I had an external hard drive go belly up; this was the drive I had all my photos stored on. Long story, I won't share all that here but I asked in a webinar yesterday about getting the thumbnails out of my catalog and was presented with a link that took me to a page where I could download the "ExtractPreviews.lua" script. I installed this script in LR (following the directions on the page, pretty simple process there) I've run the script several times, each time I get to designate the folder I want the previews to be extracted to. It doesn't seem to be working as I only see 2 previews in the folder I designated (there should be 249).
As the script runs, I get the message it's "writing best available preview". Why am I only getting 2 of the pics (previews)? I'm assuming I'll have to re-import the pictures? Any further suggestions?
"I'm assuming I'll have to re-import the pictures?"
Does that mean you still have a backup of them? If so, then you do not need to extract previews at all. All you need to do is 'reconnect' the Lightroom catalog to these images (no, not reimport them!!), which is easy to do and something we can help you with.
No, I don't still have the pictures, sure wish I did. That would make it sooooo easy. No, I see the thumbnails when I'm in Lightroom Classic but they all have the "missing photo" exclamation point. I was told about the script to extract the previews; that same person told me I would (after extraction) be able to re-import those "photos". Maybe I was told wrong on that. Appreciate your input and everyone's who has responded. I think I am out of luck, but just not ready to totally give up yet
What that person meant was that you could import the extracted preview, so you would get a JPEG copy of the missing photo. That is better than nothing at all. However, if there is no preview then there is nothing to extract. Lightroom discards 'out-of-date' previews nowadays, which explains why you may not have previews for each photo.
I think I was that person... (if you were at the Lr Ask us Anything at the Kelby event).
Yes, the previews have to exist for the process to work. If the previews are absent, as the originals are, then recovery is limited to backups.
One way to tell is to view the missing 'area' in Grid and see if Lightroom has any previews to show. If it shows gray thumbnails, then no preview exists.
Yes Rikk, you were the one. Thanks for the script, it gives me some hope. In Library grid view, I see 249 thumbnails, but only get 2 when I use that script. That has me scratching my head. Any more ideas?
So in LR go to the folder which "should have 249", switch to grid view and how many photos have thumbnails? Is it 2? Then that is how many previews you would be able to get with that script.
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