Participating Frequently

Question

Lightroom 11.5 crashes on exit when saving the main catalogue and generates no backup - need help

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
August 31, 2022
2 replies
295 views

Hello!

This is my first time to try to get help. I searched the internet for a solution, but I could not find any. So I hope you could give some tipps.

I have LR check, optimise and backup the catalogue every time I exit. My problem is that today I discovered that Lightroom has not backed up since the end of June.

I did notice that LR crashes on exit, but the "Lightroom_neu_2021-v11.lrcat" (name of my main catalogue) is always from the current day. The associated .lrcat-data, on the other hand, is (as of today) 6 days old. (I don't know if this is important).
I can work in LR as usual, so I didn't attach any importance to it. But I will probably have to change hardware soon and need an intact backup for that.
I looked at the latest backup zip and discovered that it seems to consist of only one copy of both files, zipped and placed in the respective directory. So I tried to create such a zip myself on my Mac with today's two files, then place it in today's empty backup folder - hoping I could give LR back the missing backup that way. In the process, I discovered that I cannot zip either file. When LR is supposed to save the two files, it crashes during the copying process or when testing the integrity.

I have worked countless hours since the end of June, which would now be wasted if I had to import the backup from the end of June.

Does anyone know about this problem? Do you have any ideas what else I can do to save my catalogue again and have an intact backup?

I am grateful for any ideas!
Thank you.

Kind regards
Sonja

macOS

This topic has been closed for replies.

CaileanMcKinnleyAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hello!

I am back. Sorry to keep you waiting. I have now had to move to another Mac. This brings new, unfortunately not very pleasant information. 😕😕

When opening LrC on the new system, my default catalogue was not found. I then looked it up manually. LrC said that the catalogue had to be updated and that the old, not backward-compatible version would be saved for safety.
However, the catalogue I was presented with in the end was from sometime last year. 😱

Now I wanted to load my pre-update saved catalogue, but I can't find it anymore. The file is no longer in the directory of LrC, where the backups and the new catalogue are. It was there before. It is also not stored in the backups. 🤔 🤔
- Do you have any idea where LrC moved my old catalogue for backup?

Now that I can't find this catalogue, I looked up the .lrcat file from the last backup folder. On opening it I was told the 25kb small .lrcat file was corrupted and needed to be repaired. I confirmed this.
The blue bar ran back and forth for 3 seconds, then the window with the selection of catalogues appeared. The catalogue from the backup was at the top.
I thought it could only be a mistake, so I selected it again and clicked on "Open". The window disappeared for a blink of an eye, reappeared immediately, but the catalogue was no longer in the selection.

So I selected it again via "Other catalogues" and tried to open it again. Again the window disappeared briefly, but reappeared immediately and the catalogue is no longer available for selection. This repeats itself now, as often as I try.

So to continue,

I would now have to find the original catalogue to have it updated again and hope it works this time.
Or I could try asking LR support to take a look at my file. Maybe they have other ways to save my catalogue.
Or I could do without it and continue with last year's catalogue, if I can find out what it's really from, to re-import all the photos and read in the XMPs that go with them to get it back up to date.

Man, I thought I was doing a good thing by having the integrity tested to avoid exactly this sort of thing.

What is your advice? Do you have any other suggestions for me?

Kind regards
Sonja

dj_paige

Legend

Do you have any idea where LrC moved my old catalogue for backup?

LrC does not move your catalog files at all. Never, its not a function of the program.

I would now have to find the original catalogue to have it updated again and hope it works this time.

Find a recent backup, unzip it and copy it onto some other disk, place it in a brand new empty folder, and see if it will open.

What is your advice? Do you have any other suggestions for me?

Your continuing to have difficulty opening catalogs suggests a hard disk malfunction, or other hardware malfunction somewhere on your computer.

CaileanMcKinnleyAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hello dj_paige,

Thank you for your answer. If LrC didn't move the catalogue, something must have really broken in the hardware. It's definitely gone and the most recent .lrcats I can restore only have 4 kb. I can forget about those.

I'm on a new system now and have a plan. I would import the last intact backup. This is from July this year. I've edited thousands of photos in between, but that's better than starting at November 2021.
I have all the editing steps saved in XMPs, if I understand correctly.
- Can I get LrC to read in the missing folders and photos and apply what is in the XMPs?
Then I would have all the edits back and would be almost up to date again.

I know how to import photos and exported catalogues. But I haven't yet figured out how to use that to read out the XMP for each photo. Can you help me with this?

Thank you!

Kind regards
Sonja

GoldingD

Legend

First up, the lrcat-data file, it contains info about AI Sky and AI Subject masks. So no AI masking today, no change to lrcat-data.

Second off, integrity checking at backup. See if turning that off helps. When you have that selected, the integrity check occurs before the backup, and if fails can cause issues. If it is failing, you might have a catalog going corrupt.

Also about integrity checking. Change your settings so that LrC asks you what catalog to open, in the screen you will be presented with asking what catalog to open, a box will show to cause an integrity check. This is how to run a integrity check upon opening a catalog. Alternately on the MAC, press and hold down the OPTION key, and click on the LrC startup icon, this will bring up that same screen.

and DO NOT run an integrety check without a solid backup, for this you might want to copy your catalog (and the lrcat-data file) to another hard drive.

CaileanMcKinnleyAuthor

Participating Frequently

GoldingD,

Thank you very much for your explanation about the lrcat-data file. I searched the internet and found nothing and it gave me such a headache that these two files have a different date.

And thank you for all the useful background information and tips. I wish I had known about integrity testing earlier. I ran it every time I saved because I thought I could avoid problems that way. In future, I will only have the integrity tested if I have an intact copy of the catalogue in a safe place. If only I had known about this sooner! Thank you for your advice, I will take it to heart.

I tried what you advised me to do. Unfortunately, LR also crashes during the integrity test before starting. It starts and the progress bar also moves, then suddenly all windows are gone and after a few seconds the error report appears.

On exit, when I want to save (I have taken out the integrity test), the window breaks away and the error report appears. But at least, after several empty backup folders, I have now found 3 files again in the last folder: the .lrcat of my current catalogue and a lrcat-shm and a lrcat-wal. Is that a good sign?

Do you have any more tips for me on what I can try? Or do I already have everything I need for a backup with these 3 files?

Kind regards
Sonja

GoldingD

Legend

An error report appears?

What is in it?

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded