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Sunny_visionary0730
Known Participant
April 3, 2025
Question

Lightroom Catalog Completely Broken After Moving to New Drive – No Folder Tree, No “Missing” ? Mark

  • April 3, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 533 views

 

 

Hi everyone,
I really need help here. I recently moved all my files from my external 5TB drive (E:) to a new 8TB internal SSD (C:) that I just installed to replace the original 1TB drive in my laptop.

At first, when I opened Adobe Lightroom, things seemed fine. Some folders showed the "?" icon, but I was able to repoint them to the new location on the C: drive, and they appeared to work normally.

But then I made a huge mistake: I moved the folders that contained all of my Lightroom catalog files (including the .lrcat files) to the C: drive as well. After that, everything disappeared. When I open any of my catalog files now:

  • There’s no folder tree on the left panel.

  • No thumbnails or previews.

  • No “?” icons, so I can’t even repoint missing files.

  • It’s like the catalog is completely empty, even though the .lrcat files still have size and aren’t corrupted (as far as I can tell).

I even tried copying the catalog folders back to the E: drive where they originally were, but the same issue persists.

I’ve scoured the internet and haven’t found anyone with this exact problem. I’m considering reinstalling Lightroom (13.3.1), but I doubt that would solve it.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. This is years of work and organization at stake.

Thank you so much.

2 replies

dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
April 3, 2025

But then I made a huge mistake: I moved the folders that contained all of my Lightroom catalog files (including the .lrcat files) to the C: drive as well. After that, everything disappeared. When I open any of my catalog files now:

  • There’s no folder tree on the left panel.

  • No thumbnails or previews.

  • No “?” icons, so I can’t even repoint missing files.

  • It’s like the catalog is completely empty, even though the .lrcat files still have size and aren’t corrupted (as far as I can tell).

 

Moving the folders that catalogs are stored in should not cause this to happen. 

 

How do you open catalogs after this move? Please be specific and detailed.

 

Show us a screen capture of the entire Library module screen that displays this problem. Please use the "Insert Photos" icon; do NOT attach files.

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Sunny_visionary0730Author
Known Participant
April 3, 2025

I either open lightroom or goto the lightroom 6 folder and open the lrcat folder from there.
After I moved the folders, I think I just opened lightroom application from start without opening any specific .lrcat file and it worked until until I moved all the catalogue folders from e: to c:.

S
Sunny_visionary0730Author
Known Participant
April 3, 2025

This is what I'm thinking. As of now, the disk drill is not finding any large .lrcat files that is from the Lightroom 6 folder... I can wait until it finishes in 5 hours, its only at 2 percent scanning.

Then I will scan C: and E: (long story short, F is the 1TB originally in the laptop, C is the 8TB SSD) I cloned the original 1TB from F to C and filled the rest of F from E. The final state would be everything onto C but this Lightroom 6 catalogue failed during the time. I was able to open as of 7PM yesterday before I moved the catalogue. I moved the photos earlier in the day and everything was fine with catalogue Lightroom 6.

Sameer K
Community Manager
Sameer KCommunity Manager
Community Manager
April 3, 2025

Hey, @Sunny_visionary0730. Welcome to the Lightroom Classic Community. I'll help you figure this out, and it might be simpler than you'd expect. 

 

The screenshot shows a catalog that is just empty and in reality, Lightroom may have lost track of the specific catalog you were working on.

 

First, move the catalog to where you want it to be and then to the C drive. Once you've moved the catalog, double-click on the .lrcat file directly to launch Lightroom instead of any other icon or launcher on your computer.

 

You can list all the catalogs on your computer using Windows search. Type in .lrcat and arrange the results by modified date to find the recent catalog you worked on and differentiate between your primary catalog. 

 

Let me know if this helps.

Sameer K

(Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

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Sunny_visionary0730Author
Known Participant
April 3, 2025

Thank you Sameer.
I have an update: I actually was open the other .lrcat files from years ago now. 
However, the most recent one cannot be opened. I think it might be lost??
If you look at these .lrcat files, I think they were all generated this morning but they are just copies/updated catalogues of an empty one right? (the empty one is one that's only 1.6mb big and I should expect the real .lrcat files to be much larger)
The real one is much larger right?

The backfolder opened.. I am suspecting that there the real one got deleted. Now performing windows search.

 



 



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