Lightroom 6 hanging?

[NEF Said]

Hi, I've been using LR for years and fairly pleased. Had a stretch for a while where it would crash occasionally, but it has been stable for the past 6+ months. Until today. It hangs on startup and never gets to my catalog. It is version 6, before all this licensing stuff. Running Mac Mojave 10.14.6 on a iMac that is from 2019.

I tried, holding shift-option when starting LR to reset preferences, and have tried rebooting, but no success. It worked fine a week ago. No update to MacOS, no change to LR. The ONLY change I've made is that for some reason the Adobe Acrobat Pro that I have with an old version of CS6 has been crashing about 10-15 secs after startup looking at a PDF (it's my PDF reader default). So, I D/Led Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, and have been using that.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Also, if I want to look into other software, what ones should I consider? My main needs/likes (based on what I'm used to with LR) are...

• Setting lens profile, if available and applying to all imports.
• Being able to set a profile (usually auto-tone) and applying to all.
• I use RAW capture in camera for my D750, and like the idea of being able to edit multiple times w/o degrading.
• Batch export of files in JPEG, sometimes with limits to the max resolution on long edge.
• Obvious simple items of adjusting exposure, WB
• I like the dropper to set WB.
• Heavy use of cropping (especially straightening a bit - I occasionally take Batman photos). Do some 1:1 crops.
• Occasional spot healing, gradient application.
• If I need major work on a photo, or want HDR/pano, I usually import into PS.
• 90% of the time, dealing with Nikon. Sometimes with my Fuji X100S using JPEG originals.
• Occasional convert to B&W.
• Do like the virtual copies, so I can have photos in different crops/styles when trying things.
• I rarely have gotten to play with curves, or using the noise filtering (thought would like to).
• Must have a way to rank (I use 1=don't publish, 2=ok, 3=great shot, 4=exceptional). I use the colors, like red to indicate I'm tagging a photo to use for Collective Shoots in Cafe.
• I'll occasionally process 300-500 shots at a go, for car club pictures, so having a quick way to deal with things is important.
• I use the file naming a lot on importing.
• Hoping for a reasonable UI, so I don't have to spend a huge learning curve with the tool.
• Really want a licensed vs subscription based product as I shoot a reasonable amount, but it is in spurts.

Do Capture One Pro, Dx0 Photo Labs, or others have similar features?

Thanks!

 

[Growltiger]

It is no coincidence that you had a problem with Adobe Acrobat Pro and then Lightroom crashes on startup. Adobe use Acrobat Pro as a tool to run anti-piracy software that checks all the Adobe software on your computer, and that will have disabled your copy of Lightroom. That whole system is notoriously flawed and you are not the first legitimate user it has messed up. The solution is to reinstall your copy of Lightroom. If it still doesn't work then uninstall Acrobat Pro then reinstall Lightroom again. If still no good, contact Adobe.

PS. I suggest you stick with Lightroom 6.

 

[NEF Said]

Thanks! Will do that! Kinda annoyed at the Adobe products, and I know there's no support for this version, so I do want to look at alternatives.

 

[NEF Said]

I uninstall LR, uninstalled Acrobat Pro, reinstalled LR6, and it still hangs on startup. Did an uninstall of LR6, rebooted, reinstalled LR6. Same issue...

 

[NEF Said]

Checking with Adobe... it's an old product and looks like I have to use the support community for help. Giving it a try. Going to push me to make a decision about what I want to use for both raw processing and picture management, forward going.

 

[Growltiger]

Adobe have a special piece of (free) software to completely clean off all remnants of their software from a computer. Track that down and run it, then install LR again. You need the old CS6 version. This website tells all:
http://tweakccm.blogspot.com/
Scroll down for the Mac section.

 

[NEF Said]

On community forums, they suggested adding LR6 to control list, under security and privacy under preferences. I did that, but still no startup.

Going through the list of steps to remove everything as mentioned on the link above. I'll be able to get LR reinstalled (as I have the D/L), but I just realized that for CS6, that is a disk, and my new Mac does not have a DVD drive. Will have to see if I can D/L at least Photoshop (the only other app I use).

 

[NEF Said]

Lightroom is working now, though, I had to recover watermarks that I had made and have no preset.

 

[Growltiger]

Lightroom is working now, though, I had to recover watermarks that I had made and have no preset.

Well done getting it running. Never install Acrobat Pro again...

 

[NEF Said]

Now I have to try to get PS6 installed. I don't have DVD reader on my Mac (don't own one). I have two linux boxes with DVDs (and running Ubuntu Server). Will see if I can maybe copy the DVD to a USB and use on Mac, or maybe share the DVD using Samba... been a long time doing that sort of thing...

 

[NEF Said]

I finally have LR6 and PS6 reinstalled and working. It was a painful 6+ hour process. It is pretty old software (I hear LR6 won't work with Catalina). I'll have to assess, whether I want to upgrade to newer subscription based LR+PS, or consider something like Capture One Pro or D0 PhotoLab2. Will have a lot of research to do.

Thanks for the advice!