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Missing Minimize / Maximize / Close Buttons

For Lightroom 1-4

Lightroom has several screen modes. You can cycle through them by pressing the F key. Two of the modes (Full Screen and Full Screen with Menu) hide the minimize, maximize and close buttons at the top of the application window. You’d be surprised how many people “lose” them and have trouble getting out of Lightroom.

So, if yours are missing pressing F will cycle you back to Standard Screen Mode eventually or you can jump right to it by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+Option/Alt+F.

Lightroom 5 and up

Lightroom 5 still has several screen modes, but Adobe changed up the keyboard shortcuts a bit. Now just pressing F takes you to the new true full screen mode, where just the selected photo fills the screen. Press F again to go back to where you were. To cycle through the other screen modes you need to hold the Shift key and press F.

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53 thoughts on “Missing Minimize / Maximize / Close Buttons”

  1. Ed Hammock

    Thank you so much, I’ve just ‘found my buttons’ Sadly long gone are the days when if you spent the money to buy a piece of software you got a ‘Bible’ of a manual for bed time reading!!!

    1. Gabriel

      Don’t be embarrassed this is a design flaw made by the developers. Occasionally Lightroom will switch to this mode if you accidentally press a key and they have made it impossible to naturally figure your way out.

      Thousands of people have found the same problem with the software and have had to seek further help to fix the design error. It’s very hard to get people to design things in a way that makes sense, this is a good example of that fact.

  6. laanba

    Ugh. Thank you so much. I’ve been frustrated for more than a day because of this. I need to say a big Homer Simpson D’oh because I obviously hit the F key by accident.

  8. Tom

    Thanks. Saved me a huge headache trying to figure that out. And it was so simple. Last time that happened I was on a call with Apple tech support and I was reinstalling stuff. And all I had to do was press the F key. Unbelievable.

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  17. Sarah-fiona

    Had downloaded and installed latest update for Lightroom and these buttons were missing. Thank you a million times over for posting the simple solution – so so appreciated!!!

  26. Kevin

    I know everybody else has thanked you, and another comment of similar appreciation might seem a bit of a waste, but just in case you’ve not got the message yet … THANK YOU!

  30. Pete

    I just found this link. I had given up after 18 months of using LrCC with no minimise button.

    It’s still a common problem!

  32. Deborah Hilton

    I am a Mac user and having recently upgraded to LR 5.7 have lost the red, yellow and green buttons that allow me to minimize the LR screen so I can look at other programmes. I have found that Command H hides the LR interface and in vanishes back onto the dock but unless you remembered you had done that, there is no way of seeing that you have minimized LR. Please help restore the buttons.

  38. Neal

    Thanks so much. You are a lifesaver and I have my buttons back. I probably hit some keys in the process of switching view screens. Lost my buttons; thought I’d lost my marbles. Thanks to you all is well. Am using Lightroom 1025 CC and this still works.

  47. DANIELLE RAYOUM

    Thanks I needed this. I knew I needed to hit the F key, but it wasn’t working for me. I just kept going back and forth between two screens I didn’t want. Shift F did the trick!

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