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tom franklin
tom franklin
Participant
March 12, 2026
Question

Lost Entire Lightroom Catalog After Deleting App – Photos Stuck in Sync Issues Folder

  • March 12, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 35 views

Long story short I have lost my entire local light room catalog (3500 images) after deleting the app. I purchased more cloud storage just before this happened but the catalog did not fully upload as all these images now sit unusable in the sync issues folder. I am wondering whether there is any way of reinstating these images without deleting and re uploading as I want to retain the edit settings. The alternative would be to try and recover the deleted catalog on my laptop (there is no backup) if anyone has any suggestions I would be very grateful. 

    2 replies

    CMass
    CMass
    Legend
    March 12, 2026

    Hey ​@tom franklin, 

    I’m sorry to hear this is happening. In order to best assist you we’ll need a bit more information. To confirm, you were only using the Lightroom Desktop app correct? If not, were you syncing across Lightroom Classic and/or Lightroom Mobile? 

    Please also share the following:

    • A screenshot of the error messages you’re seeing on your end. You can also see what has already been uploaded by going to https://lightroom.adobe.com/. 
    • What versions of Lightroom you’re using. You can find this by going to Help > System Info. You don’t need to copy everything, we just need the version number. 

    I do see that 145.889 GB shows as used. 

    Please tag me with an “@CMass” so I get alert to your response. :) 

    Best, 

    CMass

    tom franklin
    tom franklinAuthor
    Participant
    March 13, 2026

    ​@CMass 

    hi, the lightroom version is 9.2 but this is after reinstalling. The original error message was ‘local catalog damaged’ which made me buy more storage to move everything to the cloud. I then deleted the old local catalog to try and force a refresh but this didn't work after that I uninstalled the desktop app and it free’d up nearly 130gb of storage on my computer, suggesting it deleted any remaining catalog files/back up with it.

    CMass
    CMass
    Legend
    March 13, 2026

    Hey ​@tom franklin, Thank you for confirming. I would hold on deleting anything off your computers unless you have it backed up somewhere else on your computer or a an external drive. 


    Since I still see space used in your account please trying the following: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/kb/unable-to-move-some-photos.html

    If that article above does not help I would recommend reaching out to our Chat Support team for real-time assistance. You can contact them by clicking the three dots here: https://helpx.adobe.com/support.html They have access to additional tools that can better help troubleshoot your issue.

    Let me know if the article helps or if you need to contact Chat Support. 

    ^CMass

    tom franklin
    tom franklinAuthor
    Participant
    March 12, 2026

    Hi, long story short I have lost my entire local lightroom catalog (3500 images) after deleting the app to reinstall. Shortly before this I purchased additional cloud storage but the catalog did not fully upload as all those images now sit unusable in my ‘sync issues’ folder. I was wondering if there is any way to reinstate these images without deleting and re uploading as I don't want to lose all my edit information. The alternative is to try and recover the local catalog that I lost when I uninstalled the app (there is no back up and it is not in my recycling bin). Would be grateful for any advice. Thanks! 

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