Participant

Answered

folders are empty in LR after catalogue back up

Forum|Forum|6 months ago
January 6, 2026
4 replies
252 views

I backed uo my LR catalogue yesterday and now the folders show as empty in LR, the pictures are still on my hard drive in their correct folders

Windows

Correct answer Rob_Cullen

Could it be as simple as having the Library option unchecked?

Rob_Cullen

Correct answer

Community Expert

Could it be as simple as having the Library option unchecked?

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.4.1, Photoshop 27.8, ACR 18.4, Lightroom 9.4, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.3 .

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

If that were the case, wouldn't that not also be the case for the F: drive? That drive seems to show totals for folders with subfolders (unless those folders also contain images in the root), and I don't think you can set this option per drive, only globally.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

Open your catalog folder and look for 'Catalogname Helper.lrdata'. Delete it and start Lightroom Classic again. Is the issue resolved?

-- Johan W. Elzenga

PippywheatAuthor

Participant

This is what the catalogue folder looks like, I'm not sure which one to delete.

Sorry, I'm more of a photgrapher than a technical person.

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

First quit Lightroom. It is still running. You have several old catalogs in that folder, but this is the current helper file that you should delete.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

dj_paige

Legend

So please clarify what we are seeing. Are you showing us your working catalog after making the backup, or are you showing us the backup copy of your catalog?

If you are showing us the working catalog, the solution is here: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/total-number-of-pictures-in-a-folder-remain-the-same-after-mass-deletion-of-rejected-photos/m-p/15575070#M417292

PippywheatAuthor

Participant

my photos are on my hard drive and backed up to a separate drive. this is the screen shot of my library folders in LR showing 0 pics in folders

B

Bill Sprague

Community Expert

Lightroom Classic backups generated are compressed copies of catalog files. There are no image files there so it should show zero. Backing up the image files is a different and necessary process. What are you doing to keep backup copies of your image files?

PippywheatAuthor

Participant

my photos are on my hard drive and backed up to a separate drive. this is the screen shot of my library folders in LR showing 0 pics in folders

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