Lightroom not displaying any previous photos upon new login

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
March 26, 2023
3 replies
688 views

In the past, whenever I've re-opened Lightroom Classic, all of my previous photos are there in the Catalog and Folder sections.

Now, whenever I close then reopen Lightroom Classic, it will only have the new photos I'm importing but loses all of the previous ones, and they no longer display. When I manually go pull in those older photos, Lightroom doesn't remember any of my edits or ratings.

Nothing has changed about my workflow. Do you know why this may be happening?

macOS

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Rob_Cullen

Community Expert

@bethanyd76115816 Your description of the problem sounds like you are creating new Catalogs for each import.

How many catalogs (.LRCAT files) do you have in your Mac system?

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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bethanyd76115816Author

Participant

14 .LRCAT files

Rob_Cullen

Community Expert

@bethanyd76115816 Catalogs are 'Databases', and like physical Address Books- the information you add to one catalog (address book) is not seen or available in another catalog (address book).

CATALOGS- HOW THEY WORK

In this link- in particular: (which, in my opinion, is not forcefully expressed!)

There are times when multiple catalogs might be used (eg. Professionals keeping personal work separate), but for the rest of us, its is 'ONE Catalog to rule'.

Should you want to see all your photos and editing in one catalog then you will need to select one catalog (even a new empty one) and merge all your 14 catalogs into that 'one' by using the [Import from Another Catalog..,] function in the File Menu.

It will take some planning on your part.

Catalog FAQ

In this link- How to import photos from a different Lightroom Catalog there is a chapter on 'Importing from a different Lightroom Classic catalog' (Don't be misled by the aarticle heading that is about Photoshop Elements.) with the steps involved.

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 .

melissapiccone

Community Expert

I moved your post to the LRclassic forum. Are you sure you are opening the same catalog every time? Sounds like a new catalog is being created.

Melissa Piccone | Adobe Trainer | Online Courses Author | Fine Artist

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bethanyd76115816Author

Participant

Thank you! No, I am creating a new catalog each time. I recently starting using a culling software, and I create a new catalog via each new import (i.e. each new photo session). Should I be using the same one?