Today’s Question: I updated Lightroom CC yesterday and now I have a complete mess on my hands. The software doesn’t run. It opens for a second or two then crashes. I have restarted, shut down, reinstalled the software, and still nothing. Any thoughts on where to go next?
Tim’s Quick Answer: If you’re able to get to the Preferences dialog, I would try turning off the “Use Graphics Processor” checkbox on the Performance tab. I have also received a report that turning off the “Show ‘Add Photos’ Screen” checkbox on the General tab of the Preferences dialog has helped prevent crashes. If you’re not able to get there or turning off this option doesn’t resolve your issue, I would suggest uninstalling the latest update and then downloading and installing the initial Lightroom 6 release as an initial step in reverting to an earlier update.
More Detail: I have received more than a few emails from readers who are having difficulty with the latest update to Lightroom (version CC 2015.2 or 6.2). These users are reporting frequent crashes. I am using the latest update, and am not experiencing any problems myself, but clearly the latest update has created some problems for a number of users.
I’ve found that in general disabling the “Use Graphics Processor” option can be helpful for those experiencing crashes with Lightroom. This option is found on the Performance tab in the Preferences dialog, which can be accessed by choosing Lightroom > Preferences from the menu on the Macintosh version of Lightroom or Edit > Preferences on the Windows version of Lightroom.
As noted above, I’ve also received reports that turning off the “Show ‘Add Photos’ Screen” checkbox on the General tab of the Preferences dialog has helped resolve issues with Lightroom crashing. So I would certainly recommend turning that option off if you are having issues with the latest Lightroom update.
If turning off checkboxes doesn’t provide a solution (or you’re not able to get to this option), you may want to revert to an older version of Lightroom. Start by uninstalling Lightroom 6/CC. Then download the original Lightroom 6 version from this page on the Adobe website:
https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/kb/lightroom-downloads.html
You can then install the original Lightroom 6/CC release, using your Adobe ID to sign in during the installation process to validate your CC version of Lightroom. I would then suggest waiting for another update beyond the 2015.2 (or 6.2) release of Lightroom. Hopefully that update will be arriving very soon, and will resolve the crash issues that some users are reporting.