P: Upgrade creates a new empty catalog instead of launching the last-used catalog

I had the Same Problem here (MacOS Sequoia, Mac Studio M2 Max). updated a catalog from V13.5 to V14.3. During updating I saw the new catalog getting bigger in data size. Then in an instant after packing the old catalog into a zip file and renaming, the updated catalog got reduced to 1.7 MB. Next try: I moved the the old catalog from my external drive to my standard folder for my working catalog and updated it there and it worked. The drive for my sworking catalog is also an external drive. The only difference is that its defined as the programs default. 🤷‍♂

Thank you for this post. This just happened to me and sent me into a bit of a panic. I couldn't find my original catalog anywhere and figured it had been overwritten or something. As it turned out it was on the external drive where I keep my photos. I thought it was on the interal drive and didn't look closely at the external one.

In my case I suspect the external drive wasn't ready when lightroom looked for the catalog so it asked to load a different one and I selected the only one on the list. I didn't realize I was loading an older, empty catalog and once the upgrade was done everything was gone. Then it didn't show my original catalog when I tried the 'open recent' and I didn't know where to look under 'open catalog'.

Had the same problem updating to 13.2. Thanks for the post, was actually pretty scared 🙂

Follow-up:  This has never happened to me before. I have always kept my (one master) Catalog on an internal (physically independent) hard-drive.

My system uses a SSD C:drive for OS and the 2Tb D:drive for all 'data' (Documents, Images, the Catalog, etc)

"If you can reproduce this with a specific set of instructions,"

@Rikk Flohr: Photography I don't know that I could (without a full re-build of all apps). It happened when I opened the CC Desktop App and clicked [Update all], which included Photoshop, Lightroom, Bridge, ACR.

I always start LrC from a Windows-10 Start page icon for the App .exe file (Not a Catalog shortcut).

My only thoughts are that I have re-mapped my Windows "Documents" default folder to the D:drive, or the Catalog Startup Preferences file was somehow trashed or deleted.

My system is working correctly (the way I want it!) now, so all good, and I know how to answer any other posts with 'empty catalogs'!

Thanks for replies.

On another note- I opened Photoshop yesterday (first time since the update done 6/1/22 ) and the 'Home Screen' was blank- No 'recent' files, the [New File] [Open] [Home] buttons were just grey 'blobs' and inactive. All restored to normal after opening one image from the top menu. Preferenes trashed?

I've dropped a note to the Classic team regarding this but lacking clear reproduction instructions, I can't reproduce. In my testing efforts I probably upgrade catalogs a dozen times or more a month and I have never seen it. 

If you can reproduce this with a specific set of instructions, I would be happy to see if I can verify the reported behavior again. 

It does indeed seem that a Lightroom update can corrupt the settings file that keeps track of the catalog(s), so Lightroom creates a brand new one and won't remember any old catalogs. I have seen to many messages about it by now to consider this a coincidence or user error.