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paul6001
Known Participant
October 15, 2022
Question

Lost catalog history and developments

  • October 15, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 132 views

Well intentioned but misplaced moves on my Mac desktop caused my photos to get separated from the catalog and the catalog to get deleted. But I had a recent back-up on an external hard drive of both the catalog (v11.lrcat) and the pictures. No problem, right? I just had to bring them back onto my Mac, install a new catalog, and all would be peachy keen.

 

So that's what I did. Soon I had a catalog and a whole mess of pictures—all in folders and subfolders—on my desktop. Now to import the new catalog into ightroom. I clicked file>new catalog and found the catalog. It was greyed out but I was still able to click on it and import it. Then all of the pictures. Everything synced up nicely. All of the photos were found, the file structure was intact, I was a happy man.

 

Briefly. Then I realized that the pictures weren't developed, they were in a very formative stage. When I went to the history, they all said "imported on [yesterday]" but nothing before than.

 

I suppose that it could be worse—I could have lost everything. But I lost a lot of work. And I'm not happy about the prospect of starting all over again.

 

Oh, ye Lords of Lightroom, ye apostles of Adobe, please ride to the aid of this simple peasant. I've now imported and deleted this catalog 15 different times in 15 slightly different ways but I get no closer to the true grail. I beseech thee.

 

I beseech the further to make all of your wise suggestions as ye might make them to an Irish setter. I have some sort of undiagnosed mental condition that makes computer-ese and Lightroom-ese illegible. Don't be fooled by the assurance with which I described importing the catalog. It was a much longer, much more difficult process.

 

Thanking you in advance.

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2 replies

JohanElzenga
Community Expert
JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
Community Expert
October 15, 2022
quote

I clicked file>new catalog and found the catalog. It was greyed out but I was still able to click on it and import it. Then all of the pictures. Everything synced up nicely. All of the photos were found, the file structure was intact, I was a happy man.


By @paul6001

 

You did this all wrong, but you might still do it correctly. File > New Catalog does what it suggests. It creates a new catalog, it does not import an old one. By clicking on the greyed out old catalog, all you did was use the name of the old catalog for the new one (and so most likely the old catalog was overwritten by the new catalog). Then you imported all your pictures again, and so you had a brand new catalog with brand new pictures and no edits.

 

What you should have done (and may still be able to do because the backup was on an external drive, so I assume you copied it to the main drive and can do that again) is unzip the backup catalog and start Lightroom with it. That is not done with 'File > New Catalog', but with 'File > Open Catalog'. An alternative is to double click the unzipped catalog file. Lightroom will launch and open it. That should be all. The catalog should show all the pictures without you having to do anything and all the pictures should show all the edits.

 

-- Johan W. Elzenga
    P
    paul6001Author
    Known Participant
    October 16, 2022

    Thanks for your help. Two instructions to "unzip" the catalog. I didn't know that it was zipped. I'm guessing you mean that when I click on the catalog, it will break into its constituent parts. I know that one is labelled "data" and there's about five more. Now what do I point to before I click "open catalog?" I can't click on all those parts. Do I still click on v11.lrcat and leave those new sub-catalog files alone? Or I guess that I can double click on the catalog and it will open. Thanks, I will try it tomorrow.

     

    Sorry to ask for the most particular of explanations but I must have some sort of computer dyslexia.

    F. McLion
    Community Expert
    F. McLionCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 16, 2022

    Once you copied it back from the backup, unzipped it, you can double-click on the catalog (*.lrcat) and it should open in LrC.

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    GoldingD
    GoldingD
    Legend
    October 15, 2022
    Now to import the new catalog into ightroom. I clicked file>new catalog and found the catalog.

    Why?

    You had a backup, normal procedure would be to copy the backup to a folder, unzip it, then use it, why the import?

     

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