Whether the cat walked over the keyboard, the toddler pressed random keys, or simply, the result can be part of Lightroom’s interface going missing.
These are the most frequent mishaps:
The minimize/maximize/close buttons are gone!
If the window buttons at the top of the screen are missing, and you can no longer move the Lightroom window around, you’re in one of the full-screen modes. Press Ctrl-Alt-F (Windows) / Cmd-Opt-F (Mac), or to go Window menu > Screen Mode > Normal.
Everything’s gone black!
If everything goes black apart from the photos, you’ve hit the L key and enabled Lights Out mode. Press the L key once or twice until everything reappears.
Or if only one large photo fills the screen, you’re likely in Full-Screen view. Press F or Escape to cancel.
My Toolbar is missing
If the toolbar under the photo, which contains the view mode buttons and sort order in the Library module goes missing, then you’ve accidentally pressed the T key. Press it again to make the toolbar reappear.
My Filters are missing
If the filters at the top of the Grid view are missing, you’ve pressed the \ key. Press it again!
My panel is missing!
If a left-hand side panel goes missing, for example, the Folders panel in the Library module, go to Window menu > Panels and click on the panel’s name to enable it. You can also right-click on a panel header (in the gray space next to the panel name) to show the context-sensitive menu and put a checkmark against the name of the missing panel.
If a right-hand panel goes missing in Develop, right-click on one of the other panel headers, click Customize, then tick the box next to the name of the missing panel. You can change the order of the panels here too.
There’s writing in the corner of my photo!
If the Info overlay is showing in the top left corner of the photo, press the I key once or twice to hide it.
There are red and blue marks all over my photo!
If there are red or blue patches on photos in the Develop module, you’ve turned on the clipping warnings. Press the J key to disable them.
My pins are missing!
If you are using the Masking tool, and your existing adjustments aren’t displaying their pins, you’ve press the H key to hide them. Press it again to show them, or select Always or Auto in the Show Edit Pins pop-up in the toolbar. The same applies in the Remove tool, but the pop-up is in the Remove panel.
My photo’s gone red
If you’re using Masking and the picture goes red, green, white, or black, you’ve pressed the O key. Press the O key again to disable the mask overlay or toggle the checkbox in the toolbar.
For extensive information on Lightroom Classic, see Adobe Lightroom Classic – The Missing FAQ.
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Hi Victoria,
I use lightroom 6 on a dell xps 13 laptop. My problem is the left side toolbar is too small . How can I enlarge to make the content visible. I can not find help. Thank you,
The left side toolbar – like the panel width? If so, just drag the edge to make it wider.
Hi Victoria,
It’s a very interesting article with important tips.
I need your advice for the following theme:
In my LR 6 the “Lens Correction panel” looks different then in your book P. 273, Fig. 13.26.
The “Basic”-and “Red” tabs are missing of the Lens Corrections panel.
The Setup Default panel indicates the following warning:
“! Unable to locate a matching profile automatically”.
How can be changed the state of the Lens Corrections panel?
Victoria, could you give me a hint for a solution?
Thanks,
Carl
They redesigned lens corrections during the LR6 cycle, and split it into 2 panels. The updated book’s in the Members Area for you Carl.
Great post… Everyone of those “missions” have I experienced!
LR Queen: Great tips on using the editor.
Love to read your articles.
Do keep up the good work
Thank you thank you thank you!!! you are the best and saved the day.
when I try to open my current catalog I working on, Lightroom tells me ‘cannot open because it is already in use by another application.’ It is not being used by me anywhere else! I’ve tried restarting my computer like any well trained computer professional would do! 🙂 Can you help me with this? I run on a MAC with OS X Yosemite
Find the catalog in Finder, and if Lightroom’s definitely closed, delete the *.lock file next to it. It should only be there when Lightroom’s open.
Hi Victoria, my biggest problem with this is me. I am not a touch typist so when I am typing something into a text box I am looking at the keyboard, not the screen. Many times when I look up I obviously didn’t select the text box I thought I was typing in and if I had just pressed all these keys as short-cut key presses you can just imagine the mess this can cause, Any quick way to reverse a mess such as this?
You can reset preferences, but that would reset all of your preferences, so you’re probably just better to bookmark this page in case something goes missing. You can also try Undo (Ctrl-Z/Cmd-Z) to undo anything like incorrect flags, star ratings, etc.
I have a weird behaviour that I haven’t quite figured out. I like to preview my images in full screen so I’ll press F to get full screen view then use arrow keys and flagging keys as I go through the images in the folder. Finally I press F again to come out of full screen view. It works fine, except that sometimes, for a reason I haven’t figured out it won’t come out of full screen view. I usually manage to get out of it somehow without killing Lightroom but what exactly makes it come out of full screen I haven’t pinned down. I suspect the cause may have something to do with a second monitor that isn’t there. I use XDisplay to use my iPad as a second monitor sometimes but it isn’t always connected. It may be that Windows tells Lightroom there is a second monitor and it may move the main Lightroom window to that monitor, leaving the full screen view on the main one. But with the second monitor not really being there it may perhaps not be able to switch back.
Yes, you could be right. I’d try disabling XDisplay and see if you continue to see the same issue.
For the past few days I’ve been trying to figure out where the tool bar went. Great article at the perfect time! Big thank you!
Have been tripped up by the T toolbar one before… where did “Done” go ??? lol
Good list !
Somewhere there’s a blooper timelapse of the frustrations of wtf errors like these. It’s frightening how many of these traps I’ve fallen down. Great article
As always, many thanks for your tips/explanations that keep LR users from going crazy!!
great article LR Queen. Im sure many folks here run into at least one of these over their use of Lr. esp newer users (and experienced ones) 🙂 thanks keep it up