Missing Folders and Missing Smart Previews

Report · Dec 22, 2023

I have had missing folder and smart preview problems with my Lightroom Classic catalog recently.

Has anyone had the situation when the Catalog seemingly reverted back to a previous dated version? In this case my folders containing recent exports and imports disappeared and in fact, my main folder containing all my photos vanished. (not just unlinked with a ‘?’ but vanished)

Not only that, a new duplicated external HDD appeared with a ‘1’ added onto the end of its name. Very strange.

Maybe hastily, I decided to revert back to a recent back up of my Catalog. I unzipped the backup and saw the Catalog, Preview and other files etc normally associated with a Catalog.

I opened it up to find the same view which was:

Big Splicer Six (my external HDD) with my Lightroom Photos folder showing only one folder: ‘Exports’ but out-of-date and NO main folder with all of my photos. Vanished.

Big Splicer Six 1 (on the other hand) had all of my photos but they were unlinked. (greyed out with the '?' attached to subfolder names) I did what I have researched and selected a folder on the ‘1’ HDD, and used ‘Find Missing Folders’.

It worked. , It relinked the photos in each subfolder BUT listed it BACK on the original Big Splicer Six HDD. I continued and eventually, I recovered a previous state of the Catalog and no photos were lost.

Why did this happen in the first place? Why did my Catalog 'go back in time'? But at least I was able to revert my original Big Splicer Six HDD back to normal.

THEN I noticed that all my Smart Previews/Previews had gone. The ‘original’ photo was the only file linked in LR/Library/Histogram data panel, and no corresponding Smart Preview (eg) was linked?!?

Where did the Smart Previews go? ( I see the other 4 LR data files listed with the Back up Catalog version. They are all named the same) Why are they not automatically relinked to the original photo file in the Catalog? If this is a corrupt Smart Preview data file? What other course of action do I have other than remaking all the Smart/Previews? What guarantee is there that this won’t happen again? Is this a bug?

Does having over 100K of photos make a difference?

Any sage advice, thoughts would be most appreciated.

Thanks

I am using Mac OS Ventura 13.6.2. I use Lightroom Classic 13.0.2. Catalog size if over 1GB.

Report · Dec 22, 2023

A disk suddenly appearing with '1' behind its name is a MacOS mount point error. https://support.apple.com/en-us/101248
I am not sure why relinking the images would disconnect the smart previews. It could just be a matter of time for Lightroom to find the connection again. Do restart your computer if you did not do that yet.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

Report · Dec 22, 2023

Why does this happen?

Report · Dec 22, 2023

That screenshot does not show anything unusual. What am I supposed to see that made you post it?

-- Johan W. Elzenga

Report · Dec 22, 2023

A screenshot of the Catalog and associated data files.

Report · Dec 22, 2023

First thing up

use Lightroom Classic 13.0.2

Ok, but did you previously use V13.0.1, or perhaps v13.0.0? Or is this an upgrade from v12?

If this was an upgrade (12 to 13) as opposed to an update (13.0.1.to 13.0.2) then you may have run into an upgrade oddity where the most previous catalog does not actually get upgraded, but some other catalog or worse a new catalog. Members with this issue typically need to search their computer for the correct previous catalog, double click on it, and let LrC upgrade the catalog in question. (similar to your looking at backups)

Only important if you upgraded LrC.

________________________________________________________________________

Next up, Lrc v13.0.2 was a small bug fix, v13.1 is now up, supposidly a update (it updates camerras and lenses) but actually a large bug fix (especially for MACOS, not as much for Windows) Not that your issue is addressed by any of this (I suspect hardware issues)

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/fixed-issues.html

Report · Jan 01, 2024

Thank you for your replies. No one could identify why folders disappeared, or why the Smart Previews disappeared also - BUT I appreciate other points which are duly noted and useful. I might just start a New Catalog and work with recent photos so that the New Catalog is managing less photos. (I can always access older photos using the Old Catalog). And if I need to edit etc, I will just recreate Smart Previews (my preference) if and when I need them. Thanks for now!