files mysteriously disappeared

Forum|Forum|6 months ago
September 11, 2025
3 replies
115 views

all my files mysteriously disappeared out of Lightroom. So I uninstalled the program and reinstalled it, but the files don't come back. It's like my hard drive is not connecting with Lightroom. Does anyone have any ideas for me?

macOS

A

Aleke

Community Manager

Hi @joyful-peace-mtp
Just checking in to see if you're still running into that issue. Let me know when you get a chance!
Thanks so much,
Alek

*(If you mention me with an @, like @Aleke, I’ll get a notification and can respond faster.)*

J

joyful-peace-mtpAuthor

Participant

I just gave up and imported all my files again. But none of the previous edits were saved. I guess I’ll just have to deal with it. It’s not the end of the world.

dj_paige

Legend

You have most likely opened the wrong catalog, accidentally. Search for catalogs, using your operating system's search function, to search all folders on all disks, whose file name ends with .LRCAT

Rob_Cullen

Community Expert

Knowing that you are using Lightroom-Classic would be helpful.

A common cause is that LrC has created a new catalog that does not yet have photos imported.

Look for other catalogs-

In LrC go Menu > File > Open Recent, and check for other catalogs that might appear in this menu.

Or, in Mac Finder search for .LRCAT (catalog) files that you can open by a [Double-Click].

Where do you store your Catalog file?

Where do you store your camera files?

Inserting screen-clips in your posts of your LrC app screen can be useful.

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .

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