Troubleshooting on Windows

App crashes when opening an image / entering edit mode

If RapidRAW crashes immediately when you try to start editing a picture, it is almost always due to the automatic selection of the GPU backend.

Open the splash screen → Settings (gear icon).
Navigate to the Processing tab.
Find the Processing Backend setting.
Change it from Auto to a specific backend supported by your OS. On Windows, try DirectX 12 first; if that doesn't work, try Vulkan, then OpenGL.
Restart the app and try opening the image again.

OpenGL is the fallback that works on most platforms. It's the slowest of the three, but if DirectX 12 and Vulkan both fail, OpenGL will almost always start.

"Windows protected your PC" SmartScreen warning

Cause: RapidRAW isn't yet signed by a major-CA code-signing certificate, so SmartScreen flags new installations.

Fix: Click More info → Run anyway. The warning typically disappears on subsequent launches once Windows builds reputation locally.

UI disappears or canvas is transparent

A subset of Windows installs (often involving older Intel iGPU drivers, certain mixed display setups, or transparent-window compositing) show a fully transparent canvas or missing UI when the WGPU renderer initializes.

Workaround: Same as above; switch the backend in Settings → Processing → Backend from Auto to DirectX 12 explicitly. Restart the app. If that doesn't help, try OpenGL or Vulkan.

Tracking issue: #1068.

RAW format quirks

Most RAW decoding lives in the dnglab upstream library. If a specific camera RAW renders incorrectly or refuses to open, see File Formats → What to do if your camera isn't supported for the dnglab-first reporting flow.

Currently-known camera-specific reports:

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra .dng: #777.
.RW2 clipped highlights showing pink: #883.
Some CR3 files rendering very dark: #711.
Olympus white-balance accuracy: #764.

If your camera isn't in this list, please file the issue (it's the only way it gets fixed).

Logs

When filing a bug, attach the log file:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\io.github.CyberTimon.RapidRAW\logs\app.log