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When I opened the new 11.1 it asked me to update my catalog so I did. Now the LAST FOUR YEARS of photos are GONE!!!!! I am VERY upset. VERY!!! Hundreds of hours of work down the drain!! I think it made a backup copy prior top the update, what is the name of that file? I also have a recent backup I did a week ago. Best option would be to use the one it just made though, if I can find it.
Catalogs are like address books- you might dig out an old one to look at and it is not up-to-date.
It is possible the LrC simply opened and upgraded a very 'old' catalog that was in your system.
In LrC choose MENU: File > Open Recent. and see what other catalogs (including a more recent one) is/are lurking somewhere in your system.
If LrC does not find another- search with your OS File Browser for Catalog files of the .LRCAT file-type.
If then nothing found- Unzip the last (recent dated) backup
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Moved from Using the Community forum.
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Huh?
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The question was originally posted in a different forum, one focussed on using the forum software, not Lightroom.
It has been moved to this Lightroom Classic forum where you will get better help from fellow Lightroom Classic users.
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Catalogs are like address books- you might dig out an old one to look at and it is not up-to-date.
It is possible the LrC simply opened and upgraded a very 'old' catalog that was in your system.
In LrC choose MENU: File > Open Recent. and see what other catalogs (including a more recent one) is/are lurking somewhere in your system.
If LrC does not find another- search with your OS File Browser for Catalog files of the .LRCAT file-type.
If then nothing found- Unzip the last (recent dated) backup of the Catalog- COPY it to your usual Catalog folder (Pictures?) and [Double-click] to open this one from the backup.
Only You will know the name of your catalogs!
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Thanks Rob, good to know. In the mean time I uninstalled LR 11.1 Then installed the previous version then managed to find the backup copy LR made and all is good now. My Next step (tomorrow) will be to move every old catalog away from the main folder, then perform the update to 11.1 again. WHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Thank you for asking the question. I recently updated to a SSD and had to find my old files from and earlier version. This shedded some light on the situation for me. Thank you!
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you probably just updated the wrong catalog...
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Yup that is clear to me now, thanks for your input 🙂 Although I refuse to take the blame, LOL. Why wasn't Adobe Lightroom smart enough to know which catalog I was using, and have been for a long time? From now on I will keep closer tabs on that folder and either move or delete unused files.
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"I refuse to take the blame," Maybe with you there! I have seen other forum posts along the lines of- "..all my photos are missing..", usually beause a 'wrong' catalog is upgraded (or a new empty one created!), but I cannot explain why, or really who is to blame.
Is is however very important to know the name AND location of the Catalog (or Catalogs) that might have your current data.
And having catalog backups on a separate physical hard-drive is imperative.
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Indeed!! I WAY over-reacted initially, because I do indeed have many backups of the catalog(s). FIVE in total, two of them off site and 1 in the fire safe. But of course those last three are not "recent" backups and the most recent one was 7 days old. So in reality I would have only lost 7 days of edits. More frequent backups are in order for sure. Have a great day and thanks for the link 🙂