# Lightroom has stopped working



## vharwood (May 28, 2011)

This AM when I started LR3, it opened and immediately I got this window 
"Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 64 has stopped working." after rebooting several time I am still getting the same mesage.

Where do I go from here? 

I'm guessing a reinstall with the original disk that will take me back to LR3.0 and then I'll have to update. I do not want to loose any work so ...?????

I'm using win7 64bit. an i7 920 CPU with 6gb of ram and 980gt video card with 1gb of vram


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## Jim Wilde (May 28, 2011)

Hi, welcome to the forum.

There are a few things you could try before having to resort to reinstalling. I assume that you have Lightroom set to always open your catalog when you start up? Have you tried opening a new empty catalog (temporarily) just to see if you can get Lightroom to start properly without the error message? You can do this by holding down the Ctrl key when you click on the Lightroom icon to start the program....this will bring up the catalog selection box and down at the bottom you'll see an option to 'Create New Catalog'. Try that and see if the problem still pops up.

If it *does not*, that would tend to indicate a problem with your catalog which will need to be addressed.
If the problem *does* still occur, that would perhaps indicate a deeper Lightroom issue and the first thing I would think about would be to reset the Lightroom Preferences. We can provide instructions for that, but for now try out the new catalog procedure and let us know what happens.


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## b_gossweiler (May 28, 2011)

vharwood,

Do you also see a message like "Lightroom -  Opening Catalog: xxx.jpg.lrcat" for a while right after you try to start LR?

Beat


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## sloanrob (May 28, 2011)

first  day here  thanks in advance for help. I tried the control button on start up but no good..Hello,   lightroom  will not  open . 
 An error message come up  say stopped  working   a problem caused the program to stop working correctly.  windows will  close the program and notify you if a solution is available. 

  (OPENING  Catlog ) 
: name  dj  next 3 day  Jep"  shows up when I click on lightroom.  (this was the name of one of my picture)  And  now is is the name of a catalog ?  its has all been fine for 1 yr. ?  Help  please..


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## sloanrob (May 28, 2011)

yes  get  this  exact print out at attempted  start up..   Plus..  I have  vista 32 bit,..Hello,  lightroom will not  open . 
 An error message come up  say stopped  working   a problem caused the program to stop working correctly.  windows will  close the program and notify you if a solution is available. 

  (OPENING  Catlog ) 
: name  dj  next 3 day  Jep"  shows up when I click on lightroom.  (this was the name of one of my picture)  And  now is is the name of a catalog ?  its has all been fine for 1 yr. ?  Help  please..


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## b_gossweiler (May 28, 2011)

Welcome to the forums, sloanrob 

This situation (=bug) occurs when you choose to create a new catalog  and then specify the name of an existing file (i.e. xxx.jpg) instead of entering a folder name for the  new catalog.

Easiest way for you to solve the problem is to rename the LR preferences file:


On your Windows Vista system, while LR is closed, click on the start button and - under "Search Programs and Files", enter the following:
%appdata%\Adobe\Lightroom
Then press Enter
Within  the "Lightroom" folder, you see a folder called "Preferences", in which  you find a file called "Lightroom 3 Preferences.agprefs"
Rename the file "Lightroom 3 Preferences.agprefs" to "Lightroom 3 Preferences.agprefs.old"
Start Lightroom, a new preferences file will be built.
Choose the catalog you used last to be opened
Beat


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## vharwood (May 29, 2011)

Holding the control key down allowed me to start a new catalog and LR opened just fine. I will try to load the old catalog and optimize it.


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## vharwood (May 29, 2011)

BTW Jim Thanks very much, I wish all solutions came a fast and were as simple, thanks again.
Vern


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## b_gossweiler (May 29, 2011)

Vern,

If opening the old catalog does not work, try to create a new catalog and import the old catalog using "Import from Catalog".

Beat


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## Jim Wilde (May 29, 2011)

vharwood said:


> BTW Jim Thanks very much, I wish all solutions came a fast and were as simple, thanks again.
> Vern


 
Vern, not sure we've actually found a solution yet....all we are trying at this stage is to pin down likely problem causes, and whilst it's good that a new catalog starts up OK that just probably means that there is nothing wrong with Lightroom specifically. We now need to see what happens when you try to open your main catalog, it's likely that the same problem is there in which case we need come up with some more focused suggestions. 

So, first thing we need to establish is if the original problem is still there. Can you let us know that? If it *is* still there, we could try the "Import from Catalog" procedure that Beat suggested....let us know if you need help with that.


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## sloanrob (May 29, 2011)

Thanks   soooooooooooo.   Much   i am back in  you have been a  great help  regards  a  new be.  Rob  sloan  in  nyc,,


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## b_gossweiler (May 29, 2011)

Glad you're up and running again, Rob 

Just remember now, "File -> New Catalog" is not used to import pictures, and if you ever want to create a new catalog, you have to enter a catalog name in the filename field, which will become a directory with that name containing your new catalog.

Beat


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## Dsect (Jun 7, 2011)

*You guys are awesome!!!*

Worked like a charm...the catalog was corrupt not opening, hold down ctrl...created new catalog. Them imported from old catalog. Thank you guys so much...was freaking out....sooooooo happy. You guys rock! Thanks again...


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## Victoria Bampton (Jun 7, 2011)

Hi Dsect, welcome to the forum!  Glad to hear you're sorted so easily!  If you're actually on 3.0, as per your profile, you might want to update to 3.4 while you're busy fixing things, as there were some bugs in 3.0.


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## Abbie (Jan 25, 2012)

b_gossweiler said:


> vharwood,
> 
> Do you also see a message like "Lightroom -  Opening Catalog: xxx.jpg.lrcat" for a while right after you try to start LR?
> 
> Beat



YES!!!!! i get this:

(sorry crappy iphone "screenshot".)
the message says Adobe Photoshop Lightroom has stopped working. 

"A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you 
if a solution is available."


i've tried the CTRL while clicking the LR icon, nothing happens at all. i read further in the thread above and see that you shouldn't go from File---> Import... and i'm 99% certain i didn't do this. i remember clicking on the import button, near bottom left, to create a new catalog, but i suppose there is a huge possibility i did it the wrong way since today is the first day i've ever tried using LR.
i did already reboot (didnt work), uninstall, reinstall, i havent done the 3.6 update AGAIN yet because it has 6 min left on the download again. but yes i DID try the CTRL/open icon trick multiple times with no results.

ANY help would be much appreciated! so happy to have found this resource!


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## Victoria Bampton (Jan 25, 2012)

Hi Abbie, welcome to the forum!

Skip back to post 6 in this thread and you'll find the fix.  It's the preferences file you'll need to trash.


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## Hal P Anderson (Jan 25, 2012)

Hi, Abbie,

Welcome!

Here's a tutorial on how to take screenshots:
http://www.lightroomqueen.com/commu...t-screenshot-quot-on-Windows-or-Mac-computers

I got a smile from your creative solution. 

Hal


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## SkipMSR (Feb 16, 2012)

b_gossweiler said:


> Welcome to the forums, sloanrob
> 
> This situation (=bug) occurs when you choose to create a new catalog  and then specify the name of an existing file (i.e. xxx.jpg) instead of entering a folder name for the  new catalog.
> 
> ...



I had this exact problem......followed your instructions to the letter, and low and behold I now have my Lightroom 3 running again! Thanks so much!!


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