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M
Mark Levison
Inspiring
February 9, 2022
Answered

How to Rebuild the Lightroom Catalog?

  • February 9, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 3484 views

I have the permissions problem outlined here: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/permission-issues-with-lightroom/td-p/10195832 - when ever I start lightroom it tells me it doesn't have permission to write to /Users and that sync won't work. I have tried all of the fixes outlined in the above discsussion. I have migrated computers, I have sacrificed a rubber chicked and more. Nothing helps. (FWIW I've had this on both MacOS and Windows 10)

 

To be fair this catalog started with Lightroom 2 and has migrated every version since.

 

How can export all the data and import into a new catalog?

Lost and a bit frustrated in Ottawa

Mark

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Mark Levison

Just checking to see if my last question fell through the cracks. I exported the entire catalog to a new catalog and I don't get the error. I deselected all of: export negatives (Hope this was right as the files are still stored on my external drive) and previews. 

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Assuming this was good, I hooked it up to my existing sync and that seems to be duplicating all my images.

 

Am I correct in assuming that I need to delete my existing synchronized images from the cloud and start again from scratch?

 

- Lost in Lightroom

Mark


Just to close this out. I solved the problem by:

- Exporting the existing catalog to a new one

- Deleting all of my synced images (having downloaded the previews first)

 

It lead a to a scary few days, however everything worked out - I think.

- Mark

3 replies

M
Mark LevisonAuthor
Inspiring
February 13, 2022

Not sure which one to reply to with my mass response:

 

@dj_paige and @GoldingD Thanks for the help thus far. I still get the error in every case, I tried:

- I've disabled every lightroom plugin I ever installed

- I uninstalled lightroom and all of creative cloud and then reinstalled

- I reran the Lightroom permissions shell script at the https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/lightroom-basic-troubleshooting-fix-most-issues.html and I check the results by hand

- I created a new user (tons of fun trying to install lightroom on a new account)

- I booted in safe mode

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I did try creating a new catalog and I imported 5 photos into it. It doesn't get the permissions problem. What I can't test is sync, since I already have my main cataloged synced.

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At this stage I assume the permissions issue can't be fixed. Instead I'm assuming I have to export the catalog contents and import them into a new catalog. I hope there is a sane way of doing this as my catalog contains ~35,000 images spanning 10+ yrs of lightroom use. I need to get keywording and development settings a to new catalog. I'm less bothered if we lose stacked images.

 

How do I rebuild my catalog and restore my faith in application I have been paying for since version 1.

(FWIW I assume you're not employeed by Adobe, I know this isn't your problem to fix).

GoldingD
GoldingD
Legend
February 10, 2022

See:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/lightroom-basic-troubleshooting-fix-most-issues.html

and:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPysUb1TNHk

 

M
Mark LevisonAuthor
Inspiring
February 10, 2022

@GoldingD Thanks for the link, I have undertaken everyone of the steps in the link mentioned, as I mentioned in my first comment.

 

I admit I haven't created a new admin account. The reason why - I had this problem on Windows until I migrated back to MacOS on Mac Silicon in June. Since this problem has dogged me across Operating Systems and the Catalog is the only thing that came with me accross the OS's therefore the problem is related to the catalog.

 

Thanks for listening, I do appreciate the help.

dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
February 9, 2022

Have you tried putting the catalog in a different folder (where you are 100% sure you have write permission)? By the way, the write permission has to be on the exact FOLDER where the catalog is located, and not write permission to a file or to a disk.

M
Mark LevisonAuthor
Inspiring
February 10, 2022

I'm can try. it seems very strange though the current path is:

/Users/marklevison/Lightroom/Lightroom Catalog-2-2-v10-2-v11.lrcat - where marklevison is my MacOS user. 

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I copied it to: /Users/marklevison/Documents/Lightroom - test - del Feb 28/Lightroom Catalog-2-2-v10-2-v11.lrcat inside my documents folder and it still popups the error. 

 

FWIW the error says it doesn't have permission to write to /Users - which is true, it doesn't, no one does.

 

I appreciate the help

Still confused in Ottawa

Mark

dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
February 10, 2022

Try moving it to a location outside of Users that you have write access to.

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