Corrupted catalog

I'have found the solution: Corrupt Catalog Issues

- Download SQLite, put it in a folder, make a COPY of your lrcat file and put it in the folder.

- run sqlite3 "INSERT_CATALOG_NAME_HERE.lrcat" .dump > Temp.sql

- run sqlite3 -init Temp.sql NEW_CATALOG_NAME.lrcat

- This is where the existing online tutorials break down, if there are errors, it will not dump out the new database file!  You can't just tell sqlite to dump a corrupt catalog to corrupt sql and back to a corrupt catalog...you're not fixing anything.

- Note the errors that the last command generates.  It will give you line numbers for the errors.  For me, I was getting "UNIQUE constraint failed" errors and "no such table" errors for the table sqlite_stat4 on a couple hundred lines or so.

- Open the Temp.sql file in an editor.  Notepad will work but it's way easier to deal with line numbers in something like Notepad++.

- Remove the exact lines which are generating errors and only those lines.  As you are working in the file, you may need to be patient with your editor if the file is large.  Jumping around, deleting lines, saving, may all take some time to complete...just wait for notepad++ to do its thing and unfreeze as you're working.

- If you try to use the file at this point, it won't work!  it will generate a 0 byte catalog (At first I had this problem).  The reason for this is that SQLite writes "ROLLBACK;" as the last line in the file due to the errors it encountered during the dump process.  See here: sqlite - Sqlite3 recreates empty database from dump file - Stack Overflow .  What you need to do is change that last line to say "COMMIT;" to commit the changes instead of rolling back.

- Now save the file...let's use TempBadLinesRemoved.sql and exit notepad++ or your preferred editor.

- run sqlite3 -init TempBadLinesRemoved.sql NEW_CATALOG_NAME.lrcat

- for me, the command completed and left me at the sqlite> prompt.  Just type .quit to exit sqlite

- Open the catalog in lightroom and it should work.

I am so happy! thank you very much! :-)

Do you have backups for your catalog?  If you don't know, search all your drives using the term "backup"

The backup folders that Lightroom creates look like this:

If you find those, pick the most recent one and open the folder. The file inside will be a .lrcat.zip file you will have to unzip. The unzipped file will end with .lrcat. Open that unzipped file in LR.

The only advice I have seen is to open a new catalog and then try importing the corrupted catalog into it. I am quite skeptical that this ever works, but who knows. After that, I think you're out of luck.

Make regular and automated backups of your catalog file and photos from this point forward. No excuses.