Where am I?"

[mikecox]

Lightroom Version Number

Sorry, can't access that info right now

Operating System

1. Windows 10

Today I found myself on this page with no apparent way out. The only options are shown on the screen and Esc does no take me out. I shut Lr room down, using MSkey-Tab, and when it booted back up I was presented with the normal interface, but when I click on it, this came back up.

I don't ever recall seeking this, and I've need using Lr for many years. It seems odd that there are no standard icons for control of the window or that give the user adoption to escape this condition.

It occurs to me that I might resolve the problem by rebooting my machine, an option that often resolves weird behaviors. So I'm going to try that as soon as I post this.

 

[mikecox]

Ok, I'm back and after rebooting my machine this window has not, yet, reappear.

But I wonder if it is a legitimate Lr feature, how it gets called and, most importantly, how to escape from it, without having to reboot.

 

[Califdan]

Are you sure you're in Lightroom Classic? I don't know of any page in Lightroom Classic that looks like this - at least not in the Library or Develop modules.

 

[mikecox]

Are you sure you're in Lightroom Classic? I don't know of any page in Lightroom Classic that looks like this - at least not in the Library or Develop modules.

Lr Classic is the only version of Lr I've ever had, starting from the day we owned the software.

But I'm glad to see I'm not the only one baffled by this display. Fortunately rebooting my computer cleared it up and it hasn't reappeared, but still, I wonder where it came from?

 

[Rob_Cullen]

You have activated the second monitor screen (a default view?).
You should see a red [X] in the top right corner to exit the screen, or resize it smaller to click on the second screen icon [ 2 ]

 

[Johan Elzenga]

This is indeed the Secondary Display window. You probably pressed Cmd(Ctrl)-F11 by mistake. It is meant for use with two screens, but you can also use it as a window on a single screen only.

 

[mikecox]

You have activated the second monitor screen (a default view?).
You should see a red [X] in the top right corner to exit the screen, or resize it smaller to click on the second screen icon [ 2 ]
View attachment 14775

Yes, I did consider that as a possibility but I double-checked the second monitor icon and it was greyed out and has remained greyed out except when I, consciously, selected it. When I did the second window opened on my laptop screen, as expected. The window in the screenshot opens on my external monitor screen and covers the entire screen. When it is there I am no able to get control of it. There is no "rec [X] in the upper right" and no standard icons for hiding or reducing its size. There is also no title bar to drag the window. I suppose it's possible that the window is oversized and those icons are off the screen.

 

[Conrad Chavez]

Ok, I'm back and after rebooting my machine this window has not, yet, reappear.
But I wonder if it is a legitimate Lr feature, how it gets called and, most importantly, how to escape from it, without having to reboot.

It does look like the Secondary Display. It can be activated in a number of ways including the shortcut and filmstrip button already noted earlier. But it can also be activated by adding Shift to the single-key shortcuts for various various views. For example, where E switches to Loupe in the primary display window, Shift-E will show or hide Loupe on the Secondary Display window. So maybe Shift-E got pressed by mistake?

In addition, you can hide/show it using the commands on the Window > Secondary Display submenu.

Oh, and you know what? When I started Lightroom Classic just now, it did the exact same thing to me!!
I normally have my laptop connected to two displays, with the Lightroom Classic Secondary Display window on the second display of course.
But Lightroom Classic started up with the Secondary Display window right on top of the primary display window, and no windows on the other display. I recognized this immediately and used one of the shortcuts I earlier to hide it.

I decided to check my Secondary Display preference, and found that it had somehow gotten changed to the nonsensical setting you see below. I always set the Secondary Display window to the display on the right, but that’s not how it came up today. And to top it all off it displayed the alert message in red, warning me about a setting Lightroom Classic applied without my knowledge. How is your Secondary Display preference set?

I chalk this up to ongoing bugs where Lightroom Classic gets confused about which displays its windows are supposed to be on. Over the years, Adobe has implemented a number of fixes and even added a new preference to handle the secondary display, but even in the latest version I will find that, as I switch among applications, Lightroom Classic windows have swapped displays in the middle of a single session, or changed my Secondary Display setting on me. If these were more repeatable, I could send a more constructive bug report, but it’s so random...

 

[mikecox]

. How is your Secondary Display preference set?

Thanks for that response. I do have dual monitors but, by default, I open Lr on the external monitor and rarely use the second monitor, except for reference material. I do occasionally click the second monitor icon but not often. I haven't had this problem again, no since I posted this message.