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Lightroom catalog is corrupt and cannot be used or backed up

New Here ,
Apr 12, 2020 Apr 12, 2020

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Hi,

My I tried opening my Lightroom Classic 9.2 catalog yesterday. I am using a Mac OS Catalina 10.4

I got this  (familiar it seems) message. 

The "Lightroom catalog xxx" is corrupt and cannot be used or backed up until it is repaired." There were options to - Show in Finder , Quit or Repair Catalog.

- I selected - Repair Catalog.

Those reading this who also have this problem, note that I did this before going to the forums, and so I just followed the Lightroom instructions. The forums repeatedly warn us to NOT do this. FIRST back up the catalog, before you attempt the repair in Lightroom.

- After attempting the repair Lightroom replied -

Unfortunately, the catalog named "Lightroom catalog xxx" cannot be repaired. Please use a recent backup copy of this catalog or contact Adobe Support to troubleshoot and resolve this.

So I went to a recent backup copy, and exactly the same happened (I didn´t make a backup of the backup first).

- I then went to the forum, discovered that this wasn´t a first time event, and that I should have made a back of any catalog before trying to fix it, so I made a BACKUP of my third backup.

Adobe support center was currently experiencing long wait times, and suggested that I skip the queues and reach us in the Community. So I came back here, and discovered this solution using SqLite was suggested several times (Windows users - http://www.simplyness.com/more-photography-tips/recover-corrupted-unrepairable-lightroom-3-catalog-w... ). The Simplyness article was for Windows and included this link on how to use SqLite for Mac users to Gerhard´s page https://gerhardstrasse.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/recover-from-a-corrupt-adobe-lightroom-catalog-file/. - The explanations here are for people very familiar with using the Terminal and Shell commands, informing them to extract the data from the corrupt file. It does not explain some essentials (He is doing us all a favour, so "thank you for helping" Gerhart, but I hope my plea for help also brings results for less expert users). For instance the Terminal or Sql cannot have spaces in the file names, so before you do this, you need to edit out any spaces in your Lightroom Catalog file´s name   - Gerhart´s instructions had this example -
echo .dump | ./sqlite3 ~/lightroom_catalog.lrcat > ~/lightroom_catalog.sql

I do not understand the echo .dump | , and ignored it

I assumed that ./sqlite3 was to tell me to write the address so that Terminal can find the sqlite3 file, which I did and so my instructions looked like this, where my copied Lightroom folders are now in Pictures (the original folders are on an external disk)  -

me@MacbookPro~ % /sqlite3 Pictures/LightroomFolder/LightroomCatalogxxx.lrcat> Pictures/LightroomFolder/SQL/LightroomCatalogxxx.sql

(I had added a subfolder /SQL/ to keep all the processed files there)

It took me quite a while to figure out exactly what I have to type, and I am not sure if I did it correctly, because the Terminal does not return to a cursor for further instructions at the end, as it normally would.

(Remember that I don´t think the first process finished or worked properly, but it did result in a file at Pictures/LightroomFolder/SQL/ called LightroomCatalogxxx.sql )

- I tried to follow Gerhard´s instructions after this -

After exporting all the data, create a new database and use “.lrcat” as the file name’s extension

./sqlite3 -init ~/lightroom_catalog.sql ~/lightroom_catalog_restore.lrcat

So I wrote (in a new Terminal, since I could not write in the one I had done the previous request) -

me@MacbookPro~ % /sqlite3 -init Pictures/LightroomFolder/SQL/LightroomCatalogxxx.sql Pictures/LightroomFolder/SQL/LightroomCatalogRestore.lrcat

and I got this reply-

 

-- Loading resources from Pictures/LightroomFolder/SQL/LightroomCatalogxxx.sql
Error: near line 1: near "SQLite": syntax error
SQLite version 3.31.1 2020-01-27 19:55:54
Enter ".help" for usage hints.
sqlite>

Can anyone reading this help me fix this, or give suggestions on how I can restore and save my Lightroom catalog?

 

 

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

New Here , Apr 14, 2020 Apr 14, 2020

I think I fixed this myself.
I created a new empty catalog. I then imported all the folders from the calalog that was corrupted (>File>Import from another calaog). Almost everything seems to have imported correctly - including all the images, and all the metadata and keywords. So far the only thing I have noticed that hasn´t imported were the color tags labels on the folders.

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New Here ,
Apr 14, 2020 Apr 14, 2020

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I think I fixed this myself.
I created a new empty catalog. I then imported all the folders from the calalog that was corrupted (>File>Import from another calaog). Almost everything seems to have imported correctly - including all the images, and all the metadata and keywords. So far the only thing I have noticed that hasn´t imported were the color tags labels on the folders.

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LEGEND ,
Aug 31, 2021 Aug 31, 2021

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@kengele22714 wrote:

Almost everything seems to have imported correctly - including all the images, and all the metadata and keywords. So far the only thing I have noticed that hasn´t imported were the color tags labels on the folders.


There is still a lot of data inside the old catalog you didn't get hence, next time BACK UP the catalog. 

No VCs, Proof Copies, Smart Collections etc. 

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

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New Here ,
Aug 31, 2021 Aug 31, 2021

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I found it easier to just make a copy of the "corrupted" catalog and open the copy version up.

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