Skip to main content
T
tkdonovan
Participant
June 7, 2026
Question

Consistent Corruption of Catalogs

  • June 7, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 5 views

Under OS X Sonoma, I was working on some catalogs. Everything was fine until I opened one catalog and it would not let me import new images or close properly (had to force quit). I tried optimizing it unsuccessfully. I tried moving it locally with no success. I tried importing JPGs instead of DNGs. Didn’t work. 

I went so far as to do complete computer OS reinstall, upgrading to Tahoe. Didn’t work.

I eventually completely rebuilt the photo catalog using JPGs. The DNGs seemed to be the problem, but I’m not 100% convinced. 

I moved on, but I am now realizing that as I work on more catalogs, the same problem is showing up on other catalogs. The big problem is that the catalogs are not fixable. I cannot optimize them. I have tried using the “check for integrity” on load, but it never finishes. It can go for hours trying with no success.

Having to completely rebuild catalogs is incredibly time consuming. This was never a problem before. I can open the source files just fine in Photoshop or other apps. No issues.

I personally think this is actually a Lightroom problem, not corrupt source files. I haven’t totally narrowed down the issue, but it seems to be DNG related. Specifically from DJI Mavic Pro 3.

Help! Anything else I can try?

    1 reply

    dj_paige
    dj_paige
    Legend
    June 7, 2026

    Consistent corruption of catalogs is almost always caused by a hardware malfunction, and given your description, I would suspect the hard disk where the catalogs are stored is malfunctioning. A second possible cause is failure of the memory chips in your computer.

     

    Run diagnostics on your hard drive and memory chips.

     

    Try unzipping a recent backup of one of the catalogs to a different drive and see if the problem goes away. Do not unzip to the same drive that the catalogs have been stored on.

     

     

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices