Question

Edit histories disappeared after updating catalog to LRC 15.4, can't roll back because backup didn't save lrcat file

Forum|Forum|7 days ago
June 18, 2026
3 replies
69 views

I updated LRC today from v15.3.1 to v15.4. Upon loading, it said my catalog was outdated and needed to be upgraded for this version. Afterward I opened the program, and while the edits still seem applied to the photos, each photo’s edits have been wiped from the History panel. I rolled back to v 15.3.1 and went to import the backup it made before upgrading (from the Old Lightroom Catalogs folder) but the backup zip has no .lrcat file in it. All the previous backup zips have their respective .lrcat files, so it appears Adobe broke both the upgraded catalog as well as the backup. My secondary backup is only recent up to a couple weeks ago so I will have lost a lot of work if I have to roll back to that one.

I read in a Reddit thread from 2 years ago that v14 did the same thing to a lot of people, and Adobe quickly released a 14.1 hotfix that apparently fixed it. Hopefully they’ll correct this, just want to register the bug and see if anyone has any other solutions. The backup zip does appear to have the necessary contingency files in it in the “lightroom.lrcat-data” folder, I’m wondering if there's maybe a tool or something that can compile an .lrcat file from that?

(Windows 11, latest update.)

Victoria Bampton LR Queen

Community Expert

Can I get you to search your computer for files with an lrcat (that’s LRCAT) extension please? The reason I ask is that usually the reports of disappearing photos and edits after an upgrade are not actually that they’ve gone missing, but that Lightroom has somehow managed to upgrade the wrong catalog. That would fit with not finding a backup taken during the upgrade too, because if it opened the wrong catalog, the backup would be in a different place too.

Victoria - The Lightroom Queen

dj_paige

Legend

Hello, @coolguy8484

It would seem that (according to Victoria Bampton, the Lightroom Queen) there is a problem with Lightroom Classic 15.4 that results in data loss. It could be this is what happened to you (or perhaps you may have a different problem). Anyway, Adobe is looking at it.

Victoria Bampton LR Queen

Community Expert

Just so my comments aren’t taken out of context, the potential data loss scenario is fairly obscure and steps taken are precautionary. The circumstances are very limited: using Photo menu > Delete Rejected Photos while in the new Duplicates view mode causes unrejected photos to be deleted, so if you already have 15.4 installed, just avoid doing that! I don’t think it’s related, although of course this report needs investigating too.

Victoria - The Lightroom Queen

KR Seals

Community Expert

This is not meant to be insulting, but were you in the Develop module when looking for the History?

I just upgraded a copy my active catalog to LrC V15.4 on my backup Win11 machine. The conversion worked fine. The develop history is showing (in the Develop module of course). I also see that the zipped copy of the original catalog seems to be ok, based on the file size of the zip file.

I backup every single time I exit Lightroom Classic. It’s good insurance.

Ken Seals - Nikon Z 9, Z 8, 14mm-800mm. Computer Win 11 Pro, I7-14700K, 64GB, RTX3070TI. Travel machine: 2021 MacBook Pro M1 MAX 64GB. All Adobe apps.

C

coolguy8484Author

Yes I’m in the Develop module. Snapshots are all missing too, and in the History panel even the original import date is missing. Just totally blank. According to the Reddit thread where this happened with v14, some people experienced it, others also had no problem, so I don’t know what the difference is. Hoping for that hotfix soon.

Arnold-Norway

Inspiring

About the backup of catalog file. Did you see in the folder “Old Lightroom Catalogs”. A copy of my pre update version is store there. My History is also complete, as far as I can see.

RegardsArnold Hoddevik

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