Adobe Lightroom Classic freezes on Import with my Microsoft account but works with administrator

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Adobe Lightroom Classic freezes on Import with my Microsoft account but works with administrator

DaveR31 40

Hi I have been working on this problem for a few days and have run out of ideas. I have been using Adobe Lightroom Classic without any problems for years and for the last 10 months on a new Windows 11 Asus laptop. Then a few days ago it started freezing on import of photos from an SD card, the reader is part of the laptop. Over 2 days I tried all fixes that I could find online with no success. The freezing occurs when the previews are being built before you can select the images, also memory usage slowly increases while it is frozen. I then had an Adobe tech working remotely on the laptop but after an hour he gave up. He proved that Lightroom Classic would work successfully on an Administrator user on the laptop but could not fix it to work on my user. He told me that he had tried everything and I should contact Microsoft or use another account. Since then I have loaded a completely new Microsoft account on the laptop and Lightroom Classic does work but nothing else is there on that account. I could spend a day building everything else on that new Microsoft account user but if I don’t know what causes this problem it could come back. Any ideas on what else I can try to fix this issue?

The Adobe tech tried all the following without success: 1) direct connection to a camera for import thus bypassing the SD card reader 2) reverting to a previous version of the graphics driver 3) a new Lightroom catalog 4) turning off the graphics processor usage in Lightroom (Edit-Preference -Performance) 5) renaming the preference folder in Lightroom app user data so new preferences are built. Using an Administrator login on the laptop worked.

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Answer 1

Hi DaveR31,
Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum. I'm happy to help.

The slow importing issue on Adobe products has been reported by many users, not only on Windows but also on other operating systems. It seems there's no clear reason or resolution at this moment.

Regarding your information that the issue is gone if you use another user account, it could be Adobe Lightroom cache causing the issue. You may navigate to Adobe Lightroom settings to clear its cache.

You may also check that your currently account has any external link / shortcut (example: SMB shortcut, network drive, network shortcut, etc.) that was dead. Dead network shortcut may take very long before timeout and affect lots of basic function.

If above suggestion cannot help, switching to another account is necessary.

I hope that above information is helpful to you.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

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DaveR31 40 Reputation points

2026-01-01T22:41:44.07+00:00

Hi Lucas, Thanks for your response. I had tried switching to another account and Lightroom worked correctly so I figured there was corruption in my profile as per the AI response point 4. Trying to find the cause of the corruption was too difficult so I chose to reset the laptop and rebuild it from scratch. I have done this and everything is now working fine.

A difficult and long solution to a difficult problem.

Answer 2

It seems like you are experiencing a specific issue with Adobe Lightroom Classic freezing during the import process on your Microsoft account, while it works fine on an Administrator account. Since the Adobe technician has already tried several troubleshooting steps without success, here are a few additional suggestions that might help resolve the issue:

Check User Permissions: Ensure that your Microsoft account has the necessary permissions to access the SD card and the folders where Lightroom is trying to import the images. Sometimes, user accounts may have restricted permissions that can cause applications to behave unexpectedly.
Disable Background Applications: Check if there are any background applications or services that might be interfering with Lightroom. You can try performing a clean boot to see if the issue persists. This will help identify if any third-party applications are causing the freeze.
Update Windows: Make sure your Windows 11 is fully updated. Sometimes, system updates can resolve compatibility issues with applications.
Check for Corrupt User Profile: Since the issue does not occur on the Administrator account, there might be a corruption in your user profile. You can try creating a new user profile and migrating your data to see if that resolves the issue.
Reset Lightroom Preferences: Although you mentioned renaming the preference folder, ensure that you have completely reset the preferences to default. Sometimes, residual settings can still cause issues.
Check for Conflicting Software: Some software, especially security software, can conflict with Lightroom. Temporarily disable any antivirus or firewall software to see if it resolves the issue.

If none of these solutions work, it may be beneficial to continue using the new Microsoft account for Lightroom while you investigate further or reach out to Microsoft support for more tailored assistance.

References:

Advanced troubleshooting for Windows freezes