Blank Develop Module on old images (displays in Library) that display correctly when reimported

[pxlphoto]

TLDR: some old (<2021) images in a large catalog spanning from 2007 till today do not display on the develop panel (but do on the library) and don't sync to LR on the Web. At the same time, these and other pictures do not sync to web and the list of unsynced files often mismatches the list of images in the sync pane. All common solutions tried to no avail. Reimporting the files copied from a different folder works but with no edits applied.

Here we go.

I have a large Lightroom Catalog (8GB) With images spanning from 2007 till today. It's he catalog where I import all of the images I've delivered or are going to be delivered and syncronized to LR Web to either

• select or edit on the go
• have the customer check or confirm
• publish a selection of the images to behance and my website

My problem is that Syncronization started working erratically with some stuck pictures (sometimes listed on the preferences' syncronization tab, sometimes not - the number of unsyncronized images does not match the listed images) that somehow never prevented new to-sync pictures to actually go online. Lately this stopped working and I couldn't be able to use the syncronization process anymore.

At first I've tried connecting all of the HDD containing the syncronized pictures and try to "Recompile Sync Data" with no help.
On the process to debug this behaviour I've located some pictures that display correctly on the library module while on the develop module they only display a tiny dot that shows nothing. I can hit "Z" to zoom or use the mouse to display the loupe but nothing shows (not even at 1600x).

I'm talking about files shot in 2020 and comprising RAF (Fujifilm RAW), DNG (for bracketed pictures) and PSD. Neiboughring folders in the same external HD have some pictures behaving this way and some working perfectly. 

I've googled and tryed everything:

• disable GPU and all combinations of the flags, always restarting lightroom: no help
• deleting all of the previews folders (both smart and standard): no help
• resetting the preferences: no help
• checking the files against a backup I have on a different HD in my studio: they are identical
• deleting all type of previews and recreating from the library panel: no help

I've also tried to copy the pictures on the system's internal NVME disk and had the catalog point to them with "update folder path" with no help... but:
reverting the path back to the original folder and trying to import the copy (without ignoring possilbe duplicates) the files open, display and sync with no problem, but with no edits applied.

So, It's clear that it's something about the catalog and how it saved the state of the pictures as reimporting them fixes the problem but completely destroys my work and hours of editing are lost.

Now, I have a customer that has been working with me for several years and we need to work on the whole set of images we've created... but this is not possible.

Any idea?

My most powerful system (I've checked on other systems as well to no avail) is :

Asus Laptop with 

CPU Intel I7 13700HX with Intel UHD Graphics

RAM 32GB DDR5

GPU (discrete) Nvidia RTX 4070 Laptop

1 TB NVME system disk

Windows 11 updated (no insider)

Nvidia Studio Drivers reinstalled and up to date.

To anyone who could help: I have a degree in computer science so, ask me anything that could help me and everybody else with this problem to use Lightroom the way it's intended to work.

[Sameer K]

Hey, @pxlphoto. Welcome to the Lightroom Classic Discussions. Thanks for the comprehensive post and for clarifying all the steps you've tried. 

You're on the right track. You can try these two steps to iron out the underlying catalog structure and sync issues. 

1 - Follow the conversation here, where we've recently fixed sync issues with the Sync Diagnostic logs: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/lightroom-classic-says-always-uploading...

2 - Check this conversation: https://adobe.ly/428OSqy

3 - Catalogs are databases that can become unstable or partially corrupt; I suppose you already know this. If the above steps don't help you resolve the sync issue, you can duplicate the catalog from File > Create New Catalog, and then in the new catalog, go to File > Import from Catalog and point to the older catalog. 

Let me know how it goes. Thanks!
Sameer K
(Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

[pxlphoto]

Hi @Sameer K, thank you for your quick reply.

I did already try with the Sync Diagnostic and it doesn't show anything.

Here's the link to my file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yG6QoQtKAG-Ct56nad1LcBr26X4uJ1IE/view?usp=sharing

As stated, I deleted all of the preview (smart, standard etc...) files and folders several times.

As for the trick of importing my catalog into a new one, I've tried but it fails stating that's "impossible to import that catalog due to an unknown error" right at "Verifying pictures path". To counter-check I did a a check on the integrity of the catalog but no errors apppeared.

I actually have not all of the hard drives attached right now as that catalog's content spans across 20 TB on 5 different hard drives. Do I need to attach all of them to try this last option?

And once I'll have the original catalog imported in the new one, how will this new catalog sync back towards all of the galleries I have on LR Web? Or do I need to reimport back the new on the old?

Thank you again.

Lorenzo

[pxlphoto]

Oh, and I've checked further.

Exporting the folder with problematic files (those that only show a tiny dot on the "develop module") doesn't help. Reimporting a copy of them from a different path works.

Also, I've noticed that the problematic pictures display correctly when hitting "R" to open the crop tool, so I can change settings on the pictures with that overlay. As soon as I exit it, the picture disappears and "everything turns grey" (that's a quote for few).

Of course, I've checked with both GPU disabled and enabled: same result.

Hope this helps further.

My best.

Lorenzo