Lightroom upgrade and catalog

[wendys45908899]

This is the second time LR forces me to upgrade, I follow the prompts for what to do with the catalog, it saves and renders the catalog for the newer version of LR, and then my catalog is half missing.  I spent hours with tech support last time this happned.  Of course both times it happens in the middle of a big editing session.  Now I can't work, and my catalog from 2017 to today is missing.  Help.

[JP Hess]

Whenever there is a major upgrade (not just an update) in LrC Such as from version 9 to 10, there is also the necessity to upgrade the catalog because the database engine is upgraded and requires such. I have never gone through such an uppgrade and ended up with "half"  of my previous catalog. I have always simply been able to resume working with the same images that I had previously. Are you indicating that half of your images are actually missing after you perform such an upgrade? This is a user supported forum, so we can offer suggestions. But for the most part there is no real technical support directly from Adobe.

[wendys45908899]

So this has happened twice to me, and it only happens when LR forces me to upgrade upon start up.  If I do an upgrade through the adobe cloud, I have no issues.  So I opened LR, I get a window that tells me LR is upgrading, and I need to back up and render the catalog for the newer version, I follow the steps, it does it's work, installs the new verson, and them my catalog from 2017 moving forward is gone.  This happened the exact same the last time they had an upgrade.  That was 10.2.  Did the same thing again for 10.3.  I am able to install the old version I was working with and my complete catalog is there.  It is frustrating because I get forced into it, and there must be some bug or something and it wastes my time, and freaks me out, especially when I am editing mid-session for a client.  ugh.  I have it workign again, I am in 10.2 and all seems fine.  

[wendys45908899]

Adobe has tech support, they will take over your computer and fix issues, but the last time they were so unhelpful, 3 techs and 3 hours later I fixed the issue myself.  

[JP Hess]

Your description of what is happening seems inconsistent with what has happened to me. First of all, there shouldn't have been the necessity for the catalog upgrade between LrC 10.2 and LrC 10.3. The last time there should have been a catalog upgrade necessitated was when there was an upgrade from Lightroom 9.x to Lightroom 10. This would "seem" to indicate that you are opening different catalogs, but that would be difficult/impossible for me to tell. How many different catalogs are you actually working with? Can you identify the actual name of the catalog you are working with when you are using the "old" version, and what is the name of that catalog which you identify as being complete?

[wendys45908899]

I have one catalog from 2015 to today (LR is meant to be able to operate this way).  What the update did was create a new catalog backup that would be rendered to work with the updates per what the pop up window says.  It tells me that this new catalog will not be compatible with older version of LR.  It made a new catalog, was using catalog v10 and it made a new catalog v10-2.  But now both those catalogs only go to 2017....it makes no sense.  It is like it is not backing up the catalog completey.  I went be to the previous catalog before that and everything is there.   Something is really buggy about this.  So I am perplexed.   I tried many different things to get the whole catalog to show, and the only thing that worked is to go back to my previous version of LR and it is like nothing ever happened.  Does no one else get this forced to upgrade pop up window.  I ignore the prompts that tell me there is a new version because I am usuall in the middle of a job and don't want to stop to do an upgrade, especially with this experience I have had.  

[JP Hess]

First of all, an update from LrC 10.2 to LrC 10.3 should NOT have required a catalog upgrade. If you are certain you are using the exact same catalog you were using previously something is definitely wrong. You mentioned that the catalog has a -2 added to its name. That indicates that there is another one that just has a 10. Are you certain that you don't have more than one catalog, and the catalog names are causing confusion for Lightroom as well as confusion for you?

[GoldingD]

This happened the exact same the last time they had an upgrade.  That was 10.2.  Did the same thing again for 10.3.

So, the upgrade catalog occurs at major LrC upgrades, not at updates. 
When you upgraded from LrC v9.4, to v10.0, that upgrade of the catalog would have occurred.

When you updated from v10.0 to v10.1, no, it would not, 10.1 to 10.1.1, no, 10.1.1 to 10.2, no, 10.2 to 10.3, no.

Something odd is occurring.

Most obvious cause would be opening the wrong catalog.

I assume you open your catalog by simply starting LrC via an icon. And LrC just opens the most recent catalog. That is the default behavior.

Lightroom Classic can foul that up. Might be a preference file issue. (see my next reply)

Use your operating systems file manager to look for varios catalogs, when you find the one you think is correct, double click on it. 

[wendys45908899]

I will look into that, thanks.  I think my vocab is incorrect.  It is more of a catalog backup, but then why does half my catalog disappear?  I reverted back to my previous version and catalog is all there, like nothing has happened.  I am also working off my v8 catalog back up.  The LR upgrade created a backup v10, and another one v10-2.  Both of those only go to 2017.  I have one catalog, from 2015 to today.  So I am not confusing catalog either.  Keep in mind 3 tech support folks in 3 hours could not fix the issue.  Their only thought was it was not correclty backing up the current catalog.  

[GoldingD]

In the above reply's, other than my short mention of it, I do not see a recommendation on restoring (a.k.a resetting) the preference file. The preference file can get corrupted leading to odd behavior, LrC not knowing the correct recent catalog could be such an behavior. The preference file will survive upgrades, updates, un-installs/re-installs.

see:

Set preferences for working in Lightroom Classic