no longer showing me my catalog of images

[richardg52861327]

LRC people,

Hello. In the process of trying to move an image from my Android phone into LRC, I did something whereby my LRC is no longer showing me my catalog of images. All of the rest of my images that are not in LRC seem to be present (PS Elements)  and maybe 15 LRC titles that do appear and 30images that I recognize from my LRC catalog. Everywhere else I try says "no images."  I never clicked on anything that suggested a deletion of images. I signed out and back in without change. I am on a Windows 10 PC with a LRC V.12.

Please tell me I am not screwed. 

Thanks,

Photodoc16

[KR Seals]

It sounds like some how you created a new catalog or opened a different catalog.

Do a search of the C: drive for this exact term  *.lrcat  That will find all of the LrC catalog files on your computer. Sort the ones that are found by date. The chances are great that the next to the newest .lrcat file is the one you have been using. Also, check the size of the .lrcat file. The largest one should be your main catalog.  Double Click on that .lrcat file and LrC will open using that one.

You should be using the LrC catalog backup function that pops up when you exit LrC. Designate a folder on another drive as the location where the backup will be saved.

[richardg52861327]

KR Seals,
I looked through my D: Data drive since that is how the computer was set
up. I found many versions of the .lrcat files including 2023 from 7/23 but
no *.lrcat. Also, none of them would open and LRC itself would not open
with the usual icon prompts. I know that the photos seem to be intact since
I have found some in the year by year library that the computer compiles on
it's own.
Obviously, I do need help refinding the correct catalog and even opening up
LRC.
I will call Adobe today and see if they will take over my machine and
possibly put a smile back on my face.
Thank you for trying.
Photodoc16

[KR Seals]

Hopefully Adobe can get you going again. The "*" in the search field is just a Windows convention meaning "find all". There will be no lrcat with a * in the name.

Lrcat files can be stored on any drive, except NAS or network drives. They normally go in the main LrC folder on C: but can be put on any nonnetwork drive. 

The important thing to remember is that the catalog files do not contain the photos. The photo image are located on the drive and folders where LrC was told to place them in the import process.

It's very important to backup the catalogs and image files to drives other than where they are located.