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TBFMcKee
Known Participant
May 26, 2018
Question

Catalog upgrade required

  • May 26, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 1958 views

I have been having a continuing problem with LR not responding after it imports files from an SD card. I have to close the program and then open it again when it will usually, but not always, run as usual. Today, though, LR will not open at all. Instead, a dialogue box opens that says that "We need to upgrade your LR catalog for use with LR Classic CC.  "  It then says it will create a new catalog file in the destination indicated below and the destination has LR catalog2-3 as part of the address. I am afraid that  allowing it to proceed could alter the tens of thousands of files I have entered since LR 2-3. I have checked Windows Explorer and the latest uploaded files are intact with their .xmp extensions. So at this point I am unable to use LR until I can be sure that I can click the UPGRADE box. I see that others are having the not responding problem - anyone experiencing this one as well. Not a satisfactory performance from a subscription service. If I had commercial photo session files to deal with at this time, I would be livid.

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3 replies

elie_dinur
elie_dinur
Participating Frequently
May 28, 2018
A screen shot of my Windows Explorer screen might make this clear to the several people who are trying to render assistance, and the fact that I cannot manage that bit of elementary protocol may give you some insight into why I am floundering when LightRoom throws me a sharp breaking curve ball.

So maybe we can start by explaining how to do a screen shot and post it here.

First, see if you can find a key on your keyboard marked PrtSc or PrtScn (Print Screen). It is probably in the top-right area of the keyboard; mine is next to the F12 key. Then open Explorer to the relevant folder (Pictures/Lightroom), if necessary expand the window to fill your monitor screen and then press PrtSc. Next, open a new reply in this thread, right-click in the message space and choose "Paste". That's it - the PrtSc key caused an image of the active window to be placed on your Clipboard and then you pasted it from the Clipboard to here.

This will allow us to verify what I am guessing happened; that your original LR 3 catalog was named Lightroom Catalog.lrcat. Then, when you first acquired your CC subscription, your app was upgraded to LR CC 2015 and your catalog was upgraded to Lightroom Catalog-2.lrcat. Last October, together with all the other subscription holders, your app upgraded to LR Classic CC 7 and your catalog was upgraded to Lightroom Catalog-2-2.lrcat. That, I believe, is the catalog you have been using since October until a few days ago when you inadvertently opened the Catalog-2 file and were required to upgrade it again.

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    TBFMcKeeAuthor
    Known Participant
    May 28, 2018

    Thanks again to the three mentors who have continued to provide input. I am understanding more about the development of the problem though there are dates mentioned in these replies that do not seem to verify with dates of creation and modification in the Windows display of catalogs. I will get back to this after work today and try the screenshot process to provide a more clear view of what has evolved. I hope that a worst case scenario is that I will have to import the 2018 files from my hard drive or external hard drive and perhaps lose the edits. The time lost and frustration I will just have to swallow as the cost of trying to manage a system that is just a bit beyond my level of technical expertise.

    Tom Forker

    dj_paige
    dj_paige
    Legend
    May 27, 2018

    Upgrade doesn't change your existing catalog, it makes a copy and then upgrades the copy. Furthermore upgrading a catalog won't cause you to lose any of your work.

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    TBFMcKeeAuthor
    Known Participant
    May 27, 2018

    Thanks DJ--Paige, Your assurances are somewhat comforting , but without some insight into why LR suddenly finds the need to upgrade a catalog that it has been dealing with for several years without this upgrade, I am loathe to initiate a process over which I would have no control or ability to roll back. If LR can lock me out of access to the program itself because of this suddenly discovered upgrade issue, how can I be certain that It is filing these supposed upgrades in a way that they will be totally accessible?  The exact address that is given for the "upgrade destination" is C:\Users\Tom\Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom Catalog-2-3.lrcat     . No such destination now exists so does it seem reasonable to you that LR would find it necessary to create such a destination in order to deal with files that it has been handling fine up until now? I really know next to nothing about this stuff and I am just trying to keep from getting myself into more trouble than I already have. My question is still, why deny access to LR at all in order to deal with something that it seems should be dealt with as routine maintenance? I wish I could master arcana like screenshots to give you more insight into what is going on, but I cannot deal with those yet.

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    TBFMcKeeAuthor
    Known Participant
    May 27, 2018

    DJ---Paige, Here is a an example of the kind of issue I fear to trigger by proceeding with the catalog upgrade dialogue box:

    "I 've just upgraded from Lightroom 3 to Lightroom 6. When I try opening or importing from an existing catalog that was working fine in Lightroom 3, Lightroom says the catalog has to be upgraded. When I opt to upgrade the catalog, the dialogue gets stuck (for several hours) at "Catalog Upgrade in Progress--Preparing New Searchable Database". If I opt to import from a catalog, it hangs at the 60% mark. It seems likely to be the same error in both cases."

    I don't know any details beyond this account, but users like myself that just expect a subscription app to work the way it has always worked and don't really have the specialized technical knowledge to delve into problems like this are sorely tested when Adobe creates such bugs and allows them to persist without corporate intervention.

    JP Hess
    JP Hess
    Inspiring
    May 27, 2018

    Unfortunately, this is a confirmed issue that Adobe is working to resolve. I'm wondering if, when you attempt to restart Lightroom, is trying to open an older catalog. Mine just goes to the previous folder. The solution, for right now until the issue is fixed, is to copy the images to a folder on your hard drive using your system browser (Finder or File Explorer) and then import them to Lightroom using the Add option. I have tried this and it seems to work. Not as convenient, I know. But it does work and Lightroom doesn't lockup or crash. If you can browse to the folder where your catalogs are located and identified the one with the most current date, double-click on it and see if it will just open.

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    TBFMcKeeAuthor
    Known Participant
    May 27, 2018

    Thanks, Jim Hess, I would like to try  your path for importing a few new files that I would like to deal with as a way around the LR not responding issue except that LR will not open until I can get past the "LR needs to upgrade your catalog" issue.

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