Lightroom Classic CC Backup Catalog Corrupted

Report · Jan 31, 2018

This problem is noticed by me recently, and I find that all the backup catalogs created by Lightroom Classic CC (“Lightroom”) after 14 January 2018 was corrupted (as Lightroom said). The most recent backup catalog which I can use is the one created on 14 January 2018.

However, Lightroom is working normally and seems no problem at all. I can edit photos as usual. I have set Lightroom to back up the catalog every time when I quit Lightroom, and it seems everything alright. However, when I try to use the backup catalog, it fails. Lightroom said they are corrupted. I don't know why.

Last night, I have done an experiment. I backed up my catalog as usual when I quitted Lightroom. Immediately after I quitted Lightroom, I unzipped the backup catalog and copied the catalog to the default folder which Lightroom uses. I reran Lightroom and Lightroom said my catalog is corrupted. This copy was just created by Lightroom when I quitted Lightroom last time. I then removed the backup catalog and putted back the current catalog in default folder. Lightroom just works fine. It seems that Lightroom does not correctly back up the catalog. Very strange!

Is there any method to solve the above problem? Please help.

Report · Feb 12, 2018

I am using 3rd party software to check the integrity of LR catalog every time I quit Lightroom for safe play.

Report · Feb 12, 2018

henryw17781443 wrote
I am using 3rd party software to check the integrity of LR catalog every time I quit Lightroom for safe play.

I think that's a great idea. Please identify (or post a link to) the software you're using.

Report · Feb 13, 2018

New LR version 7.2 opens all backups without any problem.

Frans

Report · Feb 13, 2018

By me too.

Report · Feb 13, 2018

cfransw wrote
New LR version 7.2 opens all backups without any problem.
Frans

I'm glad to hear that the new release has solved some of the corruption problems.

Unfortunately, not for me. In fact, the new release made things much worse. Yesterday I had a usable catalog that LR opened. Today, the revised LR will not even open that catalog!

My situation is that the revised LR will not open any catalog that was backed up by Classic CC or based in part on a catalog backed up by Classic CC. The problem began with Classic CC. My very first backup after Classic installation in Oct. is not readable (corrupted). If I take the previous backup (before Classic) and run Classic to update the catalog format, the result is a usable catalog that passes the integrity test. Right now, my only way forward is to start over with that and try to reconstruct all of the work since Oct - hugely time consuming and error-prone given that it's not just photos taken since then, but many edits to legacy photos, many subsequent collections, and (more difficult) many published collections.

Does anyone know if it's possible to downgrade my installation to the previous version?

It there's anyone out there from Adobe LR that can help me, please message or email me directly. Thank you.

js

P.S. Again, since Classic CC cheerfully backs up corrupt catalogs even if you have "test integrity" ticked, I urge users to run the integrity test occasionally on LR startup.

js

Report · Feb 19, 2018

More evidence that LR's catalog integrity test is not trustworthy.

While continuing to hope that my main lrcat can be fixed, I’ve been cobbling together a partial lrcat so I can continue working. Along the way, one of the pieces is an lrcat that I created by

1) managing to export a small part of my main catalog resulting in a file corrupt.lrcat (don’t know if the extracted lrcat is actually corrupt)

2) reconstructing that catalog with sqlite3 via: echo .dump | sqlite3 corrupt.lrcat > corrupt-lrcat.txt; sqlite3 -init corrupt-lrcat.txt repaired.lrcat)

This reconstructed catalog has the following properties:

1) it passes “test integrity” when the integrity test is run on LR startup

2) it backs up on LR exit with both test integrity and optimize enabled – no error messages from the test

3) Nevertheless, when I create a brand new catalog and then try to import repaired.lrcat, the import fails with “LR could not import this catalog because of an unknown error”.

Perhaps that’s a clue to what’s wrong with my full catalog. I’ll go ahead and upload repaired.lrcat in case someone is looking into my problem and thinks it's useful to look at this catalog fragment.

If nothing else, this confirms that the LR "test integrity" is not trustworthy! Obviously, that's dangerous. In my case, it's why I didn't notice until now that my main catalog got corrupted when I switched to Classic CC (i.e., when the catalog format was updated). I know this because my last backup pre-Classic is OK, but my first backup from Classic is corrupt (likewise all subsequent backups).

Report · Feb 19, 2018

No matter what caused the error, I am sure that the backup catalog is not the same as the original version. I have used a software to compare the contents of the original and the backup version, the software indicated they are not the same. I back up the catalog manually now to play safe.

Report · Feb 20, 2018

This is EXACTLY the problem I am having.

NONE of my Lighjtroom CC backups are usable!

My pre-CC backups ARE usable

I have invested hundreds of hours in the CC Catalog and I DO NOT want to loose all of that work

\

Report · Feb 20, 2018

Is your current running catalog OK? If it is OK, you can back it up manually.

Are you using the latest version of Windows 10? May be the software compatibility problem.

Report · Feb 20, 2018

henryw17781443 wrote
Is your current running catalog OK? If it is OK, you can back it up manually.
Are you using the latest version of Windows 10? May be the software compatibility problem.

I've been rebuilding slowly from a known-clean catalog, manually backing up along the way. Thanks.

I don't think it's a compatibility issue - I always run the latest Windows 10, and I'm pretty good at updating my apps.

js

Report · Feb 20, 2018

henryw17781443 wrote
No matter what caused the error, I am sure that the backup catalog is not the same as the original version. I have used a software to compare the contents of the original and the backup version, the software indicated they are not the same. I back up the catalog manually now to play safe.

This made me check on my system. I have a catalog partially rebuilt from my last pre-Classic backup. At the outset, and on every significant edit, I run the catalog integrity test on startup. The catalog has always passed.

Given the history, I've been backing up manually. But today I checked, and what you said is true on my system. In particular:

a) I used LR to backup my current good catalog, with test integrity turned on.

b) I retrieved the backup by copying the zip file to my desktop, and unzipping it there.

c) The size of the retrieved catalog was different (larger) than the original.

d) The retrieved catalog was corrupt. That is, it failed the integrity test on LR startup.

So I say again, this might be a bug that's unlikely to affect most users - probably not, because one would think there'd be an outcry beyond the few people who've posting here that they're experiencing the problem. Either way, you should check your catalog by running the integrity test on startup. Unfortunately, that's not 100% foolproof, since my experience has shown clearly that corrupt catalogs can pass the integrity test.

js

Report · Feb 20, 2018

Dear John,

Sorry to hear you that you have such a big problem. I suggest not using Lightroom itself to check integrity of the catalog, I use Sqlite3 to check instead. It's simple to use as follows:

1) copy the current catalog to the directory of Sqlite3 (keep the current catalog untouched);

2) rename the catalog name so that there is no space in its name (Sqlite3 does not accept file name with space);

3) double click Sqlite3.exe to run Sqlite3;

4) in command window, type ".open [file name with file extension]";

5) in command window, type "pragma integrity_check;" - The result will come out and show you whether the catalog is OK or not;

6) in command window, type ".quit" to exit Sqlite3.

Hope the above helps!

I notice that you have installed Sqlite, and therefore, try to make use of it to check integrity. I am now using this software to check integrity of the catalog every time I quit Lightroom. On the other hand, I also discover that there are some paid software claiming that they can repair corrupted database, however, they are very expensive and I do not try them at all. I am not sure whether these softwares can solve our problem.

From my history, it is likely that the software compatibility of Windows 10 and Lightroom (I guess) causing this problem as I remember, this problem happened after I upgraded my Windows 10 to the latest version (Windows 10, version 1709). But I am not sure as I cannot proof it now.

Henry

Report · Feb 22, 2018

henryw17781443 wrote
Dear John,
Sorry to hear you that you have such a big problem. I suggest not using Lightroom itself to check integrity of the catalog, I use Sqlite3 to check instead. It's simple to use as follows:
1) copy the current catalog to the directory of Sqlite3 (keep the current catalog untouched);
2) rename the catalog name so that there is no space in its name (Sqlite3 does not accept file name with space);
3) double click Sqlite3.exe to run Sqlite3;
4) in command window, type ".open [file name with file extension]";
5) in command window, type "pragma integrity_check;" - The result will come out and show you whether the catalog is OK or not;
6) in command window, type ".quit" to exit Sqlite3.
Hope the above helps!
I notice that you have installed Sqlite, and therefore, try to make use of it to check integrity. I am now using this software to check integrity of the catalog every time I quit Lightroom. On the other hand, I also discover that there are some paid software claiming that they can repair corrupted database, however, they are very expensive and I do not try them at all. I am not sure whether these softwares can solve our problem.
From my history, it is likely that the software compatibility of Windows 10 and Lightroom (I guess) causing this problem as I remember, this problem happened after I upgraded my Windows 10 to the latest version (Windows 10, version 1709). But I am not sure as I cannot proof it now.
Henry

Hi Henry -

Thanks for continuing to be helpful. I was happy to hear about integrity_check, so did a bunch of experiments. Unfortunately, at least for catalogs I've been trying, integrity_check says they're ok, but for Classic they're corrupt. For example, in the case of my original corrupt lrcat (the one I've been trying to reconstruct), sqlite3 says it's ok but Classic crashes with the following:

I can only conclude that passing the sqlite3 integrity_check doesn't necessarily mean that the catalog is ok with Classic. Actually, that makes sense to me - integrity_check can only detect whether or not the file is a valid sqlite database, but I don't see how it can detect whether that database is a valid database for any program.

Report · Feb 22, 2018

Hi John,

One more step I have missed in my suggested procedures to verify that you have properly opened the Lightroom database. Sqlite3 will automatically create a new database if it does not succeed to open your Lightroom database. To make sure that you have properly opened the database, in the command window, type ".databases" or type ".tables". You should see either the file name of your database opened or list of tables which Lightroom uses.

To me, I think that if the database passed the Sqlite3's integrity check, it should be usable by Lightroom.

If I have time tonight, I will install Lightroom Classic CC into my old computer which runs Windows 7. Under two different OSs (one is Windows 10, the other is Windows 7), I would like to check whether the backup catalog will be the same.

After hearing you saying that passing the Sqlite3's integrity check doesn't necessarily mean the catalog is ok with Classic CC, I am seriously concerned about the integrity of my Lightroom catalog.

Report · Feb 24, 2018

Hi John,

Just for your information. I test ran the backup of catalog in my old system Windows 7 and would like to confirm to you that it is not the software problem. The contents of the backup catalog are still not the same as the original catalog. In particular, the original catalog could pass the Sqlite3's integrity check while the backup one could not. At least, this indicated that there are problems with Backup.

Regards

Report · Jun 01, 2018

I believe you are totally right that LR Classic 7.3.1 is where all the catalog issues began. I am sure that like other posts have indicated, the integrity checks of past did not actually prevent it from backing up even if there was corruption. I think Adobe needs to provide all the customers with a valid utility to fix corruption it did not properly detect.

On another note, I found I just unchecked the integrity check and have carried on, I have seen someone else refer to using sqlite3 to do integrity checks, even rebuild. I would love to see instructions to using sqlite3 to do what Adobe has not provided.

Report · Mar 10, 2018

Just wanted to add that I also had this issue, not as severe as it was only 1 of my backups (of course the only one I wanted though). I back up nearly every day and have the option to test integrity. I also have all of these backups duplicated in Google Drive. I tried downloading the backup from Google Drive in case there was a hard drive issue but it seems like this backup was corrupted from the start. I understand that there are other ways to double check the integrity of the backups, but being I'm doing them so frequently it seemed like a hassle to run another check on them. From now on I'll periodically make sure most of my backups open. This is one of the first times I've seriously considered jumping ship from Adobe, it's good to know they have such great customer service when something like this happens after 5pm /sarcasm. Seriously though, why don't they have a direct email option for support? I have to wait until normal working hours when I'm working at my other job to chat or call them? I'm not even looking for anymore help I just want them to be aware that they should look into fixing their backup system.

Report · Mar 12, 2018

Hi theoriginaljimbo - Thanks for chiming in. Obviously this issue doesn't affect everyone, but the cost is so high when it happens that you'd think Adobe would be more responsive.

js

Report · Mar 31, 2018

I'm seeing this issue more and more frequently in my backups, which is very upsetting particularly when you pay for this software. I'm so used to Lightroom though at this point and really like it for the most part. So instead of jumping ship or working myself up over this too much I'm now saving the full catalog periodically as well, just copying the actual uncompressed file and saving it to my backup drive. This never has any corruption issues when reopening it. I am on Windows by the way and usually use the default windows utility to unzip the backups. Hopefully they'll fix this eventually but I doubt I'll ever fully trust it again.

Report · Apr 01, 2018

However, seems no response from Adobe. ><

Sent from my iPhone

Report · Apr 01, 2018

They have partly responded over on the other forum where Adobe does read posts and respond. This is a users forum.

https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/unzipping-lr-backups

Bob frost

Report · Apr 01, 2018

Noted with thanks.

Sent from my iPhone

Report · Mar 12, 2018

What are you unzipping your backup catalog with? Is this causing the corruption?

Bob Frost

Report · Mar 12, 2018

https://forums.adobe.com/people/bob+frost wrote
What are you unzipping your backup catalog with? Is this causing the corruption?
Bob Frost

Thanks for the suggestion, but that's not it. I move the zipped folder to the desktop (without unzipping), then unzip with the standard Windows 10 utility (right click -> extract all....).

js

Report · Mar 24, 2018

I have posted all over this site by this time -- your story is my story. Catalogue ZIP files will not unzip in an uncorrupted format, and will not load in LR CC Classic. Tech Support is no help. I do not think this is a problem on my computer:I think it is a problem in the software, and I suspect that many people are using the program generated backup to store their catalogue, and should they ever need to restore their backup file they will discover, as I did, that it is not a good file. I have started randomly testing my LR generated backup files, and none of them, so far, work. The files I back up manually do work, so I have started doing that as my preferred backup system. Thank goodness that a few weeks ago, when my catalogue would not load after a program update from Adobe, I found a fairly recent manual backup to turn to or I would have lost all my data. Can you spell Panic Attack?

I suspect this is a much more serious issue for the many LR users than has been shown to date, and that it is more common than we think.

John W