Lightroom Catalog upgrade issue

[defaultbujjts11r879]

Earlier this year I removed Adobe cc from my PC but kept my Lightroom Catalogues. This week I decided to go back to Adobe and installed the new version of Lightroom. I opened my old Catalogue in the new version and all my edits, ratings, colour label etc are missing. Lightroom did not ask if I wanted to update the catalogue but did something, in the process losing edits and ratings, colour labels etc along the way. Bizarrely, it kept all settings in the smart collections though. Also, any file that was edited as psd still has rating and colour label. I tried to import a backup copy of the original catalogue but still same result. So, I am busy trying to restore 15 years of work. Any ideas would be grateful otherwise negates one of the main reason for going back to Lightroom.

[F. McLion]

First, have you used Lightroom Classic 11.0.1, which is important?

Second, Lightroom always makes a copy of an old catalog and upgrades the copy. That said, your old catalog is still there and untouched.

[defaultbujjts11r879]

Yes I have upgraded to 11.0.1 and I have plenty of fresh backups

[F. McLion]

Just to clarify, it's important that you upgraded LrC to 11.0.1 before opening and upgrading an old catalog.

[defaultbujjts11r879]

Upgraded from 11 to 11.0.1 after opening old Catalog. Also tried importing old catalog after upgrading to 11.0.1 but no difference

[dj_paige]

I opened my old Catalogue in the new version and all my edits, ratings, colour label etc are missing.

This is a good indication that you did not open the correct catalog file in Lightroom Classic. What happens if you use your operating system's search feature to search for all Lightroom Classic catalogs (their name ends with .LRCAT), and open each one of them? Do you find a catalog with edits?

[defaultbujjts11r879]

When I unzip the backup folder, I get one file that is labelled Lightroom Catalog, which is the one I opened in Lightroom Classic. Also in the unzip is another folder labelled Lightroom Catalog.Ircat-data which contains several folders each containing subfolders that have DAT files in them. I did not do anything with these files, should they be moved to the main Lightroom folder?

[dj_paige · Accepted solution]

you only want to look for .LRCAT files, and if they are backups, they will be zipped and you have to unzip them.

Another thought ... maybe you are seeing photos with no edits because you (accidentally?) imported the photos twice, and so one version has the edits, while another version does not. Search your catalog by file name for one such case with no edits.

[defaultbujjts11r879]

Thanks for your help not sure what to do with the information though. Perhaps best to uninstall Lightroom Classic and start again. When I have reinstalled Lightroom Classic again should I import old Catalog first and then photos or the other way around? Also what should I do with the Lightroom Catalog.Ircat-datafiles?

[dj_paige]

Uninstall/re-install fixes nothing. You need to follow through on the issues already raised. You say "not sure what to do..." but I don't understand what parts you are not sure about.

By the way, when I said you should search for other catalog, I was not talking about backups.

[defaultbujjts11r879]

Thanks for your help, your second thoughts did it. Must have imported twice, deleted all cats then placed old cat in Lightroom folder when it restarted updated to new cat all fine now. Thanks again