Why does Lightroom show a corrupted-looking image when other viewers display it normally?

Asked 12/16/2012

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2 answers

A few photos appear corrupted in Lightroom’s Library, Develop, and Preview views, but the same files seem to display normally in some other programs. What could cause this, and how can I confirm whether the problem is Lightroom, my graphics/display setup, or the image file itself?

lightroom file-corruption raw-files display-issues

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

13y ago

2 Answers

It wasn't a LR Bug / Problem. In fact the RAW was dammaged.

Some Tools like Irfanview use the embedded JPG do show the picture another tool showed the same result as LR.

Originally by user1361. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user1361

13y ago

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

This usually points to one of two things:

The raw file is damaged. Some image viewers can still look fine because they display the embedded JPEG preview inside the raw file rather than fully decoding the raw data. Lightroom reads the actual raw data, so corruption may show up there even if another app looks normal.
A graphics/display refresh issue. A video driver problem can cause odd display artifacts in Lightroom.

What to try:

Open the file in another app that truly reads the raw data, not just the embedded preview.
If another raw-capable app shows the same corruption, the file is likely damaged.
Update Lightroom to the latest available version.
Update your graphics/video driver directly from the card/computer manufacturer.

Based on the community answers here, the reported case turned out not to be a Lightroom bug — the raw file itself was damaged.

Why does Lightroom show a corrupted-looking image when other viewers display it normally?

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