P: Unable to backup catalog in Lightroom 4

[Rmcguirephoto]

I have not been able to backup my catalog in Lightroom 4 since upgrading two days ago. I did not have this problem with 4 beta. It runs through checking integrity, backing up, and optimizing, and then I get a message that it was unsuccessful and to make sure I have enough space and check directory permissions. There is plenty of space, and I have tried to create it to two different drives without success.

I am using the 32-bit version with Windows 7. The size of my catalog is 1.7 GB and includes my previous LR3 and LR4 beta catalogs. Thanks.

[f-shot.de]

Problem still exist im LR4.1 RC.
I have windows 7 64bit machine. 31 GB of free space (SSD)

It is not possible to backup the catalog.

[Benjamin Warde]

Correct. This issue is not fixed in the 4.1 release candidate. We're still working on it.

-Ben

[photoseeker2]

I found that Lightroom 4.0 currently provides no way to Optimize Catalog on my 3 gb catalog. This is disturbing, if in the (likely) future I need to recover from a slow or corrupted catalog.

The File>Optimize Catalog command fails within Lightroom 4 using my 3 gb catalog. It tries to optimize for a few minutes, then unexpectedly displays the Exit choices box. (It should have simply returned back to continue my Lightroom session.) I'm forced to exit. Backup is only possible if I uncheck both boxes for "Test integrity" and "optimize catalog after backup".

Adobe currently has a copy of my 3 gb catalog and is working on the "out of memory" problems that abort "Optimize Catalog" during exit.

Tom

[Benjamin Warde]

This issue should now be fixed in the Lightroom 4.1 public Release Candidate 2, now available for download here:

http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/light...

Thanks,
Ben

[Rmcguirephoto]

Glad to hear that. Thanks very much, Ben.

[photoseeker2]

Indeed, the Optimize Catalog problem now appears fixed in Lightroom 4.1 public Release Candidate 2. Thank you! I'll keep testing the new version.

[wayne2193]

I am still having problems backing up my catalog. I uncheck Optimize catalog and Lightroom just hangs up about 1/2 way through the backup. I let it run all night with no success. I have windows 7 with 15 gig of ram and 350 gig of space open on my iterebyte hard drive. I am unable to shut down my computer and have to power it off and then back on to get it running again. Release candidate 2 did not fix this problem.

[Benjamin Warde]

Hi Wayne,

Doesn't sound like the same problem that Richard and Thomas were having, which was due to an out of memory condition on 32 bit Windows systems. I'm assuming that your 15 GB Win7 system is 64 bit. I'd be happy to take a look at your catalog if you'd like to send it to me. I only need the catalog, not the photos. You can zip it up, which will make it a lot smaller, and upload it to yousendit.com, or dropbox.com, or a similar service, and paste a link here.

Thanks,
Ben

[wayne2193]

I uploaded the lightroom file to dropbox bit I don't have an email address to allow sharing.

Wayne

[Benjamin Warde]

Hi Wayne,

I've emailed you privately.

Thanks,
Ben

[Benjamin Warde]

This issue has been fixed in Lightroom 4.1, which is now available. To download the 4.1 update, go to the Help menu in Lightroom and choose "Check for Updates".

Thanks,
Ben

[togeis]

Sorry, but i am using LR 4.1 on OSX Lion 10.7.4 with MBP and my catalog backup on an SMB-Share does not work. "Check Integrety" and "Catalog Optimizeatio" is checked.
The backup folder is created and a temporary file seems to be created to, but after a while there is a dialog with the following text:

"Lightroom konnte den Katalog “Lightroom 4 Catalog” nicht sichern.
Überprüfen Sie Ihre Ordnerberechtigungen und stellen Sie sicher, dass Sie ausreichend Speicherplatz auf Ihrem Datensicherungslaufwerk und im Laufwerk des Hauptkatalogs haben."

But as you can see below the Files have been created during backup process.

Tobiass-MacBook-Pro:2012-06-01 0006 togeis$ ls -l
total 491644
-rwx------ 1 togeis staff 251453440 1 Jun 00:07 Lightroom 4 Catalog.lrcat
-rwx------ 1 togeis staff 267920 1 Jun 00:07 Lightroom 4 Catalog.lrcat-journal
Tobiass-MacBook-Pro:2012-06-01 0006 togeis$ ls -l
Tobiass-MacBook-Pro:2012-06-01 0006 togeis$ ls -la
total 540008
drwx------ 1 togeis staff 16384 1 Jun 00:07 .
drwx------ 1 togeis staff 16384 1 Jun 00:06 ..
-rwx------ 1 togeis staff 276451328 1 Jun 00:07 .smbdeleteAAA592b4.4
Tobiass-MacBook-Pro:2012-06-01 0006 togeis$ pwd
/Volumes/share/Bilder/Katalog_Backup/2012-06-01 0006
Tobiass-MacBook-Pro:2012-06-01 0006 togeis$

After the broken process there is a .smbdelete file, which disapears whenn LR4.1 is closed.

[Benjamin Warde]

Hi Tobias,

The problem that the original poster was having was a problem unique to 32 bit Windows machines, and that is the problem that has been fixed. That is obviously not the problem that you are experiencing.

I assume that, per the error message, you have verified disk permissions and available space? The fact that you're backing up to a network share introduces a vast number of variables, which make it difficult to diagnose the problem. Does the backup succeed if you backup to a local disk instead?

-Ben

[Rmcguirephoto]

Yes, I can confirm that the original issue has been resolved in LR 4.1 for Windows, 32-bit on my computer, which is the OS this threat was about.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I'm not sure if this thread is closed but I have the same problem still on Lightroom 4.1. I'm on OSX 64 bit, with 8 GB of RAM and plenty of HD space on the external drive where the catalog and image files are stored.

Unchecking the optimize and check integrity allows the file to be backed up. The issue seems to be in the optimize and/or check integrity process.

[Benjamin Warde]

Hi Matt,

The issue that these other users were having (and the issue that was fixed) was an out-of-memory error that occurred only on 32bit Windows machines. That is obviously not the problem that you're having. If you'd like, I'd be happy to take a look at your catalog. You can compress it and upload it to Dropbox or YouSendIt, or a similar service, and post the download link here. I would only need the catalog file itself (no photos or preview files).

Thanks,
Ben

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Hi Ben,

Here is the link to the Dropbox folder. I'm not sure if the permissions are setup correctly but let me know if they are not.

My catalog is quite large and was converted from Lightroom 3. I've never had this problem before installing Lightroom 4. I started using Lightroom as of version 2. I had the issue on both OSX Lion and OSX Mountain Lion. I was on version 3 of Lightroom on Snow Leopard and version 4 on both Lion and Mountain Lion.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/s9pkv2qp99...

Thanks for looking into it. I'm sure there are others that must have this issue. Hopefully the search engines will continue picking up this thread for others to contribute.

[Benjamin Warde]

Hi Matt,

I have downloaded your catalog. It backs up just fine for me, with no errors, and with both "optimize" and "check integrity" selected. A few questions.

1. What version of OSX are you using?
2. What is the failure mode? Does it give you an error? Just freeze and never complete? Something else?
3. Does it succeed if you uncheck just "optimize", and leave "integrity check" selected?
4. Does it succeed if you uncheck just "integrity check" and leave "optimize" selected?
5. Does it back up successfully if it's located on your startup disk instead of on an external hard drive?

-Ben

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Ben,

I found a larger issue with the portable USB 2.0 WD hard drive my catalog was stored on. The filesystem is very corrupted (can't even be repaired in disk utility). I'm assuming this could be the culprit. I'm going to back-up the files and re-format the drive and see if that fixes things.

As a tip, when I moved the catalog file to another folder (on the same portable hard drive), or another drive everything seemed to work ok. This leads me to believe the folder permissions and structure are corrupted in part of the drive.

[Benjamin Warde]

Hi Matt,

Yeah, sounds like that's probably the issue. Let me know your results.

Thanks,
Ben

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

The corrupt drive permissions / file structure appears to have been the issue. I can now backup with both optimize and integrity check just fine on that drive.

Maybe we can get the engineer to add that as one of the possible things to check in the error message that appears to the user when the catalog is corrupt or can't be read properly.

Thanks for your help,
Matt

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I have a variation of this problem. After the backup starts and checks integrity and starts the backup, a second dialog box pops up that says do you want to back up. The first dialog box is open with the progress bar about halfway complete, but can't be made active. If I start another backup, it runs part way and says can't complete as the same as the others report. I am running Mac os 10.6.8 and the latest release of lightroom 4. I had this problem and then it went away and now it is back. the catalog file is 1.6 GB

Thanks for any help,

David

[ralarock]

I have a windows 7 ultimate machine, 64 bit, 12GB ram, Lightroom 4.1 64 bit, attempting to backup with both fields checked, Lightroom crashes every time. The catalog has about 100k images in it. The catalog is on an internal SSD drive that is different than the operating system/applications installation drive. Backups are supposed to land on the same drive as the catalog drive. Images files are on a different normal hard drive that is dedicated to storing the images only. Most images are .NEF. Lightroom is configured to create sidecar files for images. System worked very well with Lightroom 3.x and the same configuration described above. Never crashed once. Since upgrading to Lightroom 4.x, Lightroom crashes quite often. Mostly when doing backups. But also when accessing the catalog for other reasons or switching from one catalog to another.

The problem signature for the most recent crash during a backup contains:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: lightroom.exe
Application Version: 4.1.0.11
Application Timestamp: 4fb2266f
Fault Module Name: StoreProvider.dll
Fault Module Version: 4.1.0.10
Fault Module Timestamp: 4fb2264e
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00000000000051c8
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 1f35
Additional Information 2: 1f35f6edcd0b92e529174a8ae13517df
Additional Information 3: 761c
Additional Information 4: 761c0050d8ed31b9e57c8300ffce0ddc

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[Benjamin Warde]

This comment was posted on a resolved thread, so I have split it off into its own thread. Please reference the new topic here: Lightroom crashes when attempting catalog backup.

[rlv52]

My LR 4.1 catalog backup fails repeatedly with Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 no matter whether I backup locally or on an external hard drive. It has never been a problem prior to this.