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Question

Unable to Open Catalog After Power Outage, Requiring Catalog Update Which Failed

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
June 18, 2023
4 replies
793 views

Hello All, Please I need some help....

Backstory: There was a random power outage the other day, which has happened before and I figured out (I thought) how to manage...usually LR will say the catalog could not be found, so I quit the app, and restart. Usually it will automatically load correctly but sometimes I have to point to the correct catalog and there have been no issues. Until now.

When I re-started LR, I got a message that the catalog needed to be upgraded. Fine, I've done that before, no big deal. Picked the correct catalog and upgraded to V12. When LR opened, I'd lost 2 years worth of photos... I don't know what catalog it updated but this obviously was a major 'uh-oh' moment and a problem. Tried several times to pick another catalog to load, but the only option I keep getting is to upgrade a catalog. I don't want to do this, I want to cancel any catalog upgrade and load the correct catalog first, and then upgrade once I've seen all the photos are there. There seems to be no way to cancel the upgrade other than a force-quit (I'm on a MAC). I trashed all instances of V12 in hopes that LR would just work like it always has and find and load my last catalog with all of my photos. But it still is requiring a catalog update to open and there is no option to cancel and just load the catalog and update later. I can't figure out how to do this, can someone please help? My version of LR is 12.3, which was updated April 29. Oddly enough, I experienced a power outage of 4 days after I last updated LR due to storms and was able to restart with no problems afterwards. This last outage had seemingly no reason and came back on within a few minutes but wow this situation is new. Sorry for the mini-rant within the question, I'm hoping I'm stressing for no reason about not seeing 2 years of photos and there is a solution, also wondering why there is no option to cancel/delay a catalog upgrade when LR hasn't even loaded yet in order to check/backup first. 😞 Thank you so very much all in advance.

macOS

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Ann424Author

Known Participant

Hello All, wanted to update this thread. I was finally able to open the correct older non-upgraded catalog by clicking it in Finder to open instead of opening LR first and choosing it within the program that way. It did not ask me to upgrade the catalog, it just loaded it which was good but there were several months worth of missing photos. Not an issue as LR had found them and I could see all the missing folders in the pane on the right and I had the option to import at the bottom of the pane. I did that then created a backup which was a .zip file. So I am back up and running now. Lesson learned, I will make regular backups going forward! Thank you.

Ann424Author

Known Participant

Hello all, and thank you for the previous responses. It really appears that I have lost 2 years worth of work. I've reverted back to different versions several times all the way back to LR 11.5 and still am not seeing my photos that were there before the power outage. So I'm not sure if I should create a new thread or what. I can see and open my photos through Finder (maybe thank goodness I reverted back to shooting .jpeg instead of raw??) but now I don't see them in LR anymore. I get one day of 8 photos with my entire history of shots over the years just gone. More backstory in case it helps is that I have 2 external HDs (I used to switch between the two) but now even after downgrading LR in an attempt to pull my latest catalog it's all a mess...I can't get hardly anything in LR although I can get see them in Finder. Previous years are showing a '?' next to 2016/2017 and nothing after that. Years worth of work between different cameras and formats (RAW vs jpeg, processed shots, etc.) are not pulling in anymore. My default folders are on my external drives while the LR installation is on my main MAC HD. It's almost like LR is dead. How can I rebuild my library? I know will surely be very time-intensive but has to be possible? Trying to stay positive here. Thank you so much again in advance for any responses.

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

A power outage will not cause your catalog to have to be upgraded again. If Lightroom tells you it needs to upgrade the catalog, then there is only one conclusion: Lightroom can't find the current catalog (probably because the settings were corrupted) and so it tries to open an old catalog that happens to be in the default location and has a default name. That explains why you are missing so many images if you let Lightroom do this.

You will have to find the current catalog and hope the power outage did not corrupt it. If it did, then you need to replace that catalog by a recent backup copy.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

Ann424Author

Known Participant

Hello JohanElzenga, thank you. I now have tried to load 2 different old catalogs, thinking if I can get something to work I will just have to re-import what's missing. It does allow me to navigate and choose from multiple catalogs. I've had power outages before and always experienced the LR message that it couldn't find the catalog. A quit and re-launch then navigating to the correct catalog has always worked before. I've never had LR force me to upgrade a catalog to simply launch the program, am starting to panic now a little actually...

DdeGannes

Community Expert

Lightroom Classic by default will store your Catalog files in the lollowing location Users > "your user name" > Pictures > Lightroom. In finder go to your Lightroom sub-folder and from the menu bar select View as List. Take a screenshot of the contents of the folder. It should contain your Catalog files which have the extension .lrcat (LRCAT) and all the support data files including the preview files.

Share the screenshot in the thread so other users can view the contents and offer advice on solving the problem.

Regards, Denis: iMac 27” mid-2015, macOS 11.7.10 Big Sur; 2TB SSD, 24 GB Ram, GPU 2 GB; LrC 12.5,; Lr 6.5, PS 24.7,; ACR 15.5,; (also Laptop Win 11, ver 24H2, LrC 15.0.1, PS 27.0; ) Camera Oly OM-D E-M1.

Ann424Author

Known Participant

Thank you Denis. I've taken several different screenshots, the catalog you referenced doesn't show the different versions that have been upgraded. What I want to load is the one showing v.10-v.11...not sure how it got labeled as both but it's the latest one. It has a date of 2021? But it includes all of 2022-23 so far. And yes, I do not backup as regularly as I probably should but when I try to every time it hangs so I cancel.

DdeGannes

Community Expert

I have taken a clip from the screenshot you provided. My understanding is you wish to open the Catalog that is highlighted. If so then you are being prevented by the Lock file which has the same name as that Catalog with a .lock extention.

When Lightroom opens a Catalog it creates that file to prevent any access to the Catalog, the lock file will get removed when you quit Lightroom. However since Lightroom got shutdown due to the power loss the file has remained in place and is preventing use of the Catalog.

With Lightroom off, delete the .lock file and no other files in the folder then double click on the Catalog, the one you have highlighted, and that should boot Lightroom. You should get a prompt to upgrade it to Lightroom 12.

Let me know how that goes.

Regards, Denis: iMac 27” mid-2015, macOS 11.7.10 Big Sur; 2TB SSD, 24 GB Ram, GPU 2 GB; LrC 12.5,; Lr 6.5, PS 24.7,; ACR 15.5,; (also Laptop Win 11, ver 24H2, LrC 15.0.1, PS 27.0; ) Camera Oly OM-D E-M1.

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