Skip to main content
Known Participant
July 30, 2018
Answered

Catalog upgrade left zero pictures

  • July 30, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 847 views

Windows 10 x64 on auto update.  I don't recall when the last lightroom update was installed (I have a backup from 7/26/2018 - four days ago).  When I launched Lightroom, it asked to upgrade my catalog and I allowed it.  The end result was a zero photo catalog rather than the 58k+ photos originally in the catalog.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer JohanElzenga

    Sounds like Lightroom created and opened a new catalog. Your old catalog should be available from 'File - Open Recent', or else you can manually select it via 'File - Open Catalog'.

    2 replies

    Just Shoot Me
    Legend
    July 31, 2018

    In the other thread about a Disappearing catalog you stated,

    Lightroom catalog suddenly disappeared

    raymanningphotography  wrote

    Add me to the list.  Lightroom updated, asked to upgrade the catalog and after saying yes, I ended up with an empty catalog rather than the 60k+ photos I had originally.

    The only time LR Updates/Upgrades the catalog is when you are going from an Older LR version to a Newer LR version. No LR Classic CC V7 Update, a Update from a previous Version 7 point release to a newer point release like V 7.3.1 to V 7.4, needs to Upgrade the catalog.

    Then in another post in that thread you said,

    35. Re: Lightroom catalog suddenly disappeared

    raymanningphotographyLevel 1

    I have been on LR Classic CC via subscription since around the time it came out.  So I suspect it's a different bug.

    That was in response to my post about a bug in the LR updater that allows LR 6, the one that has a perpetual license, to be Upgraded to LR Classic CC V7 and that would call for a catalog upgrade. Or even from LR CC 2015 (the subscription based version of LR 6) to LR 7. That too would call for a Catalog Upgrade.

    If you had been using LR Classic CC since it came out and just recently did an Update for it, like stated above from V 7.3.1 to V 7.4, the catalog file would NOT of needed to be UPGRADED. The same catalog that works with the Base Version 7, the Original release of V 7, would still work with V 7.4 (At least it does on my system).

    So I suspect you are dealing with some other problem and or you had been running LR CC 2015 - LR 6 and then installed LR Classic CC V7.

    Please do a search of your computer for .lrcat and see how many actual catalogs you have on your hard drives. The backup for LR C CC V7 and LR CC 2015/LR 6 will end in .ZIP and need to be decompressed to work. Backups from LR 5 and older versions are just copies of the catalog file and end in the .lrcat extension.

    JohanElzenga
    Community Expert
    JohanElzengaCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    July 30, 2018

    Sounds like Lightroom created and opened a new catalog. Your old catalog should be available from 'File - Open Recent', or else you can manually select it via 'File - Open Catalog'.

    -- Johan W. Elzenga
    Known Participant
    July 30, 2018

    That's exactly what it sounds like.  I am lucky enough to have a 4 day old backup but that isn't without problems either (Syncronizing catalog results in missing photos that are not missing. )

    JohanElzenga
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    July 30, 2018

    You shouldn't even need a backup. The original catalog should still be there.

    -- Johan W. Elzenga