Corrupt Lightroom Catalog

[jessbei]

I was recently working on a Lightroom 4 catalog that was saved on a G-Drive when the hard drive failed. I was able to recover the catalog using data recovery software, but now when I try to open it, Lightroom says it's unable to open due to an unexpected error. I've tried renaming the catalog, importing from a new catalogue, and opening various ways, but nothing works. The catalog seems corrupt. Help! Is there any way to recover the catalog?

[JP Hess]

Well really, what do you expect? Your catalog crashed. You have no backups. You have a job on the line. And you want someone to solve your problem. I made the suggestion that you start a new catalog, import the images again and go to work. Do you have a better idea? A better idea would have been that you were making backups at least on a weekly basis. But, no, apparently you didn't do that. Why not? Did you think you were immune from problems for some reason? I don't mean to have a bad "tone". The only reason I brought up the idea of it being an old thread is that maybe you would have gotten more participation by starting a new thread. A lot of readers won't get involved with threads that have over 100 comments in them. I didn't mean to offend you. I really was trying to help, but apparently you don't like my ideas. Trying to fix a corrupted database is not easy. That's why Adobe provided a method for backing up the catalog. It's the only file Lightroom opens, and it's critical to the operation of Lightroom. I have to ask you what you were thinking by not backing up the catalog, especially when you are doing work for others.

[pamellaw50759409]

Again, not helpful.   And now you are at the point of rude.  I have not been a member of a forum before and do not know the process or protocol.  Directing to the correct process or to someone who has some constructive information about fixing a corrupt catalog would however be helpful.   Please do not respond again, your answer only inflames the situation and has not moved me toward a solution.  It has however frustrated me.   And obviously, you are looking at an "old thread" as well.   Please do not reply to me again.

[JP Hess]

I know I am the last person you want to hear from at this point. But after I replied last night I got to thinking about something you wrote in one of your previous comments. You said that you hadn't been doing the Lightroom backups. But I got to wondering if you have other software that is backing up your computer system. If that is the case, is it possible that one of those backups would have a backup of your catalog that isn't corrupted that could be restored? If not, have you considered starting a new empty catalog and importing the images again?  It will probably involve a lot of work and delaying delivery of the finished project. But at least you can move ahead. What is your thinking on that as a possible solution? Really, I'm not trying to be obnoxious.

[pamellaw50759409]

The catalog has been recovered , is working and is backed up.   Some feedback for you, you're a jerk and hopefully your representation isn't a reflection on Adobe as a whole.   If you wish to not be obnoxious, there's only room for helpful, move forward information.  Your place is not to parent or scold anyone in a crisis.  Your responses were unprofessional and unhelpful.   Hopefully you will learn how to respond to others without the cocky, know-it- all attitude that diminishes your credibility.   The sad thing is you are probably very intelligent and have the ability to help people.  

[JP Hess]

I have been assisting users on this forum now for a number of years. Most people respond to me rather civilly. Your first response to me was something like, "And how is this supposed to help?" A bit cold and flippant, don't you think? Responses like that kind of set me off, just as my response set you off. And that is sort of like setting a match to gasoline. I honestly thought I was trying to help. I don't have all the answers. I don't know how to fix databases. I really wasn't trying to be a jerk. If that is your opinion, that's fine. But after I got you fired up it kind of got me stirred up as well. I'm glad you have your catalog repaired. I'm really sorry we got off on the wrong foot. I know there isn't anything I can say to change your opinion of me. I guess we will both just have to accept that we can't please everyone.

[pamellaw50759409]

ummmm, I was never "set off" or "fired up."   I didn't come here to be pleased.   I came looking for a similar situation - and there were many - and hoping to find what worked for them.   Look at who and how people responded to those who posted here.  (even older posts.)     Not one of them said the things you did or was in any way sarcastic.      Justifying your response and behavior and being defensive is really only making it worse.  Making me responsible for your posts also, isn't helpful.     Again feedback... this is a forum where people come to share experiences and look for help.  Scolding and being condescending will never be received well.   Perhaps looking at those who responded to those seeking help, in a helpful, professional fashion vs. your response will help you.   If you don't have the information someone is seeking, perhaps no response at all will be the best for all concerned.  Or, if you must respond, perhaps a little empathy would work better for you.      Now, can this be done?   No more. Please.

[whitesellj]

We just moved a huge LR catalog from a PC to a new macbook pro a week ago. Upon closing LR, the backup option came up and we said yes (as we always do). However, the backup failed, and now LR reports the catalog is corrupted. The repair function fails, too. While there is a backup on the PC, it's now over a week old and missing all the work done on about 4000 newly imported images.

Paul, are you willing to take a look at the catalog in hopes of getting the work back?

Thanks so much!

Regards,

Jim

[AH Creative]

Hi, have just spent many hours editing a catalog on LR CC... Then before I finished editing LR announced it was having to close because of an error in the cache.  On closing and re-opening it reports as corrupt now, and repair doesn't do the job.

I do have a backup routine that works well... but I never got as far as backing up today... And I have done quite a large number of edits I do not want to lose if possible.

Can someone have a look at the corruption and let me know if there are any options.

Thanks, Andy

[roconico]

Hi Paul,

After copying my lightroom catalog (directory) to my second disk drive my lrcat is corrupted. lightroom was not running at that time. Backup files are also corrupted:( My catalog was only 3,65 Gb so that is a lot of work missing. Can you help me out?

Kind regards, Nico

[mickh58017295]

There may be a chance of data corruption because most of the third party tools are not reliable and safe. So to recover data from corrupted hard drive, you need an advanced program which recovers each bit of information very easily. RAW Partition Recovery tool helps you recover each bit of data from damaged or corrupted hard drive very easily.  To know more about this tool check this link: http://www.rawpartitionrecovery.com/damaged.html

[Scufforama]

Hi...experiencing same problem.

"The catalog is not recognized as a valid catalog" This comes after my external hard drive couldn't be accessed but was then later fixed by running a file check.

Please advise if I can regain access to my catalog.

Thanks

Dalton

[rluskyphoto]

Hi all, I am having the same problem as everyone on this forum thread. I had just finished working on a catalog I've been working on for 3 weeks. I thought I had a backup, but it was old, and I've changed so much since then that it can't even recoganize the files. I can't seem to repair the current catalog. What happened is during the final export, my external harddrive fell out and ejected And my time machine doesn't backup my scratch drive because it's too large... blah!

Can Adobe or the famous Paul help me with this?? Thank you for anything. This work will take me forever to fix.

[rluskyphoto]

To anyone who may see this, I found a cool solution online, and it worked for me! I googled a lot - until I found this weird trick: http://www.capedigital.com/journal/how-i-repaired-my-corrupt-lightroom-catalog -- It took me like 20 tries to get it because I don't really do Unix code, but in the end I succeeded and last night all the files exported from the fixed catalog. It. was. crazy.

[paul_kleczka]

pamellaw50759409​ I can take a look to see if I can help repair your catalog. I have private messaged you instructions on how you can get me the catalog.

Thanks!

-paul

Paul Kleczka

[pamellaw50759409]

Thank you so much.... uploading it now to dropbox.  I TRULY appreciate your willingness to look at it.

Sincerely,

PamElla Lee

[pamellaw50759409]

and not telling me how dumb I am

[pamellaw50759409]

And for some reason I tried to reply to your message, but it's just sitting there, won't upload my reply.   So I did reach out by email and dropbox and have replied here.  Again, THANK YOU!

[elay]

Dear Paul,

i turned on my PC today in order to back up my pictures and Catalog, but i couldn't believe that in the process of doing so, the file got corrupted, and was not even letting me to Copy it anywhere knowng that everything inside lightoom seemed normal until it crashed, Totally,

your help is very very very much appreciated as i need this catalogue badly since i was not familiar with lightroom back up before today and i have a very big event for my previous photography very soon,

PLease advise what to do in my case,

your very is really appreciated,

@paul_kleczka

best regards,

Elie

[mokkamarcus]

Dear Paul,

I'm afraid I have the same problem, system crashed and now I have a corrupt catalog (or catalog that is not valid) with 2 finished jobs that I cannot access to export. Is there anything that can be done? Ive tried different methods including looking for lock files etc but to no avail!

Any help you could give would be hugely appreciated

Kind regards

Marcus