The other day when opening LR, I got a message that it couldn't open because the catalog was corrupt. No big deal, I back up my catalog constantly and have previously been successful opening an older catalog after a corrupt catalog error. I followed the same procedure as before but it didn't work. I've uninstalled and reinstalled LR with both the latest and the most recent older version, and I've tried other suggestions I've seen online. Nothing I do will get LR Classic to open. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks, Denis. I'm running on Windows 11 Version 22H2 (OS Build 22621.1702) and currently running Lightroom Version 12.3. Dell XPS 15 9570, Intel Core i9-8950HK CPU, RAM 32 GB,
"I followed the same procedure" and "I tried other suggestions I've seen online", without telling us what those were, does not tell us what exactly you did and what you did not try yet. So maybe you already tried this too, but otherwise try resetting the preferences before you open a backup copy of the catalog: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-do-i-reset-lightrooms-preferences/And indeed, do stay away from sync services like Dropbox or OneDrive for the moment.
Thanks, Johan. "Followed the same procedure" should be self-evident that the same exact protocol I have used previously to restore an older catalog failed to work this time. But since you want to know, I followed this procedure: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/disaster-strikes-corrupted-catalog/
I have tried removing the preferences and that didn't help. Note the way your article suggests does not work for me, when I open LR holding Alt/Shift, I do get a popup but nothing prompts me to reset preferences. Instead, the popup I get is Lightroom Classic Properties and the only option I see like that is to remove properties and personal information, which I don't think is the same thing as removing the preferences. So instead, I did another unintall where it asks you if you want to keep your preferences and I said no, then reinstalled. This didn't help however. I've tried opening from the desktop, from the Creative Cloud, and from the File Manager, but none work. When I do try to open, I get the spinning ball, but never get as far as the splash screen, and then afterwards, LR Classic does appear as a background process in the Task Manager. Thanks.
Corrupt catalog — most likely you need to restore a recent backup copy of your catalog file. Although repairing the catalog is possible in some cases, the chances of success are low.
Thank you, but as I described previously, I have tried several times to restore a recent backup copy of my catalog file with no success. That's my point, that LR won't open any catalog, either the corrupted copy or any older version. Thank you.
That worked! So what does that mean? Can I now just save it to my original location on the hard drive and everything should proceed as usual, or does the fact that it opens from an ext HD and not from the HD indicate some problem that I'm going to need to resolve? For now, it's sure nice to see my pictures, thank you! I'm just not sure what to do next. I know once I have it back to normal, I'll need to update my preferences since I wiped them on a previous attempt.
Thanks, so I ran a bunch of diagnostics, using Dell's SupportAssist, Dell's Online Diagnostic Tests, as well as a Preboot Diagnostic Test. No problems were found using any of those methods. Then I just did as you suggested, copying the catalog that works from my ext HD to the desktop and it opened just fine. Which is good, although it also doesn't explain what exactly the problem was before. So I assume now I should save the current working catalog in the usual Lightroom folder and restore my preferences, back up like crazy, and everything perhaps should be good moving forward? Thanks so much for your help.
Then I just did as you suggested, copying the catalog that works from my ext HD to the desktop and it opened just fine.
Which is not what I said. I said put it in a brand new folder on the original disk. If you have the catalog file on the desktop, I would not recommend you leave it there.
So I assume now I should save the current working catalog in the usual Lightroom folder and restore my preferences
You can try that, but I am not recommending it, I am "anti-recommending" it.
Thanks, I was not intending to keep the catalog on the desktop, but thanks. Did that out of simplicity to see if it opens from the computer itself, which it did. I guess now I am confused by what you are recommending. If you don't suggest keeping the catalog on the desktop, or moving it into the standard folder for all Lightroom files, are you suggesting then that the folder with all my previous LR files, including the backup catalogs, should not be used anymore at all? Just create a new folder, put the currently working catalog in there and then ignore/delete/otherwise with the previous Lightroom folder? If that is indeed your suggestion, are there no files/folders at all in the current LR folder that I need to keep? Much thanks.
So I've been trying to work on this, but I have another separate issue in that I have thousands of "missing photos" because of pictures stored on a variety of external HD's, which will be a time-consuming project I'd prefer to deal with at a later time. My understanding is that you should not rebuild the previews until you've addressed all missing photos. Would you agree with that? My preference would be to rebuild the previews, set up my preferences, and resume use of LR and save as a next project dealing with the missing photos. But if rebuiding the previews while there are missing photos is indeed a problem, then I won't do that. Thanks, as always. And you're right, keeping backups on my internal disk and nowhere else is an unwise decision, I will make sure to backup catalogs externally.
Missing photos is new. It hasn't been mentioned up until this very last message of yours. Why do you have missing photos? Nothing in the movement of catalog from here to there that we have been discussing will cause missing photos.
My understanding is that you should not rebuild the previews until you've addressed all missing photos. Would you agree with that?
I disagree. The previews for missing photos will be blank grey, perhaps that's a problem, but in most cases (if I am understanding you properly), you re-connect folders or entire "trees" of folders, not photo-by-photo.
In any event, I think you can fix these things in any order you want.
OK thank you. I didn't mention the "missing photos" before because it's a separate, pre-existing situation not caused by the issues I have been describing up to this point. Just poor/sloppy file management in the past. I'm glad to hear though that you think I can fix my multiple issues in any order, so I will ignore the missing photos issue for the time being and proceed with your suggestions to get back on track and reset my previews etc. Thank you.
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