Quite often when trouble-shooting a Lightroom problem, it will be suggested that you 'reset' or 'trash' your Preferences file. There are few clearly identifiable situations that require this action, but as a 'last resort' it is often remarkably successful at fixing what are otherwise inexplicable problems.
Courtesy of Victoria, the extract from her book - The Missing FAQ - which explains how to do this reset is detailed below. However, before embarking on that action it would be useful to understand some implications:
Firstly, resetting the Preferences file will cause Lightroom to create a new one when it is next started, and this new file will have all settings at their default positions. If the act of resetting the preferences file fixes the initial problem then obviously you will want to keep the new file. However, any changes which you had previously made to the Lightroom Preferences will have been undone. In itself, this is a simple thing to correct: you could for example take a screenshot of each of the tabs in the Preferences settings before the reset (5 or 6 depending upon Lightroom version), then a simple comparison after the reset will enable you to restore the settings to the way you had them. Similarly, any changes you have made to the various Grid and Loupe View Options will also be reset to defaults, so again a screenshot of the View Option tabs (Ctrl+J on Windows, Cmd+J on a Mac) will help in restoring things back to the way you had them.
A more pressing issue, however, concerns the fact that Lightroom's knowledge of your catalog(s) will have been lost during the reset, and the 'Default Catalog' setting on the Preferences>General Tab will be set to 'Load Most Recent Catalog'. Therefore (and this depends entirely on how you have chosen to start Lightroom, and where your catalog is normally stored), you may run into an unexpected situation when starting Lightroom after you have reset the Preferences file. There are several different scenarios, for example Lightroom could start with a new blank catalog, or it could start with a pre-existing older catalog, or it could find a catalog from a previous version and so ask if you want to upgrade, or it could find your 'proper catalog'.
To circumvent such unexpected scenarios, I would suggest the following prior to resetting the Preferences file: with your normal catalog open in Lightroom, open the General Tab of the Catalog Settings dialog box (under Edit menu on Windows, Lightroom menu on a Mac) and make a note of the file name and location of the catalog (the full path is listed there).
Then after you have closed Lightroom and reset the Preferences file as per Victoria's instructions below, use Windows Explorer (on Windows) or Finder (on a Mac) to locate the catalog file that you noted above, then double-click on the *.lrcat catalog file. This will launch Lightroom with your correct catalog open, thus there should be no possibility of opening an incorrect catalog by mistake.
After Lightroom has started, you can then test to see if the reset of the Preferences file has fixed the initial problem. If it has not, then you can simply revert to the original Preferences file by deleting the newly created Preferences file and reversing the reset action (rename is my preferred action, BTW).
However, if the action HAS fixed the problem you will obviously want to keep the new Preferences file.....in which case you should spend a few minutes going through the various tabs and ensuring that you get all the settings the way you had them. Pay particular attention to making sure that the Default Catalog setting on the General Tab is correct.
Extract from "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - The Missing FAQ" by Victoria Bampton
How do I delete the Preferences file?
Deleting Lightroom’s Preferences file can solve all sorts of ‘weirdness,’ so it’s always a good early step in troubleshooting.
On Windows, it’s a hidden file by default. The easiest way to find it is to go to Lightroom’s Preferences dialog > Presets tab and press the ‘Show Lightroom Presets Folder…’ button. Once you’ve found that folder, close Lightroom. In that folder will be a sub-folder called 'Preferences', within which you'll find a Lightroom X Preferences.agprefs file— move it to another folder, rename or delete it, and then restart Lightroom. N.B. X = version number.
In case you are not able to start Lightroom to find the folder via the Preferences dialog > Presets tab, open the Start menu and type '%appdata%\Adobe\Lightroom\Preferences' (without the quotes) in the Start menu search box, or in a 'Run …' dialog if you’re on Windows XP.
On Mac, you’ll find com.adobe.LightroomX.plist with the other Preferences files at Macintosh HD/Users/[your username]/Library/ Preferences/. As with Windows, close Lightroom and move it to another folder, rename or delete it, and then restart Lightroom.
Moving or renaming that preferences file, rather than deleting it, does mean that you can put it back if it doesn’t solve the problem, to save you recreating your preferences again.
What is deleted when I delete my Preferences file?
When you delete your Preferences file, the obvious settings that you lose are those in the Preferences dialog, but it also includes other details such as your View Options settings, last used catalogs, last used settings, FTP server details, some plug-in settings, etc.
Your original photos, Develop settings, collections, presets and suchlike aren’t affected by deleting the Preferences file.
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