Lightroom 5 Corrupted Images

Hi All,

I have recently been suffering a problem with Lightroom 5 (now 5.7). When I import RAW files the preview have random corruptions whic appear as multi coloured lines or tearing across part of the image, generally from the bottom of the image. This was happening to random images in an import, but now seems to be affecting nearly all imported images.

I have tried a number of things, repairing/reloading the software, deleting the preview caches etc. but no success. The pictures view and edit with no problem in Photoshop and Nikon View etc. Hopefully you can see the attached image. I am hoping soeone else out there has experience a similar issue and perhaps can offer a solution?

Cheers,

Mark

Hi Mark,

The one time I had something similar happen it was a CF card that was starting to fail. Switched out the card and it never happened again. You don't see the issue if you use Bridge or ACR?

Steve

Hi Steve,

This problem appears with multiple cards and the files are not corrupted when viewed in other software. The previews initially load normally in Lightroom and look fine to begin then after a few minutes these lines begin the appear. It can be random, i.e. if I import the same group of images more than once then it will not always be the same image that becomes corrupted. It is driving me nuts as you can imagine!

Mark

Hi Mark,

That is a strange one. I too have seen this problem with cards not writing properly - or not being pushed in properly to the camera or reader - but that would effect the usage in all RAW readers. And this would affect the same images.

Since it is random files and occurs after import, I wonder if the problem is one of Lightroom having problems reading the RAW files. Are they one an external hard drive? It might be worth trying importing to a different drive - maybe there is a hard drive on the way out somewhere. Probably a good time to do an extra backup!

A work-around you might want to try would be to convert the offending files to DNG in Adobe's standalone DNG converter and then import those files into Lightroom. That would check a specific LR RAW file issue.

But those are all suggestions. Nothing concrete to go on.

Alex

Have you asked Adobe about this?

Hi Alex,

I have tried importing from back up drives and directly from cards. Another strange feature is that if I close Lightroom and shut down the computer when I restart some images affexcted are OK and others that were previously good are now corrupt! So that makes me suspect an issue in Lightroom but of course Adobe says there is no issue....

I will try the DNG trick and I think also load Lightroom to another computer and see if that changes things. This all started after I upgraded to Lightroom 5.6 and 5.7 has arrived quite quickly which makes me wonder, but upgrading has made no difference.

Mark

If you want you can send me a file for verification of the issue (file vs. software) - I'm also on Lightroom 5.7. And, this may sound strange, but have you tried upgrading your graphics card drivers? What's your memory usage? (sorry, I'm in IT, I always suspect faulty software/hardware... )

Could also be faulty card reader or even the cable used. Or worse if your hard drive is on its way out.

Hi Coinee,

My IT knowledge is very basic to say the least, although I am beginning to wonder if it may be my PC. I have tried importing from the cards and from various external drives in different sized batches. Sometimes in a batch of say a dozen only one or perhaps no images are affected. It is not always the same image so perhaps it is a memory problem. I upgraded to a D7100 late last year and had no problems until I upgraded to Lightroom 5.5 in the summer this year so perhaps there are changes in the software that require more memory or graphics requirements. I am in the process of looking for a new laptop so hopefully that will help. I have managed to work around the processing of the current images from my last trip by importing in small batches and eventually getting the images I want without the corruption! Too much like hard work though!

Mark

Mark,

Sorry to hear this happening to you. My favorite LightRoomist and dive buddy had this happen to her sometime during the past year. As always I get called in to try to work it out.

Interesting thing is, it went away seemingly as mysteriously as it appeared, somewhat about the same time as she switched to the "cloud" version of the software.

In the meantime I updated everything I could, including "winders 7", her motherboard, and all hardware drivers including video drivers, USB drivers etc etc.

The symptoms were very similar to yours - random RAW files would suddenly develop a partial rainbow kind of banner and LightRoom would be allergic to them. Most often, re-copying the same file from a backup or the original card would rectify the problem until the next one went. Most subsequent times it would attack a different file; rarely the same one.

Adding RAM up to 16GB didn't stop the problem. Updating everything was a "maybe, maybe not" fix.

Of course, all the Abobe "pros" said it was IMpossible for LightRoom to corrupt an original RAW file as LightRoom never wrote to the file, to which I (as a former programmer in a long-ago lifetime) call BS! The act of opening a file to read it and then closing it improperly or forgetting to close it can easily cause corruption.

We tried all the things you mentioned above concerning card readers, external drives, cables and USB2 vs USB3, hubs vs motherboard direct port ad nauseum and none of those seemed to cure anything.

Since going to the "cloud" version, no more corruption is noted. Interesting coincidence, don't you think?

Sorry I can't actually be helpful!

Tom

PS: If you Google this problem you'll find incidents like this going back several years - on all kinds of hardware and operating systems - the common denominator is (you guessed it) LightRoom...

Hi Tom,

Many thanks for your detailed reply. I had looked on the Adobe fourums and there are others with this issue, but of course as you say the Lightroom gurus claim it is impossible and must be a hardware isssue. I have a friend who uses Mac and he also has this issue occasionally since upgrading to LR 5.6. However, I won't be signing up to the cloud to resolve the issue, Adobe have had too much of my money already!!

Mark

What camera are you shooting with?

I have exactly this problem with some images which were from an old Olympus camera, which I converted to DNG and the rainbows appeared. This was quite a few years ago with LR1. It hasn't happened since

I wonder if it is a camera compatibility issue?

Adam

Adam,

I know my dive buddy used a Canon 7D (MK 1) at the time, and shoots exclusively RAW files. I'll see if she had the same problems with her E-M5 - can't recall.

Tom

PS: There was quite a range of cameras used by folks experiencing the problem; there didn't seem to be any common factor other than LR...

EDIT: I checked and she recalls both Canon 7D and Olympus E-M5 files being corrupted on the same PC using the same LR software. It was an equal-opportunity bug!

Hi Adam,

D7100 and I had no problems until I upgraded to LR 5.5 or 5.6....with quite a number of other similar issues for others emerging it seems that LR may be the source of the problem after all.I have just bought another PC (in the Xmas sales!) so will upload softeware including LR 5.7 and see if the problem persists.

Mark

Looking forward to hearing your findings. Sounds like a really annoying problem!

OK...so I have set up the new laptop which has 12gb of RAM as opposed to 8 on the old one.....imported 800+ images from a card (shot on D7100) and there seems to be no corruption on any of them. These are the same images and the same card that previously produced the corrupt images above, so perhaps it has been a hardware or memory problem all along? However, this still does not explain why I had no problem prior to upgrading to LR5?

Mark

Could be the larger (24MP) file sizes of the D7100 RAWs - which I also guess was a reason to upgrade to LR5? Glad it is solved.

Alex

OK...so I have set up the new laptop which has 12gb of RAM as opposed to 8 on the old one.....imported 800+ images from a card (shot on D7100) and there seems to be no corruption on any of them. These are the same images and the same card that previously produced the corrupt images above, so perhaps it has been a hardware or memory problem all along? However, this still does not explain why I had no problem prior to upgrading to LR5?

Mark

I'd be very unsurprised if LR5 had changed the memory handling. In particular, I'm inclined to think you may have been using Lightroom 4 in 32bit mode. 32bit mode means it could only address 4GB of RAM concurrently (Want boring math? Here you go! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAM_limit),which could means there was more page swapping but less speed before you upgraded, and there _may_ be an issue with one of your sticks of RAM. I'm just guessing here, but it could be a factor.

The upgrade to LR5 was for the D7100, but I had been using LR4 in 64 bit mode. However the problem did not appear until I upgraded to 5.5 in the summer, so perhaps that version needs more RAM? Anyway, I am please to say that it has gone for now!

Mark