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tarynf49094022
Participant
May 25, 2026
Question

Corrupt lightroom classic catalog

  • May 25, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 13 views

My lightroom classic crashed. I restarted my computer and when it opened back up it said my catlog was corrupt and I can not get it to open. So I followed online advice to move it out of the folder and then create a new one, but now all of my existing work is gone. 

    2 replies

    JohanElzenga
    Community Expert
    JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 25, 2026

    ​@Rikk Flohr_Photography Please move this thread to the correct forum.

    -- Johan W. Elzenga
    Rob_Cullen
    Community Expert
    Rob_CullenCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 25, 2026

    Any new catalog you create will be empty!.  (Not the way to restore)

    You need to locate a previous backup ZIP file of the catalog, extract the catalog file (.LRCAT) from the ZIP, and copy it to the folder location where your catalog normally resides. As described in this link-   Catalog Backup Restore

    You will not have data you have entered since that backup catalog was last saved, so will require some work to import and get the catalog up-to-date.

    Frequent catalog backups are essential for this ‘corrupt’ scenario.

     

    Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.3, Photoshop 27.5, ACR 18.3, Lightroom 9.3, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.3 .
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