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Participant
October 22, 2017
Answered

Lightroom catalog completely missing after CC Classic upgrade

  • October 22, 2017
  • 4 replies
  • 7158 views

Hello, I performed the Lightroom CC Classic upgrade, and when it asked to upgrade the catalog, of course I clicked yes. Now the program opens, and there are zero photos in the catalog. I can navigate to only two ircat files now, and they are both brand new files with zero images. My original catalogs are gone! ????

Please help!

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Rob_Cullen

In the Lightroom catalog that does open (even if empty)- can you go {Menu > File > Open Recent}

What do you see?

Have you searched the computer for catalog files that have the file-type of  .LRCAT  ?

If your working catalog (or catalogs) have really totally disappeared then you will have to restore from your most recent Catalog backup.

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/disaster-strikes-corrupted-catalog/#restore

Note; Recent versions of Lightroom make Catalog backups in .ZIP files, so you would need to extract the .LRCAT catalog from the .ZIP file.

4 replies

daphnegonz
Participant
August 3, 2024

I am just a user, not by any means an expert, but I found some help on this page: How to find missing photos in Photoshop Lightroom Classic (adobe.com)

 

Inspiring
May 9, 2024

Worked. Thank 

Participant
January 3, 2021

I have the identical problem! I used file browser for .lrcat and only returned old catalogs. I can't find the place of my backups. 

Rob_Cullen
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 4, 2021

If you do not know where your backups are going, then I suggest you look in the Folder that has the Catalog .LRCAT file. The default location for Catalog backups is in a sub-folder called "Backups"

You should instead be directing your Catalog backups to another physical hard drive by setting this location from the [Choose] button in the Backup dialog!

 

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .
Rob_Cullen
Community Expert
Rob_CullenCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
October 22, 2017

In the Lightroom catalog that does open (even if empty)- can you go {Menu > File > Open Recent}

What do you see?

Have you searched the computer for catalog files that have the file-type of  .LRCAT  ?

If your working catalog (or catalogs) have really totally disappeared then you will have to restore from your most recent Catalog backup.

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/disaster-strikes-corrupted-catalog/#restore

Note; Recent versions of Lightroom make Catalog backups in .ZIP files, so you would need to extract the .LRCAT catalog from the .ZIP file.

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .
Participant
October 23, 2017

I had to restore from an older catalog. Unfortunately, my laziness in backing up resulted in using a backup that's several months old. Lesson learned, thanks for the link/help.