Skip to main content
R
RLMPhoto
Participating Frequently
April 2, 2022
Answered

Missing Collections / Smart Collections

  • April 2, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 2777 views

I've recently lost all my Smart Collections and the thousands of photos within them. 

I am using Lightroom 3 which is very old yet usually very reliable.

My Windows PC was updated a couple of days ago and it's since then that everything has disappeared.

I managed to locate a Catalog and tried to backup this way (C Drive, User, Pictures, Lightroom 3 Catalog, Backups) and this did restore a few Smart Collections but only up to 2019. All folders from '19 onwards are still missing - there were around 30 of them with hundreds of photos in each.

Surely my work has been backing up during the last 3 years?

 

I would really appreciate any help or insight that anyone might have.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer dj_paige

Tried moving and renaming but still receiving the same message unfortunately.

 

 


Move it to a folder where you know you have WRITE permission, such as the Pictures folder on your computer.

1 reply

TheDigitalDog
TheDigitalDog
Inspiring
April 2, 2022

What do you mean by "Surely my work has been backing up during the last 3 years?"

Did you back up the catalog and all images on a regular basis?

The photos can just disappear via LR itself, although LR can lose track of them. It simply points to the photo's on your drive somewhere. So can you at least search for the location of the images outside of LR and let us know if indeed, they exist or, you somehow, deleted or lost them?

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
R
RLMPhotoAuthor
Participating Frequently
April 2, 2022

I don't remember manually backing them up unfortunately; I just imagined there would be some kind of auto back up running in the background. 
The original photos are saved in the D drive and nothing has been deleted from there- nothing has changed on that front.

However they have disappeared from Lightroom, the entire folders (smart collections) and every edit I had made on the photos in the last 2/3 years. Also, Lightroom lets me Import the files as if they've never been imported before (where usually it would grey out the photos already imported in the past).
I hope this helps explain the situation better. 

TheDigitalDog
TheDigitalDog
Inspiring
April 2, 2022

Update:

I have just searched an external hard drive which is used to backup the PC for lrcat files in the same way and the following files were found:

 

 

Attempted to open the 2.41GB file (which hadn't shown up on the previous searches in C Drive)

 

and received the following message:

 

 

I'm reluctant to do anything now for fear of making matters worse 😕😕 

 

Have you seen this before?  I'd be very appreciative of any guidance.

 

 


Not a Windows guy but if like Mac, it's a permissions issue. Can you even move it to another drive or duplicate and rename this catalog and try?

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices