Uninstall LR v2x....

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MMarz

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Something is up with my install of LR.. At least once in a session it is crashing. Restarting is futile until I reboot. Odd.. I seem to be tickling something in the grid view, but I can't find any pattern.

So, I think I need to uninstall and do a clean installation. But where to start. I have a pretty deep set of presets, keywords, print templates and plugins etc...

Is there a link to a step by step for safeguarding all the add on stuff? How much rebuilding will need to be done after the reinstall? Will I need my reg codes? uuuggh, I hate doing this..
 
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Thanks...did that already
 
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If you save your catalog, previews, and "presets & settings" folder, you will be able to restore them after re-installation. Hopefully they are not what's causing the problem.
 
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A simple Windows Control Panel 'Uninstall' should not impact any of Lr's ancillary files, including all the things you mentioned. As always, a backup is recommended, before experimenting. Lr should even remember its serial number for the reinstall, but you might want to make a note of it first. You can find that in Help > System Info.

The files you want to save are mostly congregated in: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom

Plugins will reside wherever you chose to unzip them. Custom camera profiles, if any, will be in:
C:\Users\All Users\AppData\Adobe\Camera Raw .....

Keywords are stored in actual catalogs, but you can safeguard those by exporting a text format Keyword list from the Metadata pulldown menu.

All that said, I haven't seen a lot of cases where a simple reinstall solves many problems.
It might be worth looking for corrupt presets, or images.

Personally, whenever I've had frustrating, creeping, 'mystery' failures in Lr, it eventually always came down to a hard-drive starting to go bad.
 
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[quote author=Brad Snyder link=topic=9563.msg64523#msg64523 date=12712663'']
Personally, whenever I've had frustrating, creeping, 'mystery' failures in Lr, it eventually always came down to a hard-drive starting to go bad.
[/quote]

Sweet job Brad thanks. I would agree with you on the failing drive.

The primary drive is only a few months old. I know this doesn't exclude it from instant mortality, but would I see issues elsewhere as well? Right now, the issues are confined entirely to LR, and it seems... in the grid view. Wonder if I should purge previews or something like that.. ??
 
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True. In my case, generally the Lr catalog was the only active data on the troubled drive (twice). There was other data, principally music and archived documents, that I rarely accessed, so understandably the problems showed in Lr first.

Any commonalities in the crashes? Certain folders, collections or the like? What form does the 'crash' take?
 
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Well, as best as I can see it's in the grid view. LR will open to a state that is prior to where it crashed.. so it might be process back, even a different folder. (Never figured that out..I know LR is saving to xmp on the fly, but when does it save your last know process? Is it at shut down?).

When it does lock up it just reports that it performed process it can't recover from, searches the MS database for a fix and then it requires you to close out.

After a crash, launching right away will surely result in another crash. It seems to launch fine, and I can perform a few activities, but it after a few seconds it crashes again. If I wait to launch it after a crash it often stays open, but it seems that once I make it to the grid view (I am guessing here) it will crash again. Only restarting will resolve it until I tickle that one trigger element...not sure what that is.

As an aside, and this might have something to do with it.. I downloaded a series of presets which when applied will instantly cause all LR functions to slow. I'll post back the names of the presets.. They are a series gradients that must gobble up resources.. Wonder if there is something corrupt in there.. I'm grasping at air here...
 
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I am thinking about a possibly corrupt journal but before removing or renaming it, let see what you find about presets as is was previously reported that some corrupt presets were causing problems.
 
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You've tried trashing the preferences? And tried a clean catalog to see if the same happens?
 
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[quote author=Victoria Bampton link=topic=9563.msg64545#msg64545 date=1271277223]
You've tried trashing the preferences? And tried a clean catalog to see if the same happens?
[/quote]

I haven't done either of those. The clean catalog is easy to try. The Preferences...hmmm...sounds complicated for rebuilding. Can you tell me what gets dumped along with the Preferences? I would think all the Identity plates, Auto-Fill data, and lots of other stuff..
 
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No need to dump the prefs, just temporarily move, zip or rename the file. Lr will create a new one. If there's no joy in Mudville, you can then restore the old preferences, by deleting the new, and re-renaming the old.
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Preferences\Lightroom 2 Preferences.agprefs
 
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Update... I'm trying to take note of what triggers the crash before arbitrarily removing items.. Working on a set of images and after about the fifth or so, I see that as I adjust sliders in the Adjustment Brush panel the image jitters just out of focus for a split second and snaps back in focus...as though the edit steps are slightly delayed and catching up. Next image while applying a Graduated Filter...it crashes. I think the specs of my computer are up to snuff, but something in the system is getting bogged on the more intense edit steps. So this time, it's nothing to do with the specific presets, though this edit and the presets have the Graduated Filter in common.

Going to be systematic about this.. Preferences file is renamed and Previews are dumped.. let's see
 
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Another port of call here is to remove one memory chip from your computer and try to crash again. If it crashes, put the memory chip back, remove the next one and test crash again until it stop crashing. If it stop crashing with a given memory chip removed, this chip is defective. Think that Lightroom is more memory hungry than most apps...
 
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[quote author=Denis Pagé link=topic=9563.msg64695#msg64695 date=1271426943]
Think that Lightroom is more memory hungry than most apps...
[/quote]

The concern being a potentially defective chip?
 
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[quote author=MMarz link=topic=9563.msg64699#msg64699 date=127142763']
[quote author=Denis Pagé link=topic=9563.msg64695#msg64695 date=1271426943]
Think that Lightroom is more memory hungry than most apps...
[/quote]

The concern being a potentially defective chip?
[/quote]
Yes. This is a possibility to be checked if all else fail.
 
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Update...

I don't want to jump the gun with a false diagnosis.. but so far I have optimized the catalog and deleted the Preferences file, and avoided the suspicious graduated presets (not yet deleted them) and the problem APPEARS to have disappeared...

Thanks for the support. I'll update with any changes.
 
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Update!!

Confirmed the problem is isolated to applying a graduated filter...This time it was a stock graduated filter application and not the downloaded preset...

I had not experienced a crash since having dumped the preference file. While processing a large fashion shoot from yesterday, I proceeded without a problem until I applied a graduated filter to a virtual copy when the indicator lines for the graduated filter began to flicker and pow! LR crashed. Launching it again resulted in the loss of the virtual copy and a few steps in the History..crop and exposure adjustments, and within a few seconds it crashed again. Launch it again and LR takes a dump immediately. So, can I live without the graduated filter... I don't know....

What I can say is there is no recovering from the crash...it requires a reboot.
 
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No Brad..sorry, my lack of clarity in my explanation..

It is only indirectly associated with any preset.

I was applying a new graduated filter straight from the tool bar in Develop. No preset this time. All I did was drag the filter from the top right corner of the image and the three adjustment lines in the filter started flickering, as though the filter was repeated looking to apply itself itself or something. At the same time, all the graduated filters sliders changed to display light gray and I knew I was sunk. Waiting or clicking anywhere in LR will result in the same thing..a crash.

So now this good detective needs some help from the forensic team in piecing it all together..and finding and apprehending the villain! :icon_exclaim:

Doubling back to the presets and how they fit in...I first noticed this happen when applying a preset called "Joop Snijder - Spot Lights" which are presets that apply cumulative graduated filters to create off center vignetting. I am not going to open them now, but I think on average each Spot Light preset has three to five graduated filters in it. That was the original connection I made to applying presets and I could understand the application of five filters requiring a little time for LR to catch up, but it crashed when applying just one stock filter..
 
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As my mind wanders, considering the depth of dependency I have on just one app, Lightroom, and one catalog, my current, I get a little shiver up my spine.

I optimize often and back-up my catalog weekly.. seems about right for my volume of imaging.

I believe I have all of my presets backed up, or at lease I have links to everything if they were lost.

This morning I had some major issues with exporting.. of late, I have been "tickling" LR during export and having to redo exports repeatedly and today, for some reason...exports intended to go to my website using an export preset that till now has worked flawlessly, was only exporting six of thirty one images.

Given that there is no target date for the release of LR3, I think it's time to bite the bullet and do a fresh install of v2.

I think I asked this question before, but the answer escapes me (and the search engine). With what I have described thus far, is the likelihood greater that my issues lie in the app or the catalog?

I hate to go through the installation and have the problem persist. Second question...and again I apologize for asking again... are all my presets, Edit-In settings, Plugins, etc preserved with a fresh install? Do I just make a copy of my Modules & Plugin folders?
 
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Michael, I've uninstalled and re-installed versions of Lr more times than you can imagine, trying various things for various people and reasons. I've never lost any data whatsoever in the process. I use the standard Windows Control Panel Install/Remove Programs applet to uninstall. Then the standard Lr download to reinstall.

Nonetheless, I always have a backup.
The catalog.
The images.
The miscellaneous (on Vista) @ sysdrive:\Users\your_user\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\....(many subfolders)

If you have any custom camera calibration profiles, they'll be hiding in sysdrive:\Users\your_user\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\CameraRaw

It's worth a try, but I'd be a little bit surprised if it fixed your issues. I'm inclined to believe your issues derive from a combination of entropy, and subtle and not-so-subtle bugs in the overall catalog process.
 
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Funny... All heard out of that was... Learn to live with it.. ;-)

I browse the AppData folders for Adobe, so I know the folders you are talking about.

I'll pray for release of v3 and avoid the graduated filter.

Thanks so much for your help!!
 
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Well..I think this is the end of this story.. LR has completely quit..

I would love it to be a failing hard drive, but the problem is completely isolated to LR. Yesterday it would crash while importing, now it won't run at all.

Last night I made a copy of all the pertinent folders (presets, catalog etc) uninstalled LR, rebooted, did a fresh download and installation and deleted the preferences folder and optimized before launching it. LR lasted but a few minutes into a test session this afternoon.

As a side note, is there any chance the problem is related to my tablet? After LR crashes it disables the tablet...

LR v3 Beta is running with no complaints, as are all my other applications. But v3 isn't an option as I would lose way to much in the conversion to v3 when it is launched.

So, for lack of anything better, I have to think there is something wrong in the catalog. I am hoping there is some rogue scrubbing utility we don't discuss often here that will clean up the database, but I suspect that is a pipe dream. For now I find myself stuck with a boat load of work to get done. I have no idea what to do next...

+++edit+++

So out of desperation, panic and confusion, I've been going back to old images, about 6',''' so far, and have been writing the changes to XMP, just to be sure I don't lose anything. I do regular back ups so I am not worried about losing Master files, but up until recently I wasn't as diligent as I should have been with writing edit info as I work on the DNG files..

LR hasn't missed a beat..it's been churning for nearly two hours.

I have a suspicion the problem is in the files from a recent shoot (though I am not sure), because it has been the one shoot I have been spending the most time in.

I have deadline on these images that is six days away. If I purge these images from LR, and do a fresh import from my back up images, those with no edits, would there be any benefit?
 
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I apologize for losing track of what's been tried already, but if you import just the shots required for your upcoming deadline into a new catalog, does it still happen?

If so, try again, but import in small groups to narrow down which image(s) cause the problem (assuming the problem is with specific images).
 
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