Lightroom Crashing on start-up - help!

[Josh-H]

For some reason Lightroom crashed on me tonight whilst working on a file in Develop.

Now.. whenever I try to open lightroom it says "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. windows will notify you if a solution is available."And it closes the program before it finishes opening.

Can I just re-install Lightroom and reload my old catalogue and all will be well without loosing anything?

[john beardsworth]

For some reason Lightroom crashed on me tonight whilst working on a file in Develop.

Now.. whenever I try to open lightroom it says "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. windows will notify you if a solution is available."And it closes the program before it finishes opening.

Can I just re-install Lightroom and reload my old catalogue and all will be well without loosing anything?
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=195445\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I'd be surprised if you "loose" anything. ;0

Don't go for a reinstallation yet - not for a long while. Have you tried restarting Windows? Also look at your preference file in C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Adobe\Lightroom\Preferences - delete the file and see if LR restarts normally. It may also be handy to do a Catalog Optimize once you're back in there.

John

[Josh-H]

I'd be surprised if you "loose" anything. ;0

Don't go for a reinstallation yet - not for a long while. Have you tried restarting Windows? Also look at your preference file in C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Adobe\Lightroom\Preferences - delete the file and see if LR restarts normally. It may also be handy to do a Catalog Optimize once you're back in there.

John
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=195449\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Yeah tried restarting windows - no joy.

What will deleting the preferences file do? Is that something I should back up first?

[john beardsworth]

It will zap stuff like the name of the last catalogue and whether you've chosen the "open last catalogue" or "let me choose" option, whether you've set top and bottom and left and right panels to auto or manual, whether panels are expanded. It would indeed be safer to copy it to your desktop, though IMO it contains nothing of huge value. I should have said double click on the catalogue to restart LR.

Another thing to check is whether it's the catalogue or Lightroom which is broken - my bet would be the catalogue. So rename it in Explorer, then restart LR and see if it starts. This will create a vanilla catalogue in My Pictures - you may be able to use File > Import from Catalog to recover your work (effectively sucking in the old file and hopefully bypassing the problem). There is someone at Adobe who has been helping out with crashed catalogues, but let's cross that bridge later.

John

[Josh-H]

It will zap stuff like the name of the last catalogue and whether you've chosen the "open last catalogue" or "let me choose" option, whether you've set top and bottom and left and right panels to auto or manual, whether panels are expanded. It would indeed be safer to copy it to your desktop, though IMO it contains nothing of huge value. I should have said double click on the catalogue to restart LR.

Another thing to check is whether it's the catalogue or Lightroom which is broken - my bet would be the catalogue. So rename it in Explorer, then restart LR and see if it starts. This will create a vanilla catalogue in My Pictures - you may be able to use File > Import from Catalog to recover your work (effectively sucking in the old file and hopefully bypassing the problem). There is someone at Adobe who has been helping out with crashed catalogues, but let's cross that bridge later.

John
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Thanks VERY much John.

I deleted the preferences file after copying it to the desktop and LR started immediately. I noticed it immediately creates a new preferences file and I had to reset a few preferences - not a big deal.

I had been having a few intermitent crashes of late - but this was the first time I couldnt get LR to re-start. I wonder what caused the preferences file to become corrupt?

I have now optimised and baced up my catalogue again and all looks A-ok from here.

Thank you very much again [if you were hear you would be being handed a beer    and Phew! I was almost panicking there  

[john beardsworth]

Glad to help - getting thirsty. It's such a rare thing to happen - best not to worry unless it repeats.

John