LR 5.4 cannot edit Preferences file

[aebolzan]

As I couldn't edit some pictures with Nik plugins, I decided to look at the "Preferences"  of LR 5.4 in order to see if there was anything there that could be preventing Silver Effex or Color Effex  editing the file. However, what I found is that every time I click the menu on Edit|Preferences, LR hangs and Windows 8.0 says that LR will be closed, and eventually closes LR. I do not undertand what is happening. Should I remove and re-install LR 5.4? Should I remove LTR 5.4 and install back LR 5.3?....What will happen if I re-install LR 5.4? What will I loose from my personal configuration? I have Nik plugins and TTG web plugins installed. Any clue or help will be highly appreciated.

Agustin

[TonyW]

I am no expert in LR behaviour but from the sound of it by hanging when you try to look at your Preferences settings this would seem to indicate that this particular file is corrupt.  If this is the case you will need to just delete it and let LR rebuild from scratch - unfortunately you will loose any changes you made to the Preference file.  Hopefully this will be enough to get LR back on track without resorting to reinstall

On a Windows 7 (and earlier) system the file may reside in C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Preferences\ the file to delete will be named similar to Lightroom 5 Preferences.agprefs

[aebolzan]

The funny thing is that I deleted the file so that LR created a new  one from scratch when started again, but also in that case, LR was unable to open the file!...so that the problem seems that it is not a Preference file that is corrupted (as I also thought at the very beginning) but something elese.....it sounds quite strange, at least for me.......that's why I am thinking about to remove LR and reinstall it (LR5.4 or LR 5.3?), but I would like to know what kind of problems I will find after this procedure....i.e. what will I loose...

Agustin

[TonyW]

In that case I think I would be looking at the possibility that the plugins maybe the source of the problem for some reason. 

I would be tempted to first uninstall third party plugins and see if Lightroom behaviour changes back to normal.  If it does then consider double checking that you have the current version of the plugins and full compatibility with both OS and your current LR version and reinstall plugins one at a time and check all is well.