Lightroom Classic catalog won't open

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
August 28, 2024
1 reply
2125 views

My Lightroom Classic catalog won't open. lrcat-shm and lrcat-wal files appear and disappear continuously with the loading screen stuck. I've tried deleting the lrcat.lock file and reset my preferences as those were some suggestions I saw but neither works. The lrcat.lock file just reappers along with shm and wal before those two disappear.

I'm using LrC 13.5 and MacOS 13.6.9

Thanks!

[Moved from ‘Bugs’ to ‘Discussions’ by moderator, according to forum rules. A ‘bug’ is not just another word for any problem with software!]

macOS

This topic has been closed for replies.

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

Those files need to reappear. Lightroom creates them on startup and deletes them on quit. They have nothing to do with your problem. Your catalog may be corrupted. Try what happens if you force Lightroom to create a new catalog (move your current catalog to another folders Lightroom can't find it). Or try if Lightroom works correctly with a backup copy of your catalog.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

J

justina94388989Author

Participant

Lightroom is able to create another catalog just fine when I try. I also have another catalog that I use and that is able to boot up as well.

I don't have a backup copy of the catalog that's giving me issues so I'm not able to try that.

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

Lightroom is able to create another catalog just fine when I try. I also have another catalog that I use and that is able to boot up as well.

I don't have a backup copy of the catalog that's giving me issues so I'm not able to try that.

By @justina94388989

Also for other people who read this: That once again proves how important making backups is! If you had a backup, then this would have been easy to solve. Now there is only one more thing you can try. If that fails as well, then I am afraid you're out of options. Let Lightroom Classic create a brand new catalog. Choose 'File - Import from Another Catalog' and choose the problem catalog. In the dialog that comes up, choose to import all photos without moving them. That's it. If the import is successful, then you have created an exact copy of the old catalog this way, but hopefully one without those problems. Start using this catalog (you can trash the old one now) and start making regular catalog backups.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded