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misty66
Known Participant
February 16, 2020
Question

Lost My Catalog after recent update

  • February 16, 2020
  • 5 replies
  • 9343 views

So Lightroom Classic updated yesterday now my catalogs are missing. I can load older ones but not the one I was working with. I didn't do a backup unfortunately of the last photo dump. LR wants to keep upgrading my verisions of catalogs and I think this is what messed it up. Is there some way to recover that old catalog? 

5 replies

J
Jillian_Micas5587
Participant
September 24, 2024

I don't know if you will get this, but same thing just happened to me. I looked everywhere for my file to "choose the catalog" and it wasn't there... i clicked create new and now all my photos and my presets are MIA. I have been crying for an hour over this. 

 

    John Waller
    Community Expert
    John WallerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 24, 2024

    @Jillian_Micas5587  Which operating system?

     

    Did you search for a file type .lrcat using Explorer or Finder? It's there somewhere.

     

    quote

    i clicked create new and now all my photos and my presets are MIA.

     

    That's inevitable if you click Create New. You need to find the existing catalog.

     

    See also Solved: Locating correct folder for Presets - Adobe Community - 13413341

    florintache
    florintache
    Participant
    October 19, 2022

    This is why I'm trying to look for alternative of lightroom. I've worked fine all the years, but now, seems to get anoying this frustrating upgrade and updates of this and that. Why? Because, I m working a full event which has about 2k photos to adjust, work today, tomorrow and so on, from time time export some of edit (because I lost all i've done in 2 days for example just with this crap of upgraded catalog, where you can not solve anything. Recently I had 750 photos , about 200-300 edit yesterday, and today wanted to continue till finish them and export and "bam", your catalog will be upgraded. Now ok, but how about the time and work i've been done yesterday? Puf puf, disapear again. Can not use the main catalog where is store my work of those photos, and the upgraded catalog come fresh and new . This is happened to me twice from now, last one i lost a work of 1k photos, a week of work for this. I just can't do it anymore. I'm sorry lightroom, i'll cancel my all subscription. A simple solution was to ask for this, like hey dude, we will upgraded your catalog, click over here to save all your work and continue with the new catalog, or somehow import the one you've worked earlier. But no!!!!! This has to be whithout the option to back up your work . Let's make a save button and save every picture we edit. This windows of the upgraded catalog pop up like nowhere, and the option are exit like go away, upgrade and lost what you worked yesterday, the folder imported, and so on, or chose a diffrent catalog, but not the one you worked , the other name of a new catalog. I click choose a diffrent catalog, it appears my curent catalog, click to open it and back again at he window to upgraded catalog. Sorry adobe, I was trying to look here for an official answer at this problem but no solution worked so far. this is like a major bug not fixed, but just used more often. 

     

      DdeGannes
      Community Expert
      DdeGannesCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      October 19, 2022

      Better option do not select to update automatically, there is an option to get notifications. You can then update at your convenience so you do not get surprises.

       

      Regards, Denis: iMac 27” mid-2015, macOS 11.7.10 Big Sur; 2TB SSD, 24 GB Ram, GPU 2 GB; LrC 12.5,; Lr 6.5, PS 24.7,; ACR 15.5,; (also Laptop Win 11, ver 24H2, LrC 15.0.1, PS 27.0; ) Camera Oly OM-D E-M1.
      Theresa J
      Community Expert
      Theresa JCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      February 16, 2020

      Lightroom has to upgrade your catalog to be compatible with the upgraded application. Lightroom handles this upgrade without deleting your current catalog, by making a copy that is upgraded. 

      Open your current good catalog. Say yes to the message telling you it has to be upgraded. Lightroom automatically takes care of everything for you. Just be patient while the upgrade process takes place.

      M
      misty66Author
      Known Participant
      February 16, 2020

      Yes I know this, so I did the update, then it said it wanted to update my catolog and it did and poof my current catalog is gone. 

       

      Just Shoot Me
      Just Shoot Me
      Legend
      February 16, 2020

      2 things have to happen for an UPDATE to try and update an older catalog. Notice I used All Caps for UPDATE. The reason for that is an Update is a new Point release of the same major version of any piece of software you have installed. Like from verions 1 to version 1.1. In the case of LR Classic which is currently at version 9 an update would be from V9 to 9.1 and right now LR Classic is at version 9.2. It has had 2 point release since the Major UpGRADE from version 8.x to version 9.x

      So back to the 2 reasons.

      1) You did NOT do an Update. You did an Upgrade from an older version. Which IMO is a very hard thing to do at this point. Version 9 has been out for months. The initial release of version 9 was in November 2019. 9.1 was released in December and V9.2 was released in February, about 7 days ago.

      2) The install of the point release update of LR Classic verion 9.1 to 9.2 somehow didn't see you had an Upgraded catalog and or it only saw an older catalog.

       

      So in any event your original catalog is still someplace on your drive.

       

      Not to Nit Pick but another reply said LR is installed in your pictures folder. That is completely incorrect.

      LR Classic by default installs to the C drive on a Windows computer and into the "Program Files" folder and on a Mac to the Applications folder in the ROOT of the Macintosh HD (the Mac Hard Drive.

      What gets placed in your Username Pictures folder (on either Windows or Mac OS X) by Default is your images, when imported from a memory card (they are copied into a subfolder of the Pictures folder) and the LR Classic Catalog file.

       

      So someplace on your drive you have the catalog you are looking for that has a Reference to your images.

       

      As for the actual image file they are also someplace on your drive. The first place to look is in your Username Pictures folder in subfolders under that folder.

       

      cmgap
      Community Expert
      cmgapCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      February 16, 2020

      Lightroom is installed in your Pictures folder by  default. If you go to  your Pictures folder and open  the Lightroom folder you will see any and all of  your previous catalogs. Also by default Lightroom appends the file name with a -2.lrcat. Depending on whether or not you have periodically deleted old catalogs you will see and can check 'date last opened' to find  the most recent catalog you were working in.

       

      Check your Backup folder in the same Lightroom directory. If you haven't cleaned that out you will also find your backups  there. If you don't  have  a  secondary auto backup to an external hard drive or cloud service you may want to relocate your backups somewhere  other than your  local drive. This way if you have to  retrieve it if you run into a problem with  your computer  it will be accessible.

        M
        misty66Author
        Known Participant
        February 16, 2020

         I usually do back up on my external but didn't after the last dumb. The pictures I can find, but even my collections are all wrong. I can't get it back to the way it was. The backups are not there either. Yes I had it on auto backup. 

        cmgap
        Community Expert
        cmgapCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        February 17, 2020

        To be clear on what happens when you install Lr Classic - please refer to this Adobe Lightroom help article:

        https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/catalog-faq-lightroom.html

         

        Where are my images and catalog located?

        See Open a file in Explorer or Finder to learn about where your images are saved. Do note that your images are not stored in the Lightroom Classic app.

        Your Lightroom Classic catalogs are located in the following folders, by default:

        • Windows: \Users\[user name]\Pictures\Lightroom
        • macOS: /Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom

        To check your default catalog, choose Edit > Preferences > General and check Default Catalog.

         

          Just Shoot Me
          Just Shoot Me
          Legend
          February 16, 2020

          Your images are NOT In the LR catlaog. They are stored on your hard drive someplace. So you have not Lost them.

           

          But you also have Not Lost the most current catalog (that is unless YOU deleted it).

          Search your drive for .lrcat and or with LR open go to the File menu item and selct Open Recent. Do you see more than one catalog listed? Make a note of them and open each one until you find the most recent one.

           

          And by default LR creates a backup of the catlaog file weekly (that is unless you stopped that from happening). So you should have a backup catalog that is no older than 7 days. those are store by default in the folder named Backup and that folder is in the smae folder as the working catalog is stored.

          M
          misty66Author
          Known Participant
          February 16, 2020

          Let me look again, because I didn't see my images. I did not do a back up the last dump so hoping LR did then. I forgot it does an automatic backup. 

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