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Inspiring
July 26, 2017
Answered

How can I find my Lightroom Catalogue?

  • July 26, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 3792 views

I recently had problem on my iMac so had to wipe the hard drive and reinstall files etc. from Time Machine backup.  I can't find the right catalogue for my photos. I have tried all those in the search ending .LRcat but none show the correct one, they show photos but not in the correct sort.

Other than re load a previous copy of the hard drive from Time Machine, which might give me back original problems I had, how can I find the correct catalogue.

I am on Light room version  3.

Any help much appreciated.

Alistair

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer alistairw72100433

    If you are using newer version of Lightroom the backup .LRCAT files are contained in .ZIP files.

    So search for recent .ZIP files and see if you can find your most recent backup.


    Thanks to all who responded I have now relocated the missing catalog. It was in a different file which I had now transferred from the Time Machine back-up and which for some reason didn't appear when I searched for .lrcat files.

    All you comments helped me to get a better understanding of the problem and now resolved. Thanks to all again.

    Alistair

    1 reply

    Akash Sharma
    Legend
    July 26, 2017

    HI Alistair,

    Please refer this article Recover catalog and images after resetting preferences in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and follow the steps mentioned to locate the correct catalog.

    Let us know if that helps.

    Thanks,

    Akash

    Inspiring
    July 27, 2017

    Many thanks Akash for the help. I tried the options suggested in the link but could only find a few Catalog.lrcat files and only a couple were created in 2010, when I set this IMAc up, and were modified in 2016. Each one only showed one photo when I selected it as the catalog.

    There must be other catalog files because I update my LR most times before I leave LR when prompted to. SO there should be .lrcat files modified in 2017 but I can't find them.

    I also looked in the default position as suggested in the link and the back-ups were not there.

    Can you please suggest what I can try next.

    Many thanks

    Alistair

    dj_paige
    Legend
    July 27, 2017

    I have tried all those in the search ending .LRcat but none show the correct one, they show photos but not in the correct sort.

    Can't you just change the sort order back to whatever you want it to be?