of this issue is the most frustrating. I was just touching up some slide scans I did for a client and a blue rectangle showed up on one out of nowhere. The file was never in PS. It will export with the artifact if you don't catch it. If this continues much longer I will consider a move to C1.

Tell me about it. I shoot XC and T&F. 4000 images is not unheard of for a invitational...