Lightroom catalog upgrade

Forum|Forum|11 months ago
April 4, 2025
3 replies
648 views

I am getting an error "Lightroom encountered problems when trying to update the format of the catalog file and cannot use the catalog in this version of lightroom."

I am upgrading from LrC 6.14 to the latest version, due to compatibility issues with reading the RAW files from my new Nikon Mirrorless camera. I have looked here for a clear answer and not really finding one.

Have a Win 10 computer, and all photos are stored on external drive. I do see an .lcat file on the laptop but also one is located on the external. I tried updating from the external and the error said it couldn't be done with an external drive. I tried the repair method without any success either.

If I need to create a new file, how do I do it, without losing connection to all my photos (over 30k on my external) and the editing info on the ones I have developed?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Windows

J

james_4445Author

Participant

I finally got the upgrade to work. I now have 14.2. Unfortunately none of the repllies were "correct answers" I moved a file from the e drive to the c drive and got the upgrade to work.

having another problem now and will start new thread.

J

james_4445Author

Participant

"So buy a Plan (if you want Photoshop it will be the Photography Plan), Install Lightroom-Classic from the Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop App, Open Lightroom-Classic v14.2 and let it upgrade your catalog- you are good to go!"

I have the current Lightroom 14.2 I bought the annual plan for Lightroom (119.88 for a year). When I upgrade I get the error mentioned in the OP. I have tried multiple ways to upgrade without success. In fact now I can't even open LR 6.14. citing the error that it cannot open on "this drive" which is the actual local drive to my laptop (C:) Drive. it is certainly not read only. All my backups for my lightroom edits are on my external hard drive as are all the photos. All have a .lrcat associated. I have beena able to open LR 6 from my laptop, and access my E: drive for my stored photos. Since buying my Nikon Z6iii I cannot use LR 6 to edit my photos, as the code for the RAW photos cannot be read from that camera. Any time I try to update to LrC (14.2) it spits out the error. Both the LR versions now cannot open from C:. Can I get a step by step solution so I can get this upgraded, to edit some pictures I need to edit?

dj_paige

Legend

Although 14.2 is claimed to have fixed this problem, other people report these steps will work around this problem

Install LrC 13.2 https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/using/install-previous-version.html
Upgrade the Lr 6 catalog
Install LrC 14.2
Upgrade the LrC 13.2 catalog

Rob_Cullen

Community Expert

See the long list of problems with v6.14 here-

P: Information regarding Lightroom 6.x (Pre-LrClas... - Adobe Community - 15172714

Your post should get moved to this link.

An upgrade to v6.14 requires a subscription to a Lightroom Plan or Photography Plan-

@ BUY PHOTOGRAPHY PLANS

The "latest" version of your Lr6 is called LIGHTROOM-CLASSIC v14.2.

The Cloud based App simply called "Lightroom v8.2" is NOT an upgrade for your v6.14. It is a 'new' and different app.

COMPARE LIGHTROOM & LIGHTROOM-CLASSIC FEATURES

So buy a Plan (if you want Photoshop it will be the Photography Plan), Install Lightroom-Classic from the Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop App, Open Lightroom-Classic v14.2 and let it upgrade your catalog- you are good to go!

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 .

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