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I cant open lightrrom anymore. The message I get is start trial or provide serial number I have an active subscription but ant find any serial number) The big issue is that I am supposed to continue working on 3 blurbbooks in Lightroom on thsi computer and now I wonder if everything is lost. Many years of work that is.
If anyone can help I would be so thankful.
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Sorry about all the misspellings. Im so stressed.
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My prevoius post were marked as spam. I was asking for help! After that I tried to open lightroom as trial and I can now see that there is nothing left of my 3 books. This is not spam and I am loosing my trust in Adobe soon.
As I said. I could not open lightrom anymore. The message I got was start trial or provide serial number but I have an active subscription (cant find any serial number under "products") The big issue is that I am supposed to continue working on 3 Blurbbooks in Lightroom on this computer today and now it seems that everything is lost. Many years of work that is.
If anyone can help I would be so thankful.
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You talk about Lightroom Classic, but then you say "The message I got was start trial or provide serial number". Lightroom Classic never asks for a serial number, it never uses a serial number. Are you sure you tried to open Lightroom Classic and not some earlier version (like version 6)? What version NUMBER is your Lightroom Classic? (we need the version NUMBER and not words like "latest" or "up-to-date"). What is the EXACT word-for-word message you got?
You imply you were able to open LrC "...and I can now see that there is nothing left of my 3 books" but then later you state the opposite "I could not open lightrom [sic] anymore." Could you please clear this up?
If you go to account.adobe.com does it show that you have the Photography Plan? Here is what I see when I view my account:
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I have Lightroom - an old version on this laptop. Part of a plan yes. But the same layout is called "lightroom classic" now. I installed this today on another computer to check and to to not loose anything from this laptop. I first installed the one called only lightroom but this did not have the book option so then I tried the "classic" version. Sorry for the confusion but I have a deadline for the cover in 2 weeks and I was so shocked and stressed when I asked for help.
As my first message (asking for help because I could not open Lightroom) was marked as spam ((maybe you can find my first message in the "spam" department somewhere to clarify) I searched and found out that there should be no question about serial number som I decided to press the "trial" option. (I only got these two options but I did not take a screenshot.) When I took the trial option lightroom opened. But all my work was gone. Some of the settings are still there (preferences for sidelayout) but I made 3 books to publish in Blurb that are gone. (I have published dummies of them via Blurb to see how the work turns out but they are not finished.)
My plan worked until recently I think. I never encoutered this problem before.
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Even as a trial, your work should still be there. Lightroom has most likely opened the wrong catalog file, and you need to search your hard disk(s) using your operating system's search featuer for all files whose name ends with .LRCAT and open each one of them until you find your books.
I believe the old Lr 6 does indeed have a Book module, going further back I don't know. So again, it is critical to know what version of Lightroom you have. (And you do NOT have Lightroom Classic). It is also critical to know what version of Lightroom your serial number applies to. For example the Lr 5 serial number cannot be applied to Lr 6, it can only be used with Lr 5.
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And I dont have a serial number as far as I can see and according to your help side I should not need one. Are you telling me that this is a problem with the serial number? I searched under" products" as suggested on your site and found nothing. I have a plan with Lightroom included - this is the first time I have had this problem.
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To clarify - I downloaded Lightroom Classic on the new computer. No need to shout. As I said I did this to test and also because I am going discard my old one soon.
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If you downloaded Lightroom Classic, it should be able to upgrade the catalog with your Books in it and you should then be able to work with these books. But first you have to find that catalog. Did you search your hard disk(s) using your operating system's search feature for all files whose name ends with .LRCAT?
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Yes I searched. But it seems the folders are empty. I can take a screenshot. And by the way - now I cant open Lightroom Classic on the other computer either. I can log in to adobe but when I launch lightroom I get a "we cant verify your subscrption status" But lets try to resolve the book problem in the old version first.
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My web browser cannot open attachments. Please include your screen capture by clicking on the "Insert Photos" icon.
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dj_paige
You have the screeshots now. I have searched and the folders are empty. So what now?
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I raise some points from this conversation thread that may be helpful-
1) The [Lr] icon suggests you are using Version 6 of the 'old' standalone Lightroom
2) "The version is Lightroom CC 2015." This suggests you have installed the Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop App which has converted your (Serial based) v6 into the (Subscription based) CC2015. (The same App, just licenced in a different manner)
3) You need to be paying to the Photography Plan (20GB) on a monthly or annual basis to use the CC2015 version. Do you pay monthly? If you don't then that is the reason for seeing "Trial Version". And if you do subscribe, why are you not using a later Version? (now at v12.2).
4) Check you account at https://account.adobe.com/ for you Plan details.
5) Your screen-clips indicate a 'Lock' file is present. It should only be in existence when Lightroom is open and running. If Lr is closed then this 'Lock' file will prevent Lr from opening and needs to be deleted in File Explorer.
5) Screen-clips of the {Lightroom Catalog Previews.LRDATA} folders and files are irrelevent to this problem.
6) What are the double-ended blue arrows on all you folders and files?
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1. Yes I use an old version on this laptop because I did all the work on the books in that version on this laptop and I dont want to risk loosing it.
2. Yes. See screenshot. I dont undrstad how this is 2 different things. Maybe an update I am not aware of.
3. What do you mean exactly? I have payed my subscription for many years now. How is this helpful? Something changed and its not me not paying the bills.
4. I have checked. this should be clear from previous dialogue.
5. Screenshots were taken with lightroom open and running.
6. I was asked in this forum if I had searced for the files with that ending and the screenshots are to show that I did that and that the folders are empty. (Se prev. dialogue.)
7. I dont know.
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So based on your answer- "...I have payed my subscription for many years now. How is this helpful? Something changed and its not me not paying the bills...." you have a subscription (I am assuming) to the Photography plan.
In that case you must have the Adobe Creative Cloud Desltop App installed, active in your task bar, AND be 'Signed in'.
If you OS version permits you should be upgrading in the CC Desktop App to the current version 12.2 (Which would also upgrade your v6/CC2015 catalog to be compatible,). There is no reason to continue using an 'old version' if your OS permits an upgrade.
"I did all the work on the books in that version on this laptop and I dont want to risk loosing it."- All your 'book' work is in the catalog that would upgrade if you install Lightroom-Classic v12.2
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Ok. I will try to upgrade later. I got a heavy migraine attack from the stress. Sorry for late answer. Ill get back to you if my work does not show up when I upgrade. (You say its no reason to not upgrade but I saw feedback from many people who lost something and that would be devastating to me. That is why I stuck with the old version.)
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I have now updated to the newest version. None of the books I worked on are there. The catalougues were also updated (or at least that is what the pop up window said) but nothing of the old seems to be there. Is a restart nessesary?
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1)
You old catalog (in CC2015) was apparently simply called {Lightroom Catalog} (from your screen-clip)
When you upgrade to the current Lightroom (-Classic) v12.2.1 then you should have been asked to rename the catalog file to something like {Lightroom Catalog-v12}. Did that happen? Search in File explorer for the upgraded catalog, possibly named {Lightroom Catalog-v12}.
This upgraded catalog will have in it everything you did in the CC2015 version of the catalog.
2)
One of your screen-clips shows this-
Which indicates you have NOT Saved a Book! This TAB will disappear when you Create a Saved Book Collection. It is a 'Saved Book Collection' that stores (saves) all the work you do designing a book in LrC.
Saved Book Collection appear in the Collections panel with the small icon that looks like an open book-
3)
I searched for the double-arrow icons and now believe them to indicate you are using NTFS Compression. I am not sure that Lightroom would be compatible with compressed files, so this requires more investigation, and possibly disabling the compression of your files.
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/97780-enable-disable-ntfs-file-compression-windows.html
Or- https://www.techilife.com/how-to-remove-blue-arrows-on-icons-in-windows-10/
4) Restarting the computer is sometimes helpful, for some things, but it won't help you locate the upgraded Catalog. It is the upgraded Catalog you must find. Using File Explorer, search for all files with the file-type suffix of {.LRCAT}.
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I will look into this. But the books were for sure saved. The create backup button were also used. I have published 4 of them via Blurb - but only one is released as a limited edition book. And I need to work on the 3 others. (Its 4 books. I checked Blurb.) The compression is not something I am aware of using. But its actually 4 books lost.
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And is there another forum for people who lost work here. This post should be there too so we can compare experiences. If ther is not you should make this a topic. My consern is more about the loss of many years of work that subscription issues.
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There is no specific forum for "lost work".
If you have created 'Saved Book Collections' in a Catalog, then that is where your books exist, and only a restore of a catalog (with the book collections) will 'bring back' your books. That is the purpose of Catalog Backups.
If you do not have Catalog backups with the Book Collections, then I regretfully suggest your books are permanently lost.