Since the release of Lightroom 6.8 and CC 2015.8, some users have reported that their panels in the Library module suddenly go black:
This seems to only be an issue with Mac OS Sierra. Update: also El Capitan. The quickest way to get your panels back is to switch from Library (G) to Develop (D) and back or hide and then show the Lightroom application. If this doesn’t work, close and reopen Lightroom. If the bug is intolerable for you, consider rolling back to Lightroom 6.7 / CC 2015.7 until it’s fixed. (There will still be some chance that you’ll experience it after rolling back, but much less of a chance.)
UPDATE 4/11/17: Adobe reports that this issue should occur much less frequently in Lightroom 6.10 / CC 2015.10, which were released today. If you still experience this issue after updating, report it here.
Thanks for the information. I was just closing the LR program without backing up and re-opening it. Next time I’ll try the short-cuts to switch from Library to Develop
You’re welcome, Julia!
Laura,
Thank you! I thought I was accidentally hitting
some obscure combination of keys on my
keyboard. I had to close and reopen Lightroom. I will
give your tip a try.
You’re welcome, Carl!
Laura,
The bug finally happened today. Switching from G to D did not seem to work. However, when I went to Window -> Slideshow (or any other panel), then the Panels finally reappeared.
Thank you
I tried the method you suggested, but it did not work. I had to just close and reopen,
Thanks for letting me know, Julia.
Luckily my panels appear to be working just fine. I do appreciate your information. Again my thanks .
My LR screen periodically just goes black. This is a fairly new bug. Changing mode does restore the screen.
I’ve experienced this only recently. Switching between develop and library each time is annoying. I’ve reported this to Adobe.
If switching from Library to Develop and back works for you, you can do it very quickly – just type D, immediately followed by G for Grid or E for Loupe.
Those of you who have commented that switching from Library to Develop and back doesn’t work: try hiding and then showing the Lightroom app.
Just learning and this happens frequently. Can you explain what you mean by “hiding and then showing LR
app”. I have external and CC. Thank you so much for this post. I thought it was me.
Hi Donna, you can either use Cmd-H to hide the application and then click on the icon in your dock again to show it again, or you can use the minimize button – top left, middle of the three round buttons, and then show from the dock.
I am running OS X El Capitan Version 10.11.6 and experience the same problem. It happens when I go to the develop module. After going back to library and back it works fine. I just thought it was because I am using a 2007 iMac with 4gb of memory. Not enough I know, but am working on an upgrade.
Thanks for the tip, Carl, that it isn’t just Sierra – I’ll pass this on to Adobe.
I was experiencing this until it drove me crazy so thanks to your suggestion, I rolled back to CC2015.7 a few weeks ago. I was hoping this bug had been fixed in today’s update, but THANK YOU for advising that it hadn’t! Otherwise I would have been tempted to update and hope for the best. You saved me a lot of messing around! :)
I talked with Adobe Support about this. Instructed to throw away prefs file, which I did. With new prefs, problem still occurs. (LR CC 2015.8 on Mac 10.12.3). So thanks for the switching tip.
I have had this problem as well. One other bug I have noticed :
I import a set of photos from my camera
I do an initial run through and mark the photos I know I do not want to keep with an X
After marking 5 or 10 photos I will go to Photos>delete rejected photos.
When I return to the photos I am working through I cannot move off of the last photo I selected. No matter which photo I select, the last photo I was working on before deleting the rejected photos stays in the window.
I have to quit LR and reopen it to fix the problem.
That should be fixed with today’s update, Gary.
I hoped this would be fixed in 2015.9 released this week, but I find the problem is still there.
That’s correct, John – no fix yet.
If it helps, I find that I end up ‘blacked out’ if I click on the Develop link in the top menu, but not if I type “D”. Heading back to the Library by clicking “G” and then clicking “D” seems to solve the issue if I wasn’t paying attention and clicked Develop in the top tab.
Interesting, Jo – thanks for the tip. I hope this issue is resolved for you with Lightroom 6.10, released today.
it is still happening PLEASE FIX THIS !!!!!
I don’t work for Adobe, Chuck. You can follow this issue and provide feedback on this Adobe page.
As of September 2017, I still see this problem, coupled with an occasional crash of Lightroom. My guess is that Lightroom is demanding system resources that don’t exist or aren’t where Lightroom things they should — meaning more abysmal Adobe coding. Adobe hasn’t done a serious update/upgrade to Lightroom in years, in part because they know they’re the only real game in town.
Thanks! This problem just happened to me…I assumed I hit a shortcut I didn’t mean to. Cool idea…but not when I’m in the middle of editing. Thank you. I’d probably figured it out……………..eventually ;-) You saved me a bunch of aggravation. (I’m on an updated version of Windows, FWIW.)
You’re welcome, Steven!
I updated last week because speeds were slow and then this started happening! Going back to 6.0. Thanks for the info, you’re a life saver.
Sorry to hear it, Nicole. If you just updated to Classic and you were on 6.12 or 6.13 then I’d go back to that. (This article is pretty old.) In this blog post on how to revert, you’ll find a link to get the 6.0 installation and then the 6.13 patch.