"CryptUnprotectData" workaround

Hi guys,

Since it looks like I’m not the only one with this problem, I’m posting my solution here since it’s a little easier to find here than on facebook. When this error occurs, it was previously necessary to delete the preferences file, which is annoying because then many preferences have to be redone. With my Workaraound this is not necessary.Maybe it will help Nate to find the cause of the problem.
Now to my solution.
Before opening Lightoom, the preferences file must be opened as a text document. It is located here:
C:\Users\Philipp\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Preferences
and is called: “Lightroom Classic CC 7 Preferences”.

Now you need to delete the following lines as shown in the picture. After that save the file and close it. Now Lightroom can be started.

I hope this helps, greetings Philipp.

The issue is that there is a problem with the way that Lightroom is interacting with your system’s encrypted password store… what I haven’t been able to figure out is what that problem is exactly because I can’t replicate it. Deleting this may temporarily fix it, but I don’t believe it will be a long term fix unless whatever issue there is between Lightroom and your OS is fixed…

Hi Philipp,

I use Lightroom 6.14.

I had the same problem and used your workaround, it worked perfectly, thanx!

Before changing the preferences file I saved it and after the deletion of the two entries I restarted LR and
Negative Lab Pro worked.

After leaving LR I checked the actual preferences file. The deleted entries were back but with different encryption values compared to my saved file. So this must have caused the solution.
Everey time LR is started the preference file gets an actual timestamp for modifications but the encryption values stay as they are after my manual modification.

I got no idea why the workaround works but maybe my observations might be useful for further investigations by anybody.

Best regards from Munich

Dietrich

Interesting. Thanks @Dietrich, that’s good to know.

It would be create to know why/how this is getting corrupted. It’s obviously not ideal to ask users to directly modify preference files as this can lead to other problems if done incorrectly.

But with this info, I think I can make a workaround for the next version that should fix this…

Thanks!

-Nate