Posted by Bill Bean on September 19, 2014 at 2:23 PM
Okay all you Lightroom gurus out there, I need some help. I've been running LR5 on my travel notebook which rns Windows 8.1 and all of a sudden when I go to launch LR I get the following message:
The Lightroom Catalog named "Lightroom 5 Catalog" cannot be opened because another application already has it opened. Quit the other copy of Lightroom befoe trying to launch."
Problem is, I don't have another copy of LR opened and all other apps are closed. What the heck is going on? Do I need to uninstall/reinstall or what?
And keep in mind you're dealing with a computer idiot here.
Posted by Grant Collier on September 19, 2014 at 4:38 PM
I got a similar message when running Quickbooks on Windows 8, so it could be an issue with Windows. I'd make sure you have all current Windows updates installed. And I assume you've tried restarting your computer and that didn't work? If this doesn't solve anything, I'll defer to someone smarter than me..
Posted by Bill Pelzmann on September 21, 2014 at 11:10 AM
Bill, sorry for not commenting earlier, I'm on the road.
I hope you have solved the problem, but if you haven't, try this:
LR uses a database. It is designed for a single user, so to prevent multiple simultaneous access a lock file is generated every time you open LR. Sometimes, especially if the LR is not properly closed, the lock file does not get deleted. In that case the next time you open LR, the program sees the old lock file and thinks another program is already using your catalog.
So, go to wherever your LR catalog file is stored. Or just search for all ".lock" files.
Delete the "Lightroom5catalog.lrcat.lock" file.
Grant, this might also be the problem with QuickBooks. I assume it also uses a database.
Discussion
2 repliesThe Lightroom Catalog named "Lightroom 5 Catalog" cannot be opened because another application already has it opened. Quit the other copy of Lightroom befoe trying to launch."
Problem is, I don't have another copy of LR opened and all other apps are closed. What the heck is going on? Do I need to uninstall/reinstall or what?
And keep in mind you're dealing with a computer idiot here.
I hope you have solved the problem, but if you haven't, try this:
LR uses a database. It is designed for a single user, so to prevent multiple simultaneous access a lock file is generated every time you open LR. Sometimes, especially if the LR is not properly closed, the lock file does not get deleted. In that case the next time you open LR, the program sees the old lock file and thinks another program is already using your catalog.
So, go to wherever your LR catalog file is stored. Or just search for all ".lock" files.
Delete the "Lightroom5catalog.lrcat.lock" file.
Grant, this might also be the problem with QuickBooks. I assume it also uses a database.