LR 5.7x can no longer import images

[Joaquim Homrighausen]

So on one computer running Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, I have an older version of LR installed (5.7x) that I use sometimes to quickly go through images before editing. I have never had an issue with this until today. I can move around the program without any problems. I can move around in the library, I can view / edit / develop, I can export, basically everything works. Until I click the "Import" button in the library view. Then the "Has stopped working" message appears and I'm left with no other option by Windows but to close LR.

_nothing_ has changed on this machine. There's nothing special with the hardware (it's a simple Fujitsu Desktop machine, with on-board Intel graphics with 32GB of RAM and a Core i7, plenty of free space on SSD drive(s)). I really don't want to have to obtain another CC subscription just for this computer when I already have (had?) a working 5.7x installation that is perfectly good for what I use it for.

I've seen similar threads, and attempted their suggested solutions (removing temporary files, removing cache files, removing spurious .lck files, etc), but nothing seems to work.

 

[Joaquim Homrighausen]

OK ... so I found the solution just a little while after posting this. I hate it when that happens. I cannot believe how silly this problem is! The hint was here: Lightroom: Crashes when I hit Import button | Photoshop Family Customer Community Indeed, I had my phone connected with an USB cable. Unplugging the phone allowed the import to proceed. Say what?!

So, apologies for asking "the obvious".

 

[Dan Marchant]

You used the cursed phrase "nothing has changed" (when something had changed) and so the gods of IT have punished you by showing you the truth moments after you pressed the magic "Post Message" button.

Let this be a lesson mortal. If nothing has changed the system can't alter it's behaviour. Just because you don't know what has changed it doesn't mean that Axion, the god of data corruption, hasn't poked his evil wand into your system and corrupted a driver file.

 

[Joaquim Homrighausen]

Well, considering I've been doing coding and systems engineering since 1984, I should have know it'd bite me. BUT, I often have the phone connected to that machine, and haven't noticed this before. So, thus I did not "register the change". Hopefully my dumbassness will help someone else, if that is so, then it's on me