Lightroom 6 is now five years old, and support by Adobe for it ended three years ago. As such we knew that it would eventually start to not work in various ways. For example, the Map module stopped working two years ago when Google made an API change.
Lightroom 6 perpetual-license users are now reporting that upon entering People view to work on face-tagging, that Lightroom 6 immediately crashes. Users have found that if they set their computer system date back, to December 1, for example, that it doesn’t crash and they can continue to face-tag. This suggests that the issue may be caused by an expiring license of the third-party face recognition software that Adobe licensed – but there is no confirmation from Adobe on this.
Setting your system date back is not a feasible ongoing solution for most users, but if Lightroom 6 is now immediately crashing upon starting, users are reporting that you can resolve this as follows (though I have not been able to test this):
- Temporarily set your system date back
- Open Lightroom 6
- Exit People view (type G to go to Grid view, for example)
- Close Lightroom 6
- Set your system date back to today
Lightroom 6 should then open successfully – but you’ll need to stay out of People view.
Here’s an article from PetaPixel on this issue.
What Your Options Are to Have Fully Functional Application – Subscribe or Leave Adobe
Obtaining a fully functional Lightroom application now requires subscribing to an Adobe plan. Your options are then to use Lightroom Classic, which is the newer version of Lightroom 6, or switch to to to the simplified cloud-based Lightroom applications. For assistance in deciding which to use, watch my recorded webinar comparing the two applications.
If you decide to subscribe and use Lightroom Classic, consider my Lightroom Fundamentals & Beyond video series, updated through the latest Lightroom Classic version – you’ll find a video in this on how to upgrade from Lightroom 6, and many videos covering all the new features added since Lightroom 6.
The other alternative is to move to a competing application from a company other than Adobe. I have not had time to do sufficient research to advise you on which may best meet your needs, but there is lots out there on the web comparing alternatives. (I would google “Lightroom Classic alternatives”.)
Thanks for the caveat. You’re always on top of things and quick to alert. I’ve always appreciated your alerts and many of your training videos which still reside on my NAS.
I just looked back through my LR copies and yes I archived the install file of every LR version since 2007 Ver 1.0.0.8. Periodically I updated until the demise of the perpetual license with 6.14 and decided not to be held hostage by Adobe to their online cash cow. I’m not a pro and even though I started with Elements 1 in 2003, CS-? in 2005 and on to Ver 5 but I really haven’t had the need to use all of the Photoshop features. I don’t even remember when I last opened Photoshop to process a file.
This diatribe leads me to today. I knew at some point LR would not work for me, though at present I can do most things I need to do. I’ve tried quite a few programs including Canon DPP, AcDsee, Affinity, Corel and others. I’ve been vacillating back and forth with Capture One and On 1. Presently leaning to On1 primarily due to their vast training through On1 Plus Pro. Yes it costs money to subscribe to that but I can quit at anytime and keep working copies of my program and every video I’ve downloaded.
Thanks again for keeping us up on important issues. And as always
Happy shooting in what we hope will be a better 2021!
You’re welcome, Doug. Thanks for sharing your experience with alternatives to Lightroom. Happy shooting to you too!
Hi, came here to see what real life experience people had with moving from LR to other options. Anyone have ideas? Doug – thanks for your summary, could you give a bit of info about On1 and pricing? Also want to make sure I can move my photos out of lightroom without much work. thanks in advance
It looks like Adobe doesn’t want our business apparently! I now rarely use Lightroom 6 because of these issues, and now perpetually us the many different Skylum products, including Luminar Ai. Simple, yet having the ability to easily make changes to my workflow. Updates to Skylum products has greatly increased it’s useabilty, where it seems much faster now, compared to in the past. A big thanks to their product team on these updates!
FROM MAURITIUS
Hello Laura – I am using LR 6.14 (I have the stand-alone LR 6.0 CD) and I have not encountered any problems yet. I suppose it might be because I have never used people view/face tagging/face recognition.
I have my stand-alone LR 5.0 CD. Just in case, are there any crashing issues with LR 5.0, please?
Once again Laura, as you are aware I CANNOT SUBSCRIBE TO LR CLASSIC/CC FROM MAURITIUS. Why, I don’t know.
Warm regards from Mauritius
BTW I still find myself going back to your LR 5.0/6.0 tutorials.
Hi Tiberman, are you using People view to face-tag faces in your images? If not, this won’t affect your use of LR 6. (And if it does, just stop using it.) I’ll keep my fingers crossed you’re able to use Lightroom 6 for a long time. (If you’re on a Mac, I wouldn’t update to Catalina or Big Sur, as once you do, you’ll never be able to reinstall Lightroom 6 or 5.
and Happy New Year to you, Tiberman!
It is beyond stupid to configure this functionality. Even though I have face detection turned off everywhere, if I inadvertently click “O” it gets into the people view/face search hell. I thought I had lost my entire catalog.
Thank you Laura, after a week of ‘pulling my hair out’ after Lightroom crashed, your piece on changing the date worked.
I am not impressed with Adobe, I have tried to contact the help lines, both phone and online with no success. They haven’t done themselves any favours.
As an infrequent user editing software, I am reluctant to pay monthly subscriptions. I am concerned that other photo editing companies will make one off payment subscriptions obsolete, and drive to monthly payments.
I will now try and get all my photos from The Lightroom catalogue back on my hard drive, in my own filing system.
Thanks Again.
You’re welcome, Bernie. BTW, your photos are not stored in the Lightroom catalog – they are stored on your hard drive. Exactly where and how they’re organized are based on your decisions in Lightroom’s Import dialog when you imported them. (All this is covered in my Lightroom Fundamentals & Beyond series, which of course if you decide to leave Adobe, won’t be relevant.)