Participant

Question

recovering catalog and previews from my Lightroom .lrlibrary file

Forum|Forum|3 months ago
October 26, 2025
2 replies
140 views

Hi

I’m reaching out for help with recovering my Lightroom catalog and photos.

Some time ago, my MacBook was damaged by water and began developing corrosion. Before the device stopped working completely, I copied my Lightroom library file (.lrlibrary, 226GB) to my iCloud Drive as a backup.

Recently, I downloaded that same .lrlibrary file back to my new Mac and placed it locally under Pictures, using the default Lightroom folder name. However, when I open Lightroom, I can’t locate the photos that were in my original catalog. The Originals folder inside the package appears to be empty, and I also don’t see any of my old albums or collections on the left panel.

These were important professional photographs that I no longer have original copies of anywhere else. I’d deeply appreciate your help or any possible way to restore the missing images or reconnect the catalog.

Thank you very much for your time and assistance

macOS

Sameer K

Community Manager

Hey, @sigal95. Welcome to the Lightroom Community. I'll help you figure this out.

I've checked your account, which you've used for the community, and found two profiles in it. Both of these also have storage used (250GB+), which could be where your Lightroom data is stored. Head here to learn more about Profiles in your Adobe Account: https://adobe.ly/47pMlKb

Please log in to Lightroom Web (https://adobe.ly/47o08RE), use the right profile, and check if your data is present on the cloud. You can use Lightroom Downloader and sign in with the same profile to download the data offline in one go. Head here to get started with this: https://adobe.ly/47vfeoF

Do you still have a copy of the LrLibrary on the iCloud backup? You can use what @JohanElzenga just shared and navigate within the copy from iCloud, and maybe find success.

Let me know how it goes. Thanks!

Sameer K

(Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

sigal95Author

Participant

Hi Sameer! I’ve tried every possible way to access my Business Profile, since I’m pretty sure that’s where my missing Lightroom photos are stored — but I haven’t been able to get in 😞

In the 226 GB folder (.lrlibrary) I have, there are some photos under originals, but they’re not the ones I’m looking for — they seem to belong to a different sync.

My Business plan was originally through my design college, but that plan ended about a year ago. Could this be the reason Adobe no longer allows me to switch between profiles? As you said now seems I have two separate clouds (Personal + Business), but I only have access to my Personal one.

I also tried Lightroom Downloader, but it only found the newer photos from my current Personal cloud (about 2,500 photos / 52GB ). So it didn’t scan the older Business cloud where my full Lightroom library should be.

Could you please help me access that old Business profile or suggest how to retrieve the data stored there?

Thanks so much for your help!
— Sigal

Sameer K

Community Manager

@Sameer K Thanks - but Still Can't answer you in PM 😞
The message: "

You have reached the limit for number of private messages that you can send for now. Please try again later.

What are the options?

I understand. Let us continue via email. I've sent you the details.

Thanks!

Sameer K

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

The Lightroom .lrlibrary is not a catalog, but just a cache. It is always overruled by what's in the cloud. What you can do is copy this file to another location (so not the location where Lightroom stores this cache), and then manually retrieve the original images from it. The .lrlibrary looks like a file, but it is a so-called package. That is a folder that looks and behaves like a file. Right-click on it and choose 'Show Package Contents' to open it in the MacOS Finder like a normal folder.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

sigal95Author

Participant

Hi,

I’m reaching out for help with recovering my Lightroom catalog and photos.

Some time ago, my MacBook was damaged by water and began developing corrosion. Before the device stopped working completely, I copied my Lightroom library file (.lrlibrary, 226GB) to my iCloud Drive as a backup.

Recently, I downloaded that same .lrlibrary file back to my new Mac and placed it locally under Pictures instead of the current.lrlibrary file, using the default Lightroom folder name. However, when I open Lightroom, I can’t locate the photos that were in my original catalog. The Originals folder inside the package appears to be empty, and I also don’t see any of my old albums or collections on the left panel.

These were important professional photographs that I no longer have original copies of anywhere else. I’d deeply appreciate your help or any possible way to restore the missing images or reconnect the catalog.

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