Cannot open any LRC Catalog

Question

I have Lightroom Classic running on a Windows 10 PC. Whenever I would close Lightroom, I would back up the catalog. Yesterday I got an error doing this and closed the software. When this has happened in the past, I was able to open a catalog I had backed up a few days earlier. I can no longer do this.

When I try to open any catalog, I get a response that it needs to be repaired. The repair process never stops (literally for hours), and I am forced to shut down the app. I have tried all remedies that I can find online; I have no unusual file extensions that can be deleted, and I have suffiecient disk space and all necessary permissions. My primary backup location is my C: drive. but I cannot open any catalogs saved on other drives.

My LRC is now unusable. Can anyone help?

Paul Lebras

dj_paige · Accepted Answer

By default, the Lightroom Catalog is created and stored in the Users > Pictures folder. Try moving the Lightroom catalog folder to another drive or location. Once the entire folder is copied, double-click the .lrcat file to open Lightroom Classic directly and check how it performs.

By @Sameer K

No, don't bother doing this. If the catalog file is corrupted, copying a corrupted file or folder will not help and will not remove the corruption.

You need to unzip a recent copy of your backup catalog and place the unzipped copy on a different drive. Then try to open the unzipped backup of your catalog file by double-clicking on it.

Sameer K · Answer

Hey, @paultexas. Welcome to Lightroom Classic Community. I'll help you figure this out.

Do you have any cloud backup active on your machine?

Before anything, restart the machine and don't launch Lightroom Classic yet. Reset Lightroom Classic following the second (manual) method from this article: https://adobe.ly/4czwc5z

By default, the Lightroom Catalog is created and stored in the Users > Pictures folder. Try moving the Lightroom catalog folder to another drive or location. Once the entire folder is copied, double-click the .lrcat file to open Lightroom Classic directly and check how it performs.

Let me know if this helps. Thanks!
Sameer K

(Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

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