Lightroom occasionally crashing when using gradient tool

[Josh-H]

Lightroom is sometimes crashing, or rather hanging and not responding when using the gradient tool on my system - MacZilla with 32GB RAM etc. OSX.

Time to dump the preferences? Any other options?

[francois]

Lightroom is sometimes crashing, or rather hanging and not responding when using the gradient tool on my system - MacZilla with 32GB RAM etc. OSX.

Time to dump the preferences? Any other options?

Josh,
FWIW, Lightroom is very stable on my Macs except when using the grad tool and the brush tool. I've tried to delete the preferences file. I even installed Lightroom on a fesh system + new HD to no avail. Optimizing the catalog, creating a new one did nothing. Sometimes, it seems that deleting prefs/optimizing my catalog helps but it doesn't last.
I've come to the conclusion that crashes are a normal things with these two tools.

PS: I use both an an old G5 and Intel-powered Macs and noticed no difference with the crashes.

[Josh-H]

Josh,
FWIW, Lightroom is very stable on my Macs except when using the grad tool and the brush tool. I've tried to delete the preferences file. I even installed Lightroom on a fesh system + new HD to no avail. Optimizing the catalog, creating a new one did nothing. Sometimes, it seems that deleting prefs/optimizing my catalog helps but it doesn't last.
I've come to the conclusion that crashes are a normal things with these two tools.

PS: I use both an an old G5 and Intel-powered Macs and noticed no difference with the crashes.

Thank you for the reply Francois - I guess it is good to know it isnt just me experiencing this problem.

I know it isnt processor or hardware related - since my Mac Pro doesnt even break a sweat using anything in Lightroom. Hopefully this gets addressed in the next dot release.

[howardm]

ditto.  I've seen exactly the same behavior w/ LR2.4 on 10.5.6.  very rarely w/ brush tool, intermittent w/ grad tool.

If I use the grad tool early in the editing process, before much else, it's definitely better.  If I use it late in the process, its a major crapshoot and
I now snapshot before I use grad tool, just in case.

[dhaig]

Lightroom is sometimes crashing, or rather hanging and not responding when using the gradient tool on my system - MacZilla with 32GB RAM etc. OSX.

Time to dump the preferences? Any other options?

I see the same problem using LR2.4 on Windows, and saw the same behavior with the prior version as well.  The problem occurs intermittently, but seems most likely to occur when I start the gradient at the edge of the frame or start dragging outside the frame.  The hour glass appears and LR never returns to normal status, even if left for hours, such as overnight.  The only solution I have found is to force quitting LR when I see the hour glass persist more than a few seconds.  I have not noticed the problem when using the brush tool.

I like HowardM's related post which suggested taking a snapshot before using the gradient tool.  A better solution would be a bug fix from Adobe.