Edits have disappeared - Mac user

Forum|Forum|4 months ago
January 18, 2026
2 replies
169 views

I just opened a catalog with 11 folders in it. One of the folders (the one I need of course) has lost all edits. All crops, sliders, and curves set to defaults. All the images in the other folders have their edits intact.

I think something got borked when LR updated the catalog for the last update, because things were fine before that. But it won't open a Time Machine backup without "upgrading" the catalog. So backups aren't helping me out here.

I'm on Sonoma 14.8, LR 15.1 if any of that is relevant here.

macOS

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

I just opened a catalog with 11 folders in it. One of the folders (the one I need of course) has lost all edits. All crops, sliders, and curves set to defaults. All the images in the other folders have their edits intact.

I think something got borked when LR updated the catalog for the last update, because things were fine before that. But it won't open a Time Machine backup without "upgrading" the catalog. So backups aren't helping me out here.

I'm on Sonoma 14.8, LR 15.1 if any of that is relevant here.

By @jeanclaudephoto

Sounds like maybe you open an old catalog. Lightroom Classic 15.1 does not have to upgrade its catalog after it was updated from Lightroom Classic 15.0, so the last catalog upgrade should be many months ago. Same for that Time Machine backup. So unless you upgraded from Lightroom Classic 14.x to Lightroom Classic 15.1 recently, a catalog upgrade suggests you opened the wrong catalog somehow.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

J

jeanclaudephotoAuthor

Participating Frequently

I was just spitballing on the catalog "upgrade" being the culprit. In any case, these photos only exist in this catalog. The edited versions aren't hiding somewhere else.

In any case, I have the exported (edited) JPGs I originally sent the clients. They've asked for higher res copies on a few of them, so I'm just going to have to reverse engineer what I did. Which sucks, because these edits were a little "fancier" than usual. But no choice at this point...The edits have clearly vanished and I can't waste any more time playing detective.

E

ExUSA

Legend

If you write edits to XMP, they exist independent of the catalog.

dj_paige

Legend

Please show us a screen capture of the problem in the Develop Module, show us the ENTIRE develop module. Please make sure the screen capture shows the History Panel in the Develop Module. Please use the "Insert Photos" icon (do NOT attach files).

dj_paige_0-1768733657119.jpeg

J

jeanclaudephotoAuthor

Participating Frequently

There's not much to show. Edits have been lost and correspondingly there is nothing in history. Screenshot is attached all the same.

LR Loss.jpg

dj_paige

Legend

There's nothing in History becuase LrC thinks this is a brand new photo. No edits have been done after import. This is different than what you said where "edits have been lost".

One possible reason is that you (accidentally?) imported the photo twice, and now one photo has edits and the other does not have edits. To figure this out, search for the photos in the Lightroom Classic Library module. Please follow all four of these steps in the Lightroom Classic Library Module, in order.

1. Click on All Photographs (its on the left under Catalog)
2. Turn off all filters (Ctrl-L once or twice)
3. Expand All Stacks (Photo->Stacking->Expand All Stacks)
4. In the Filter Bar, search for a photo by File name

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