Hello everyone, my first post. My DXO 7.8 will not open. I get this message; DXO PhotoLab couldn’t be started. Please try to free up disk space or memory by closing some other apps. If the problem remains please contact support. So I summited request for them to check into it. Has this happened to any of you? I uninstalled and reinstalled DXO. That didn’t work. My system is more then capable of handling DXO. I don’t run any other apps while using DXO. I have automatic disk cleanup on. Not fun. I’m retired and photography is all do now. And I am not a DXO expert buy any means.
Welcome to the forum @GaryCR
Do you use PhotoLab on macOS or Windows? Which version?
Windows 11
Hm, I’m using DPL on Mac, but I’d still try the following on Windows:
- Restart the PC
- Check resources RAM and Drive
- Check security and AV settings
- Wait for feedback from someone in the forum or from DxO
Okay will do. 
In this situation, I wouldn’t recommend restarting your PC. Hopefully it starts up OK. I expect that what PhotoLab says is wrong is in fact the case - that your computer doesn’t have enough free disk space on C: for a pagefile (virtual memory, also called swap) or that you don’t have enough system RAM. If Drive C: is more than 90% full, this is a serious problem - fix it right now. (Run the Windows disk cleanup utility, empty your recycle bin, start moving collections of your own files to another disk…) If your photo files or user account are on another drive, that drive also needs some free space for PhotoLab’s operations to work.
On Drive C: I have 1.12 TB free, RAM 64.0 (63.7 GB usable) recycle bin I empty all the time. This might be a problem, I have 810 MB of thumbnails. Not a PC wiz, how do I access Windows disk cleanup utility? Is there any risk of getting rid of something important by mistake? Okay, I did disk clean up. Still DXO will not open.
Looks like you’ve got resources to spare. Next step: check your security systems. Can you whitelist PhotoLab or something like that.
We’ve had similar issues with earlier PhotoLab versions and occasionally, the antivirus software did block the app. The error message you mention doesn’t feel logical under these circumstances but hey, these things happen.
I did look at security, That seems okay. I’ll take another look at it.
Even with security off it didn’t make a difference. And I sort of doubt help from DXO. Hopefully I am wrong. Thanks for your help. But still open to any other suggestions. Also I might add, my PC runs fine and fast.
One last thing: Completely remove PhotoLab before installing again from a fresh download. I have no idea about what you can do in Windows for a thorough cleaning though… Maybe some WinMasters can step in.
Did that this morning.
Check the PhotoLab log file in your user Documents folder. Also check the Event Viewer for any warnings in the applications and system logs. (Looking for clues, not necessarily a clear answer.)
Where is the Event Viewer? Found the Event Viewer but not sure how to use it.
PhotoLab (and other DxO apps) leave a lot of components all over the place on Mac. If this is also the case on Windows, thorough cleaning can take quite some effort.
Just a reminder. When asking questions like this one, it it better to include a detailed description of your hardware configuration and your software. That way, responders can be more specific in their questions and answers.
I would consider a drive that is more than 75% committed to be full. Some suggest that at 50%, it is time to clean the drive. The safe level is inversely related to the size of the drive.
Just for reference, when I open PL 7 with it pointing to a folder that contains no image files, Task Manager’s performance tab shows 9.1 GB of RAM in use. I only had PL7, Firefox and Thunderbird running for this experiment. By navigating to a folder containing 150 TIFF files of about 15 MB each, it only adds .1 GB to the total used. If I click Customize the total value increases to 10.6 GB . You can see that the RAM needed is very sensitive to the size and number of files being customized.
Thorough cleaning? You mean I might have a virus? I only use this pc for my photography and post on 3 different birding groups, nothing else. I have a different pc for everything else.
Okay, I’m not a pc wiz at all. I live in a remote area in the mountains of Costa Rica. There’s no one here that can help me. Do I need to get help from Dell? My ram is 64.0, 63.7 usable.
I only use DXO PL 7.8. Don’t use anything else. When I work on photos that’s the only app running. I haven’t added any other apps, I have 1.12 TB of space left on drive c:
|Processor|12th Gen Intel(R) Core™ i9-12900HK 2.50 GHz|
|Installed RAM|64.0 GB (63.7 GB usable)|
|Device ID|772CF7F3-98BE-46AB-8AD9-67EF2ADC13C8|
|Product ID|00342-20706-44571-AAOEM|
|System type|64-bit operating system, x64-based processor|
| Edition | Windows 11 Home |
|---|---|
| Version | 23H2 |
| Installed on | 2/12/2023 |
| OS build | 22631.4169 |
| Experience | Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22700.1034.0 |
By “thorough cleaning” @platypus meant removing PL from your PC as thoroughly as possible… before reinstalling. Another common piece of advice is to re-download the latest version through your account.
And of course you need an internet connection to register …