Lightroom bug?

[Bryan]

On occasion the enlarged view in LR4 is slightly fuzzy. I can normally tell from the normal view that it should be OK, but the actual pixels view looks unsharp. Restarting LR normally provides a cure.

 

This happens infrequently, but often enough to be a worry. Just a bit concerned that I might inadvertently delete a perfectly good shot due to this.

 

I have run various versions of PS for years without seeing anything like this and currently CS4 is fine.

 

Any ideas what the problem might be?

[John Richmond]

Could be a memory, specifically graphics memory, problem.  What hardware are you using?

[Johnnie5]

I had the same problem happen to me with Lightroom 4 and I thought it was a memory problem.  If you open Photoshop at the same time I think it will use some of your ram memory and not release it when done   editing.  Apparently Lightroom 4 also doesn't release memory when done editing an image.  Here is a link https://forums.adobe.com/message/4366597 to check out.  I would usually close Photoshop if it was open and restart Lightroom to solve the problem.  I am sure I deleted some perfectly good images until I figured out what was going on.  I haven't had the problem with Lightroom 5 and beyond.

[Bryan]

Thanks for the responses, a problem with memory management then. 

 

My machine has 16 GB  ram with an AMD 6100 processor running 64 bit Win 7 Pro.

 

It looks like the problem could be resolved with a switch to LR5, but I'll probably hold out to LR6. I just need to remember to restart LR when it occurs, and certainly before deleting any fuzzy shots! Weirdly it's a very intermittent problem, most days no issues, then a one off fault that normally does not re-occur once LR is restarted.

[IanGibson]

I think that another possibility could be some sort of difficulty in reading the image from the disc. Especially if you are using an external disc.

[MarkS]

I have found that if my machine is on all the time the cache and memory get messed up. I would turn off the machine and reboot and be good for another few days.

[Bryan]

Thanks for the further replies.

 

Using internal disc and machine switched off when not in use - I'm far too mean to let it use power when not required! 

[CM photo]

This happens to me very occasionally (and, by coincidence, I had an episode yesterday) but only on images that I have worked on in Photoshop and then re-imported into Lightroom.  Very disconcerting the first time it happened!

 

[Johnnie5]

I developed a workflow where I would go through and check for sharpness first thing, delete the bad ones, and then go back and do my processing and ignore the fuzziness.

[Russell Watkins]

Could be a memory, specifically graphics memory, problem.  What hardware are you using?

Up until now, Lightroom hasn't used graphics cards or chips at all. It has relied entirely on the CPU and RAM. It is rumoured tha LR6 will at last take advantage of GPUs.

 

The reliance on RAM and CPU has left LR prone to these sorts of glitches.

 

One other thing to consider is how full your hard drive(s) is/are. When LR starts struggling for RAM, it uses available hard drive space as "virtual RAM" and needs a fair whack of free space to do so.