Luminar 4 hangs on the splash screen after the update: solutions
Answered
Hello Everyone,
We're currently investigating this issue and we will do our best to provide a solution.
Please, kindly try the solutions listed below if you're facing this issue:
First, please try the following solution:
- Turn off Windows Defender Firewall: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4028544/windows-10-turn-windows-defender-firewall-on-or-off
- Either turn off your anti-virus or add Luminar to its list of exclusions. Consult your anti-virus manual for help.
Please make sure to do that for all the security software you have on your computer.
If you have the Avast firewall, try switching it to private mode additionally.
Besides, please download Process Explorer via the link below and kill all processes related to your antivirus software:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer
If none of these help, please perform the following steps that may help resolve the issue:
1. Reboot your PC.
2. Uninstall Luminar.
How to uninstall an app on Windows 7 (click this text to open link).
How to uninstall an app on Windows 8 (click this text to open link).
How to uninstall an app on Windows 10 (click this text to open link).
3. Clear your registry:
- Visit https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/download?pc
- Scroll down to the bottom of the table and click Download from CCleaner.com in the first column.
- Once the download has finished, launch the file and install CCleaner on your computer.
- Launch CCleaner.
- Click Registry on the left.
- Click Scan for Issues in the lower left. Wait for the scan to finish.
- After the scan has finished, click Fix Selected Issues in the lower right.
- Close CCleaner.
4. Type %appdata% in Search (folder Roaming should open).
Find the folder “Luminar 4” and rename it to "Luminar 4 old". Please note that this folder contains your license for Luminar 4, as well as your Custom and downloaded Looks. You will be later to access them later if necessary.
5. Go to Pictures folder and rename the folder called "Luminar 4 Catalog" (if you have your Catalog anywhere else, find it and rename it to "Luminar 4 Catalog old").
Open the folder and locate the file with .luminar file extension. Change the name of this file to "Luminar 4 Catalog old" as well.
6. Reboot your PC.
7. Download the latest version of Luminar from here: https://downloads.skylum.com/luminar4/win/Luminar4Setup_offline.exe
- Right-click on the Luminar icon.
- Go to Properties > Compatibility.
- Enable 'Run this program in compatibility mode for: Windows 8' checkbox.
- Press 'Ok'.
If the steps above don't help, could you please let us know your hardware configuration and send it via https://skylum.com/support?
- Press the Windows logo key + R.
- Type msinfo32 in the dialog box that opens and hit Enter on your keyboard.
- In the window that opens, make sure you have System Summary highlighted on the left.
- Click File > Export.
- Type the name of the file (you can choose any you like), save it somewhere where you can easily find it and attach this text file to your reply to the contact form.
N.B. The links are clickable and show the screenshots that can guide you, if necessary.
Here is the video tutorial on how to retrieve your system info: https://www.loom.com/share/97aff7951ee3412daa020f1d88eb36e8
Besides, please send us event logs:
- Reproduce the issue.
- Press the Windows logo key + R.
- Type eventvwr in the dialog box that opens and hit Enter on your keyboard.
- In the window that opens click the triangle next to Windows Logs on the left. A directory tree should open.
- Click Application in the directory tree.
- In the main part of the window find the two topmost entries marked with Error named Application Error and .NET Runtime.
- Hold CTRL and click your left mouse button on each entry to select them both.
- Right-click on any of the two selected entries and click Save Selected Events.
- Name the file, save it, and attach it to your reply to the contact form https://skylum.com/support
If nothing helps, you can install Luminar 4.2.0 following the link below.
https://downloads.skylum.com/luminar4/win/Luminar4Setup_offline_420.exe
We will do our best to fix this issue asap.
-
Thank you for your prompt response.
True, I can still make an effort to install version 4.2 I will try later.(Refunding has been thought - but it's seems a bit extreme for now)
It's so frustrating software that crashes, I hope the next version of Luminar 4.x, without start-up crash, arrives very soon ...
-
I think EM, a few posts above, is on to something! Luminar 4.3 had been working fine for me for months until today when I got the dreaded splash screen freeze. I tried a full reinstall as instructed here, etc etc, and nothing worked.
Then I tried EM's suggestion of going into flight mode before invoking Luminar. That seemed to do the trick! With flight mode on, I can use both the standalone app and the Photoshop plugin as normal. If I'm connected to my router, they do not work. So it has something to do with whatever communications the app is attempting during startup.
Thanks EM
-
Concerning the question Internet access disabled:
Luminar 4.3 normally starts without errors on my Windows 10 PC.
However, when there is high traffic from the PC to the NAS on the connected LAN network, Luminar 4.3 hangs in the splash screen.
My internet access is via the same LAN network and a connected router.
If I switch Windows to flight mode, Luminar 4.3 starts even with high traffic on my network
As a further test I blocked the internet access of my PC in the router and did not switch on the flight mode.
Then Luminar 4.3 hangs during high data traffic.
My thoughts:
- Luminar 4.3 wants to access the internet after startup
- if the internet access is too slow due to high traffic or other circumstances Luminar 4.3 gets stuck in the splash screen
- in flight mode the wireless network connections are switched off
- Luminar 4.3 seems to detect wireless network connections that are disabled and does not even try to access the Internet
So it seems that under certain circumstances or configuration Luminar 4.3 gets locked in a loop = splash screen when accessing the internet.
-
Michael, I did just as you suggested and it works! Thanks. Set up a rule to prevent Luminar connecting and I was able to start the plugin while maintaining my internet connection for everything else. I'll update if it has any negative side-effects, but so far none.
I hope the Skylum people will see this and focus their efforts here.
-
Well, I seem to have got everything to work again (I use the Luminar 4 plugin in Photoshop 2020). I do it starting Bridge and Photoshop as an Administrator. Standalone app also seems to work with that. I've made Administrator start a permanent setting for all three apps (Luminar 4, Bridge, and PS). As a result, it seems I am able to use Luminar 4.3 yet again... I hope it stays that way this time!
-
Mein Weg, um Luminar 4.3 zu benutzen: (standalone und als Plugin (r L(ghtroom).
Wenn Luminar beim Splash Screen hängt:
1. Taskmanager starten (Ctrl+Alt+Del) Klick auf Taskmanager
2. Rechtsklick auf Luminar 4
3. Klick auf Wechsel zu Details
4. Rechtsklick auf Luminar4.exe
5. Priorität auf Realtime setzen
Anmerkung: Eventuell müssen für Punkt 6 die Punkte 1-4 wiederholt werden
6. Prozess-Struktur beenden (nicht nur den Task)
Ich hoffe, es hilft auch bei Euch
MfG
Marcel -
Marcel, your suggestion works great for the standalone app, but it I sometimes still had problems with the PS plug-in. I've kept it but I'm also now running Photoshop as administrator and all is working now. I'm too superstitious to test different combinations now. :-) Thanks again for your help.
-
Inkscape, um software de licença livre, lançou recentemente a sua versão 1.0. A versão apresentava pequenos, LIGEIROS, TÊNUES problemas durante a instalação. Duas semanas depois, Inkscape liberou sua versão 1.0.1. Sem alarde, sem "desative o antivirus, troque o nome de seis diretórios, reze três Pais-Nossos e duas Ave-Marias, e dê retorno ao nosso suporte". Não. Silenciosamente, profissionalmente, rapidamente, o time da Inkscape limpou a própria sujeira, bem discretamente, como se nada, nada, nada tivesse ocorrido.
É assim que a gente aprende a confiar num desenvolvedor. Pelo menos um desenvolvedor sério. Porque, como já disse, existem desenvolvedores sérios. E há a Skylum.
-
How I solved my issue: splash screen displays for a few seconds and then aborts loading.
I ran the MSinfo report and found this error:
[Windows Error Reporting]
Time Type Details
9/16/2020 5:28 PM Application Error Faulting application name: Luminar 4.exe, version: 4.3.0.6175, time stamp: 0x5dedc13b
Faulting module name: libcef.dll, version: 75.1.14.0I searched my hard for libcef.dll and found several in different application folders. I copied libcef.dll (an two related DLLs) from my Nvidia folder and placed in my Luminar 4 folder (backing up the originals). Bingo! Now Luminar 4.3 opens on my desktop computer.
-
different fixes being found. I have version 75.1.14.0 and all is good.
So now we have splash screen hangs due to:
- new version of libcef.dll
- something to do witl L4 communicating on startup with SKYLUM via the net.
They could be related. Apparently, libcef.dll has to do with embedding a chromium based browser within an application.
I hope SKYLUM monitors this thread. There might be some useful stuff in these recent posts. -
Another possible fix for some as posted by a Skylum person:
Issue: opening splash screen requesting connection to internet
-------------------
I have checked your hosts file and it is modified.
Please try resetting your hosts file back to the default value: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/972034/how-to-reset-the-hosts-file-back-to-the-default
Here is the video tutorial that may also be helpful: https://www.loom.com/share/0cf4050f5e3a4551880bbd0eb2ea0684
-------------------
Post Link:
https://community.skylum.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360009743000/comments/360002211459 -
Looks like we're trying to address two different issues. I believe Roy is talking about a problem wherein the splash screen appears then disappears without L4 loading. Others of us are having the splash just sit there stuck without the app loading ... and we're forced to end the process to get rid of it. I suspect Roy's hosts file fix only deals with the first problem.
-
I had the programme hang at the splash screen. I checked the lbcef.dll version in Luminar - 75.1.14.0, I replaced this file with version 73.0.0.0 from my nVidia card folder and lo and behold Luminar works again even connected to the 'net. Definitely a problem with Luminar's dll version.
A Google search for libcef.dll 75.1.14.0 Problems gives a ton of pages showing problems with this version and a load of apps including Photoshop. Time to debug Luminar or roll back to an earlier dll version.
-
Marcel Morel: it is libcef.dll
-
If you don't have an nVidia card but need an older libcef.dll, do the following:
- Download the latest nVidia Geforce Game Ready driver from https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/drivers/
- Download 7Zip from https://www.7-zip.org/download.html and install it
- Right click the downloaded nVidia driver file, click 7Zip and extract everything to a folder
- Search the folder for libcef.dll
- Rename the existing libcef.dll as libcef.dll.old. Copy the "new" libcef.dll to your luminar folder at C:\Program Files\Skylum\Luminar 4
-
It is all very strange:
- in summer I updated from Windows 10 version 1909 to 2004
- at that time Luminar 4.2 was actual and ran without problems- then came the update to Luminar 4.3
- after the update Luminar hung in the splash screen on my systemSince I read a lot about problems with the 2004 version of Win 10, I downgraded my system
- for this purpose I have restored a system image of Win 10 version 1909
- then I have updated Luminar 4.2. to 4.3
- with the result that now Luminar 4.3 works without problems
Well, today I started again the update from Win 10 version 1909 to 2004:
- and wtf, after the update from 1909 to 2004 Luminar 4.3 runs without problems???
I give up now. I'm sure I spent at least 10 hours, rather more, solving the problem.Compared to the price of Luminar 4, a bad hourly wage to help Skylum with their homework!
-
There's still some underlying problem with Luminar though. Not sure if this is related, I haven't seen others commenting on it as the 4.3 splash screen hang has dominated the conversation, but I have a very similar problem.
BEFORE the 4.3 release, 4.2 would always work as the Lightroom plugin (and still does). However, as the Photoshop plugin, it would work exactly ONE TIME after starting Photoshop. If I tried to edit anything beyond that first photo with the PS plugin, it would show the splash screen, the splash screen would disappear, and PS would lock up. I have to use Task Manager to kill the process, which leads to losing any unsaved edits in PS.
After experiencing issues with 4.3 and reverting back to 4.2, it's happening again. I don't use Luminar as a stand-alone product (only as a plugin), so I can't speak to any instances of that.
Again, 100% of the time it works as a Lightroom plugin, so I've had to rearrange my workflow and, if I know I'll be using Photoshop and Luminar for edits (i.e. sky replacement), I always make a point to begin the workflow in Lightroom and perform any necessary Luminar edits PRIOR to taking it into Photoshop to do any further editing.
Not sure if any of that helps, or adds to the confusion.
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
475 comments