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FollowTheLumens
FollowTheLumens
Participant
April 7, 2020
Answered

Extracting preview for lost images

  • April 7, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 2441 views

Hey all! I recently had a HD crash on me and I lost about 6 years worth of photos! When I started to panic, I found these great instructions (https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/extract-previews-for-lost-images-lightroom.html?jarvisData=%7B%22versionPath%22%3A%222.14.6%22%2C%22cookieGuid%22%3A%22bbec14ce-4bf1-4ccc-8073-84534facae14%22%7D#) on how to install a recovery script and extract pictures from the Lightroom previews. I got the script to install, but when I run it, I chose the location of where I want to save the image, it says "writing best available previews" and then nothing. There is no error message, and no image where I told it to save. Running Lightroom CC 7.0. Please help!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Jim Wilde

    If the Adobe method isn't working, you could try Jeffrey Friedl's preview extraction tool: http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/preview-extraction

    2 replies

    D
    defaultq1zb3djpcovk
    Participant
    May 1, 2021

    I have this exact problem. The tutorial works well all the way up to selecting the output folder. But as soon as you run it, it says, "writining best available previews," (that is not, in fact, a typo--it genuinely seems they did not spell writing correctly) and exports nothing. Did you ever find a solution?

    Jim Wilde
    Community Expert
    Jim WildeCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    May 1, 2021

    If the Adobe method isn't working, you could try Jeffrey Friedl's preview extraction tool: http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/preview-extraction

      D
      defaultq1zb3djpcovk
      Participant
      May 2, 2021

      Thank you very much! It worked perfectly 🙂

      cmgap
      Community Expert
      cmgapCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      April 7, 2020

      At the risk of asking obvious questions - did you have a backup of  your photos  on another  device? Did you have a backup  of your Lightroom and your computer? Are  you on Windows or Mac?

      FollowTheLumens
      FollowTheLumensAuthor
      Participant
      April 15, 2020

      I'm on a mac running Lightroom CC 7.0. Any ideas why the script doesn't seem to run? Or is there another way to extract JPGs from the Lightroom Previews?

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