Why does my Mac display shift cooler when I open Lightroom or ColorSync Utility?

Asked 7/22/2012

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2 answers

On a mid-2010 MacBook Pro using the default "Color LCD" profile, the whole display changes slightly cooler as soon as Lightroom 4 opens. I see the same behavior when I open ColorSync Utility and click the Profiles tab, so it seems to affect the entire display rather than just the app window.

What causes this, and is it likely a Lightroom setting or a macOS/ColorSync issue?

display-calibration colorsync lightroom color-management macos

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

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

14y ago

2 Answers

I found this article about a similar thing happening with Photoshop CS5. It sounds like it was a problem between CS5 and OS X that Adobe fixed in CS6, but didn't bother for CS5. Not sure if it's related. It seems like you shouldn't have to reset pram and nvram though to solve it.

I looked around in LR and couldn't find any options for loading colour profiles and there's nothing there. Definitely sounds like something on the back end of things. I'd be interested to hear what Adobe Support would have to say about it.

I assume you're up to date on software updates?

Originally by user11521. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user11521

13y ago

AI Answer

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This is most likely not a Lightroom editing setting. Because the same display shift happens when you open ColorSync Utility, it points to a system-level color management issue on macOS rather than something Lightroom alone is doing.

The community answer suggests a known Adobe/macOS color-profile interaction similar to older Photoshop CS5 issues, where launching a color-managed app could trigger a display profile change. In other words, Lightroom may simply be causing macOS/ColorSync to reload or reinterpret the monitor profile, which makes the whole screen look cooler.

Most likely causes:

a problem with the display ICC profile
a macOS ColorSync/profile-loading bug
outdated Adobe or OS software

What to try:

make sure Lightroom and macOS are fully updated
test with a different display profile in macOS Color settings
if needed, recreate/recalibrate the display profile
contact Adobe Support if it persists, since it appears to be back-end color management behavior

So: this is probably a display profile / ColorSync issue triggered by opening a color-managed app, not a normal Lightroom preference.

Why does my Mac display shift cooler when I open Lightroom or ColorSync Utility?

2 Answers

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