After import, images not showing in Previous Import and smart previews not being built.

[haydonperrior]

I'm working with Lightroom Classic V13.1 on a Mac and for a few months now whenever I import photos, they don’t show until I completely close the app and restart it which is very annoying. I never used to have this issue and not sure what's changed. They don't show on Previous Import until after reset and Smart Previews aren't built despite me ticking the box. The folder I have imported the photos from shows up in the Folders list however is greyed out and says 0 but when I click on it the photos are there and acting normal, it's not until I reboot app that the folder shows the image count and isn't greyed out.

I have uninstalled LrC and reinstalled in the hope it would fix this issue but nothing has changed. I also deleted all my previews and rebuilt them for my entire catalog, again, this didn't fix the issue. VERY keen to get this resloved as it means im constantly having to reboot the app which wastes a lot of time. 

[Per Berntsen]

Try resetting the preferences.

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/setting-preferences-lightroom.html

[DdeGannes]

What version number of macOS do you have installed on your computer?

[haydonperrior]

I already reset Preferences when i uninstalled and reinstalled the LrC app. I didn't select restore preferences and it's made no difference.

[haydonperrior]

It's a 2021 M1 running Sonoma 14.3... and this issue has lasted a few months now also using previous Sonoma versions.

[JohanElzenga]

It could be your catalog. Try this: create a brand new catalog, import some photos and see what happens. If Lightroom behaves as it should with this catalog, then most likely your main catalog is corrupted. In that case what often solves this is creating a new catalog, then using 'File - Import from Another Catalog' and import your old catalog. Select the option to import new photos without moving them. This will create a copy of your old catalog, hopefully without the corruption problems.

[haydonperrior]

Bingo! Have tested importing photos into a new catalog and the issue is resolved... however, ive tried to import the old catalog into this new one and getting the error message: 

Lightroom could not import this catalog because of an unknown error.

...any ideas? I have months worth of organising into collections etc in that catalog so loosing it isnt really an option

[JohanElzenga · Accepted solution]

That means the corruption in your catalog is already too severe for the import process to work. As you can still open it, the opposite may work. Open your main catalog and then use 'File - Export as catalog'. In the dialog select to export all images, but do not select to include the 'negatives' and also do not build previews or smart previews. Just export a catalog file. Open the exported catalog and do the same test. If it works, then you can use this catalog file to replace your old catalog file.

[haydonperrior]

This seems to have worked you hero!!

Am i right in thinking all i need to do is rebuild all the smart previews to make the new catalog the same as it was before? ...also, what have a lost by not copying over the 'negatives'? is this the failed files?

[JohanElzenga]

This seems to have worked you hero!!

Am i right in thinking all i need to do is rebuild all the smart previews to make the new catalog the same as it was before? ...also, what have a lost by not copying over the 'negatives'? is this the failed files?

By @haydonperrior

Correct. You could even try to use the previews and smart previews of the old catalog. Just rename them so they match the new catalog name (or rename that catalog and give it the old catalog name) and place everything in one and the same folder. You have lost nothing by not exporting the negatives. What exporting the negatives does is place a copy of all your original images inside the exported catalog folder. That can be useful in certain situations, but in this case that would only create unneeded duplicates.

[haydonperrior]

Amazing, thanks so much Johan!!

[XrayTom]

Thanks Johan for solving the problem and Haydon for raising it.

I had the exact same problem which is now resolved.