P: Possible problem with catalog backup zip files

Simon - I'm back at my PC now. Looking at the folder in which my catalog is stored, it is clearly a mess. It is quite difficult to be sure which the current catlog is. Can I send you some screen shots which may enable you to help me? Or would it be easier if I sent you a link to a Dropbox folder?

Hi John,

If you're on windows, then you should be ok. Starting with Lr CC 2015, Lightroom would automatically zip the backed up catalog as part of the backup process. With zipping, the size of the final backed up (and zipped) catalog would be about 1/10 of the size of the catalog without zipping.

Simon - thanks for your reply. I'm using a PC, Windows 8.1, my catalog is 1.2 GB. I'm running LR6.1, but I've been having the stalling problems on exit ever since the introduction of CC2015. I will make a copy of my catalog using explorer as you suggest and try to start LR from that, then report back. I am away from my machine at the moment. I don't understand why you are suggesting compressing the copy - can you help me with that?

Are you running Lr 6.1 which as a fix for a bug when trying to backup catalogs that exceed 4GB in size. Because the default uncompress tool shipped with Mac OSX cannot correctly handle such compressed large catalogs (Lightroom compressed it correctly), Lr 6.1 would leave those large backup catalogs not zip compressed. This is a Mac OSX only behavior.

You can follow step to do you own backup:
1) Optimize your catalog via Lightroom's File>Optimize Catalog... menu command.
2) Quit Lightroom.
3) Locate and find your catalog via Finder/Explorer.
4) Make a copy of the catalog via Finder/Explorer and zip compress it if you wish.

I have the same problem that Robert Frost reported a month ago - the stalling/ apparent crashing during back-up. A copy of the catalog is still being created, but if I try to start Lightroom from that copy I get the message that "the catalog cannot be opened because it is too new to be used by this version of Lightroom". This is obviously very disturbing, because it means that I am totally dependent on the single in-use copy of the catalog.

Thanks Steve. With your assistance, I have figured out how to open up the backed up files. Thanks so much.

So in Windows Explorer (not LR or some other program) you double-click on the whatever.lrcat.zip and see the catalog file whatever.lrcat?

You are now viewing the names of the files in the ZIP file.

At this point you should right-click and choose Copy and then click over to where you want the catalog file to be extracted to and right-click Paste.

You cannot open a LR catalog while it is still IN the zip file and must be copied elsewhere.

Sorry, I misunderstood what you were asking. I click twice on the compressed folder which then takes me to the Lightroom Catalog. I click twice to open the folder and then I get the message I shared with you.

I ask, again, what are you doing when you see this message?

The message says "Lightroom cannot use the catalog named Lightroom Catalog because it is not writable and cannot be opened."

I have tried it again and then I have closed the file, unsuccessful at opening it.
Any suggestions would be appreciated,