Lightroom Error: Troubleshooting Part 1

Adobe has a whole set of procedures to troubleshoot the start up of Lightroom. One of their recommendations is:

1. Create a new user
2. Switch to the new user
3. Start Lightroom

Do you still have the same problem?

Why are they asking to create a new user? Adobe wants you to identify if the problem is with the catalog, the preference file or the user permissions.

• The preference file is per user and it could be corrupt:

OS	Preference File Location
OSx	[username]/Library/Preferences/com.adobe.Lightroom.plist
Windows Vista	Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Preferences\Lightroom 2 Preferences.agprefs
Windows 7	Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Preferences\Lightroom 2 Preferences.agprefs
Windows Vista	Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Preferences\Lightroom 3 Preferences.agprefs
Windows 7	Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Preferences\Lightroom 3 Preferences.agprefs
Windows XP	Documents and Settings[username]\Application Data\Adobe\Lightroom\Preferences\Lightroom Preferences.agprefs

So instead of creating a new user, you just have to rename them to Lightroom Preferences.agprefs.original on Windows or com.adobe.Lightroom.plist.original on Mac.

• For Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista or 7: the permissions should be “Full Control” for [username] see: from Microsoft
• For Microsoft Windows XP: you should disable Simple File Sharing as described by Microsoft.
• For Apple see: Troubleshooting permissions issues in Mac OS X by Apple.

If that was the problem, then either you will have to restore your preferences from a backup. If it is was not the problem then you can rename the preference file to the original name.