Internet Explorer is wonky and unpredictable, and it’s sometimes difficult to pin down exactly why the Windows version of Lightroom’s Web module is pitching a fit. For some Windows users, all galleries work perfectly. For others, it seems they just won’t work, no matter what you do. If you’ve tried everything else, and none of it worked, then you might try this.

First of all, let’s qualify the term “everything else”, as it is a very technical term and needs to be defined. Read the other Troubleshooting articles here on The Turning Gate. Read through the comment thread on the documentation page for the gallery for which you are having the problem, trying any possible solutions presented therein. Maybe check the forum thread for the gallery at www.lightroomforums.net; every product page on this site has a link.

If you have attempted every solution presented at all of the locations above, then try this as a last resort:

1. Open the .lrwebengine package in your file browser (Windows Explorer, I suppose).

2. Dig into the /resources/js/ folder.

3. Remove all .js files from the folder, except live_update.js. Place the files onto your desktop, or into another folder where you can easily access them later.

4. Run Lightroom, test the gallery. If it works, that’s great; continue. If it doesn’t work, see below.

5. Quit Lightroom.

6. Add the .js files back to the /resources/js/ folder one-by-one. After returning each individual file to /resources/js/ folder, run Lightroom, test the gallery, and quit. If it works, keep the .js file in the gallery. If a .js file causes the gallery not to work, keep that file separate.

7. After testing all of the files, and isolating any scripts that seem to cause problems, go ahead and configure your gallery as best you can. With scripts missing, you may find that not all features of the work as expected.

8. When you are finished, export the gallery.

9. Copy any remaining isolated files back into the /resources/js/ folder of the EXPORTED gallery (not the .lrwebengine package). Your exported gallery should now work as it’s supposed to.

If the gallery still choked at step 4, with all of the .js files removed, then you may need to try opening the head.html file in the .lrwebengine package (some galleries will have multiple head files; if so, the filenames will begin with “head_”) in a text-editor. Copy any Javascript instructions into a new text document, and delete them from the original head.html file. Save the files and launch Lightroom. If it works, do as above — copy each block of Javascript back into the head.html file one-by-one, testing as you go until you are able to isolate the problem. Work with the dissected gallery, and restore the EXPORTED gallery to its original state as the final step in the process. Be careful to look for Lua statements in the Javascript blocks, though, as these should be replaced with values in the final gallery. You may just have to guess at the values, which will sometimes be numbers, sometimes true/false or sometimes specific words. If you can’t figure it out, contact me.

This is a bit drastic, but, with any luck, will result in functional galleries for all.

Some LR/Windows users have experienced issues with some of the galleries wherein the gallery will freeze prior to reaching 100% on preview generation or export.

This issue has not been reported to occur in LR/Mac.

I’ve been trying to find the source of the issue for some time, but hitherto have not been able to determine the cause.

The following steps are recommended to reduce the likelihood of the error, and have resolved the error for some users.

• Upgrade to the latest version of Lightroom.
• Upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer 7 (even if you use another browser, LR uses your IE installation to generate its web previews).
• Access Lightroom’s Catalog Settings area, Relaunch and Optimize your catalog.
• Delete any saved gallery presets for the problematic gallery.
• Reinstall a fresh copy of the gallery web engine.

Advanced users are also encouraged to check that their system’s DLL files are up-to-date. I’m a Mac user and don’t know how to do this, but if you’re in the know, some users have said it helps.

Another test that can be performed is to create a new catalog, import some images and try to run a test gallery to see whether the issue recurs.

Some users of LR/Windows have received repeated script errors in the Web module when using some TTG galleries. These errors are thrown by Internet Explorer when it finds Javascripts running on a page.

This error has not been reported using LR/Mac.

Glen Turvey writes in with one possible solution:

I assume the actual error is due to the fact that the previewing environment is not exactly the same as the exported gallery running on a browser. So to hide the annoying errors (which for me came up 10 or 20 times each time I changed a value!!!) do the following:

First click Start, then Control Panel or Tools, then Internet Options. Click on the Advanced tab, then scroll down to Browsing, then click on the box the says “Disable Script Debugging” both on Internet Explorer and Other. That should do the trick.

Jacob Decker writes in with another solution:

“What people are saying about the 100% complete thing shutting down Lightroom happened to me and IE7 solved that. Then IE put me in some script warning loop, I Googled that and changed the registry and now that is gone.”

The steps, according to Jacob, are as follows:

1. Using a Registry Editor such as Regedt32.exe, open this key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\InternetExplo rer\Styles

Note If the Styles key is not present, create a new key that is called Styles.

2. Create a new DWORD value called “MaxScriptStatements” under this key and set the value to the desired number of script statements.

HOWEVER, whats different is this:

Set the “MaxScriptStatements” Value to DECIMAL, then type 0 to Disable the damn box, Voila! no more “script is taking for too long” box.

the part they don’t tell you is that to run this you have to do start menu-run-Regedt32.exe, then to add all these things you have to right click in a bunch of places. This will not solve the error message loop you are currently in, you have to close IE, and unfortunately close and restart Lightroom. But after that there is no problem.