Lightroom Startup Issue

[the-ninth]

Hi,

In the past days I tried to clean up my PC with Windows 11 a bit by installing the latest Windows updates, update a few drivers and remove some unused programs. By an large this was a success, everything is running a bit faster and smoother than before.

Apart from Lightroom that is. My LR startup now takes a minute, with the UI controls coming up quite slowly. Once it is started I can use LR relatively normal, though still there is sometimes flickering of the shown photo.

Here is a video of the startup:

https://www.pollai.at/download/forums/2025-02-01_LR_Issue/LR_Startup.mp4

The display adapter is a NVIDA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER, and I tried both the latest Gaming and Studio drivers from NVIDIA, the problem is the same with both.

Also I tried to reinstall Lightroom, but the problem stayed.

Last thing I tried is start Lightroom with an empty catalogue, but again, the problem stayed.

Does anyone has an idea what else could be causing this?

Thanks for your help!

--
https://www.the-ninth.com
https://pixelfed.de/the-ninth

 

[palombian]

I've found the LR startup much slower in WIN 11 than in WIN 10.

Seems it takes a lot of time before it fills all info at the left. I removed a bunch of (duplicate) smart collections LR creates automatically.

Don't know if this helped, it still takes 1'15" before all collections, folders etc are visible.

From then on very fast (at least for my use). Hardware is 6 yrs old, I live with it.

 

[Bill Ferris]

Just to confirm, was Win11 running before you started the cleanup project or was it installed as part of the recent project? I'm just trying to isolate variables.

Since the extended launch time affects both your primary catalog and an empty catalog, equally, I'm going to remove corrupted images, a non-optimized catalog, and primary catalog custom configurations as suspects. The slow starts have, however, been an issue since the cleanup project began so, let's focus on any new apps/drivers installed or un-installed.

The GPU driver is where I'd focus attention. It affects all LrC catalogs and is a recent change to your system. 572.16 is the latest driver for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super. It was released a couple of days ago. The previous version was 566.36, which was released last December.

If you ran the GPU update prior to January 30, you might be on 566.36. If so, try updating to 572.16, the Studio version.

If you already updated to 572.16 and have attempted a reinstall, you might consider looking in your system's Device Manager for an option to roll back the driver to 566.36. If rolling back to the previous version isn't an option, consider downloading 566.36 from NVIDIA. Next, run a Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to remove 572.16. Then install 566.36. See if the roll back improves LrC's startup performance.

As an FYI, I was prompted last night to do a BIOS update on my laptop. It took forever (2+ hours) to install but the computer is running, just fine...including LrC. Have you checked your desktop to see if there's a BIOS update needed?

Good luck.

 

[the-ninth]

Thanks for your responses!

Just to confirm, was Win11 running before you started the cleanup project or was it installed as part of the recent project? I'm just trying to isolate variables.

Win 11 was there before, it was just some minor updates.

The GPU driver is where I'd focus attention. It affects all LrC catalogs and is a recent change to your system. 572.16 is the latest driver for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super. It was released a couple of days ago. The previous version was 566.36, which was released last December.

If you ran the GPU update prior to January 30, you might be on 566.36. If so, try updating to 572.16, the Studio version.

I do have 572.16 installed. It seems I skipped a few versions, I previously had 560.94. I tried to rollback to that version, but the problem stayed the same. So now I went back to 572.16.

See if the roll back improves LrC's startup performance.

I have now tried to use LR a bit and unfortunately it is not only the startup. At times everything is very responsive, as it should be, but sometimes it takes 5-10 seconds for the menu to open when I click on the menu bar. Also there are other weird graphics errors, and the fonts change to weird fonts for a few seconds and then get normal again.

I also now tried to disable all plugins -> did not help

I tried to disable Norton Antivirus and Synology Drive -> did not help

 

[Bill Ferris]

Thanks for your responses!

Just to confirm, was Win11 running before you started the cleanup project or was it installed as part of the recent project? I'm just trying to isolate variables.

Win 11 was there before, it was just some minor updates.

The GPU driver is where I'd focus attention. It affects all LrC catalogs and is a recent change to your system. 572.16 is the latest driver for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super. It was released a couple of days ago. The previous version was 566.36, which was released last December.

If you ran the GPU update prior to January 30, you might be on 566.36. If so, try updating to 572.16, the Studio version.

I do have 572.16 installed. It seems I skipped a few versions, I previously had 560.94. I tried to rollback to that version, but the problem stayed the same. So now I went back to 572.16.

See if the roll back improves LrC's startup performance.

I have now tried to use LR a bit and unfortunately it is not only the startup. At times everything is very responsive, as it should be, but sometimes it takes 5-10 seconds for the menu to open when I click on the menu bar. Also there are other weird graphics errors, and the fonts change to weird fonts for a few seconds and then get normal again.

I also now tried to disable all plugins -> did not help

I tried to disable Norton Antivirus and Synology Drive -> did not help

 

[the-ninth]

If all else fails, Adobe customer support may be able to remote into your computer to have a look. There may be remnants of an old driver competing with the current one.

Yes, something with the drivers.

I tried now to use a DDU as you recommended, however I cannot get rid of the NVIDIA driver. Even after I de-install it, then reboot in safe mode, run the DDU and then reboot again. At first, Windows seems to start with a basic driver with low resolution, but after 2-3 minutes suddenly the resolution changes to high resolution again and suddenly NVIDIA driver 560.94 is installed again. That seems to happen in the background.

Any idea how I could really get rid of it permanently??

But even if I start LR directly after Windows starts, before the driver is somehow reinstalled, the issue persists.

BUT: if I start LR in safe mode, it starts up fine. So maybe it is another driver that is at fault.

I'll first try to get rid of the NVIDIA driver for good, then experiment with other devices/drivers. Not sure though which other device could be at fault ...

 

[Bill Ferris]

If all else fails, Adobe customer support may be able to remote into your computer to have a look. There may be remnants of an old driver competing with the current one.

Yes, something with the drivers.

I tried now to use a DDU as you recommended, however I cannot get rid of the NVIDIA driver. Even after I de-install it, then reboot in safe mode, run the DDU and then reboot again. At first, Windows seems to start with a basic driver with low resolution, but after 2-3 minutes suddenly the resolution changes to high resolution again and suddenly NVIDIA driver 560.94 is installed again. That seems to happen in the background.

Any idea how I could really get rid of it permanently??

But even if I start LR directly after Windows starts, before the driver is somehow reinstalled, the issue persists.

BUT: if I start LR in safe mode, it starts up fine. So maybe it is another driver that is at fault.

I'll first try to get rid of the NVIDIA driver for good, then experiment with other devices/drivers. Not sure though which other device could be at fault ...

I know it may not seem like it, given all the time you've had to invest in tracking down and resolving the issue, but that seems like progress. I think you're on the right track. Whether it's the NVIDIA driver, or another driver or app, something recently installed appears to be inhibiting LrC's performance.

 

[the-ninth]

I know it may not seem like it, given all the time you've had to invest in tracking down and resolving the issue, but that seems like progress. I think you're on the right track. Whether it's the NVIDIA driver, or another driver or app, something recently installed appears to be inhibiting LrC's performance.

So far no luck in finding the culprit. Tried to terminate all background programs that I usually have running, and also tried to disable a bunch of non-essential devices in the device manager, but the problem with LR persists.

I also tried System Restore, but the restore points do not go back far enough. There is only one restore point, for a change I made today when trying to solve the issue. I also tried the "Reset this PC" option of Windows Update, but again, it did not help.

I am already dreading it, but Windows re-installation may be the only way to go. :-(

 

[skyglider]

I am already dreading it, but Windows re-installation may be the only way to go. :-(

Guess the lesson learned is to always do a full system image backup before changing stuff on a PC. I'm guilty too since I have, (albeit on rare occasions), changed system stuff without doing a full system image backup first. I'll be more conscientious in the future.

 

[Robert Zanatta]

I did this to stop third party driver updates. It might require Windows Pro, but I can't remember.

How to stop Windows 11 from downloading Drivers - Microsoft Q&A

I've tried the following instructions from this site to stop Windows 11 from downloading Drivers. It has miserably failed. Here's the site - How to disable automatic driver install on Windows 11 - Pureinfotech Is there another way to have Driver updates…

answers.microsoft.com

 

[the-ninth]

So it seems I have found the problem.

One thing I updated was the Visual C++ Redistributable libraries. So, I removed the whole bunch, from 2005 to the current ones. Then I de-installed LR and installed it again.

I had installed the latest version 14.42.34433.0 of the 2015-2022 libraries. When re-installing LR, it installed 14.40.33810, and now LR starts up again as before.

However I don't think it is a general incompatibility. Since LR started up fine in Windows safe mode with the latest version of the Visual C++ libraries, it could be an incompatibility between that latest version and one of my devices.

What version of that libraries do you guys have installed?

--
https://www.the-ninth.com
https://pixelfed.de/the-ninth

 

[palombian]

So it seems I have found the problem.

One thing I updated was the Visual C++ Redistributable libraries. So, I removed the whole bunch, from 2005 to the current ones. Then I de-installed LR and installed it again.

I had installed the latest version 14.42.34433.0 of the 2015-2022 libraries. When re-installing LR, it installed 14.40.33810, and now LR starts up again as before.

However I don't think it is a general incompatibility. Since LR started up fine in Windows safe mode with the latest version of the Visual C++ libraries, it could be an incompatibility between that latest version and one of my devices.

What version of that libraries do you guys have installed?

I have 14.42.34433.0 (2 times with different size).

Started to remove older versions too, startups are much faster already, golden tip!

No idea how many of them I can safely remove.

 

[the-ninth]

palombian wrote:
I have 14.42.34433.0 (2 times with different size).

Typically the come in an x86 version for 32-bit programs and x64 for 64-bit. Also LR comes with those two versions.

Started to remove older versions too, startups are much faster already, golden tip!
No idea how many of them I can safely remove.

You have those libraries for different Visual C++ versions (2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015-2022), and of each of those there are different versions (such as the 14.42.34433.0).

What you can remove depends whether you still have any programs using the older versions of the libraries. E.g. if a program is compiled with the 2012, you cannot replace it with 2013, that is why there are often all these in parallel. However programs install them but usually do not uninstall them because they can be used by multiple programs. So in the end they may well be left over despite no program using them anymore.

If you remove them, watch out for any program complaining about missing DLLs.

I originally only updated all of them to the latest version, which caused the issue. Now I have everything uninstalled apart from 2015-2022 in the version LR comes with. Will just wait and see if any other programs run into issues.

 

[palombian]

palombian wrote:
I have 14.42.34433.0 (2 times with different size).

Typically the come in an x86 version for 32-bit programs and x64 for 64-bit. Also LR comes with those two versions.

Started to remove older versions too, startups are much faster already, golden tip!
No idea how many of them I can safely remove.

You have those libraries for different Visual C++ versions (2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015-2022), and of each of those there are different versions (such as the 14.42.34433.0).

What you can remove depends whether you still have any programs using the older versions of the libraries. E.g. if a program is compiled with the 2012, you cannot replace it with 2013, that is why there are often all these in parallel. However programs install them but usually do not uninstall them because they can be used by multiple programs. So in the end they may well be left over despite no program using them anymore.

If you remove them, watch out for any program complaining about missing DLLs.

I originally only updated all of them to the latest version, which caused the issue. Now I have everything uninstalled apart from 2015-2022 in the version LR comes with. Will just wait and see if any other programs run into issues.

All Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable downloads are still available from MS.

My oldest app is Visio 2010. When I removed all 2008 redistributables it wouldn't start, after reinstall the 32 bit 2008 Visio worked again.

I ran an Windows update check and it found Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Service Pack 1 (KB2538243) - and added the 64 bit version.

I still run Office 2013 so I left the highest version of the 2013 redistributable.

So I have only 2008, 2013 and 2015-2012 installed (6 files in total) and everything seems fine.

LR startup now about 30 seconds. Office (and many other apps) look snappier too.

IMO cleanup up these redistributables seems rather risk free.

Again, great info, and this on a photography forum!