Can't open Lightroom Classic

[Lionel1536]

I am new to LRC. Whenever I try to open the app I receive this message: "Lightroom encountered an error when reading from its preview cache and neeeds to quit."

[moved from bugs to discussions according to the community rules - Mod.]

[Per Berntsen]

The message means that the preview cache, which contains the Library previews, is corrupted, and needs to be deleted.

The previews will rebuild as you browse folders in the Library.

With the File Explorer, navigate to the folder that contains the Lightroom catalog.

The default location is inside the Pictures folder.

Delete the file whose name ends with Previews.lrdata. Do not delete anything else.

Now launch Lightroom.

[Lionel1536]

Thank you per for your reply. I have tried to follow your advice but when I go to the Pictures folder I can't find the Previews.LRDATA file. I have attached a screenshot of what I see. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Lionel

[Per Berntsen]

I don't know why Previews.lrdata is missing, that's highly irregular. It should always be present in the same folder as the catalog.

Try searching the entire C: drive for Previews.lrdata, maybe you have another catalog in a different location.

It's probably unrelated, but delete the lock file marked in red below.

You also have four versions of the v13 catalog, try double-clicking each of them, and see what happens.

In the future, please do not attach screenshots. Use the Insert photos button in the toolbar to embed them in your post.

[Lionel1536]

Thanks for the tip about how to attach images correctly, Per. I uninstalled LRC, deleted all the files in the list I showed you and then reinstalled LRC. The image above is what I saw then. My C drive is not networked, it is not removable storage and is not a read-only volume. Any clues?

I am in Australia and I am about to retire for the night. I will check in again tomorow in case you have any further advice. Thank you again.

Lionel

[Lionel1536]

I meant to add that before I did the above I used the 'Everything' app to search for the 'Previews.LRDATA' but found nothing in the whole of the C Drive or D drive.

[Lionel1536 · Accepted solution]

UPDATE FROM LIONEL1536:

I logged in as administrator and moved the Lightroom Catalog from my C drive to my D drive. I also changed some of the access permissions. I was then able to open LRC and import the photos I want to work on. Then I logged in as myself and was able to open LRC. I have no idea why LRC couldn't make changes to my C drive. However, I worked around that by moving the catalog file to the D drive. Now I just have to learn how to use the software.

Thanks again for your suggestions.

Lionel