P: Upgrade creates a new empty catalog instead of launching the last-used catalog

[Rob_Cullen]

I have answered questions about this problem (is it a 'Bug'?) in the forum (as an acp).

Now I have experienced it for myself!  Upgrading v11.01 to v11.1

How annoying it must be for 'beginners' to see an empty Catalog after the upgrade without understanding the problem!

An upgrade should automatically upgrade a catalog that is currently being used!

My Catalog is on an internal PC- D:drive that is physically separate from C:drive , and the upgrade did not find it.

NOTE:  [Open Recent] DOES NOT FIND MY v11.01 CATALOG either!

And I am left with an empty Catalog in my Pictures Folder that is sure to create confusion unless I [Delete] it immediately.!

Thankfully, [Open Catalog...] does let ME find my working Catalog.-

Adobe - This needs fixing.

[JohanElzenga]

It does indeed seem that a Lightroom update can corrupt the settings file that keeps track of the catalog(s), so Lightroom creates a brand new one and won't remember any old catalogs. I have seen to many messages about it by now to consider this a coincidence or user error. 

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

I've dropped a note to the Classic team regarding this but lacking clear reproduction instructions, I can't reproduce. In my testing efforts I probably upgrade catalogs a dozen times or more a month and I have never seen it. 

If you can reproduce this with a specific set of instructions, I would be happy to see if I can verify the reported behavior again. 

[dj_paige]

This probably happens when the user's catalog that is used every day is not in the default location. Then the upgrade looks in the default location, and finds an old catalog (or no catalog), and then we get this issue. The upgrade software does not appear to look at the settings (in the preference file, or wherever it is kept) to find the catalog in the not-default location — or does not appear to look consistently at that setting. If that is the case, I think this could be and should be fixed.

It may also be caused by the user, who keeps a catalog in a non-default location and opens it consistently from a desktop shortcut to this non-default location, and then the setting (in preferences, or wherever) doesn't point to this catalog, and so the upgrade software is mis-led to upgrading the catalog in the default location.

[Per Berntsen]

FWIW, Lightroom has never had any problems finding my non-default location catalog when upgrading.

I use C:\Lightroom catalog

[JohanElzenga]

I'm pretty sure this sporadically happens due to corruption of the file that keeps the catalog location. I have upgraded dozens of catalogs over the years, with different names and in different locations, and have never seen this issue. It is definitely not a wide spread problem, but it does seem to happen from time to time for some people and then it makes sense that it only happens if their catalog is in a non-default location and/or has a non-default name.

[GoldingD]

I do not keep my catalogs in the default location. I have never had this problem. Neither on my MACBook, where they are on an external hard drive, nor my Windows workstation, where they are on an internal hard drive, not C. I suspect the issue is a corrupt preference file.

[Rob_Cullen]

Follow-up:  This has never happened to me before. I have always kept my (one master) Catalog on an internal (physically independent) hard-drive.

My system uses a SSD C:drive for OS and the 2Tb D:drive for all 'data' (Documents, Images, the Catalog, etc)

"If you can reproduce this with a specific set of instructions,"

@Rikk Flohr: Photography I don't know that I could (without a full re-build of all apps). It happened when I opened the CC Desktop App and clicked [Update all], which included Photoshop, Lightroom, Bridge, ACR.

I always start LrC from a Windows-10 Start page icon for the App .exe file (Not a Catalog shortcut).

My only thoughts are that I have re-mapped my Windows "Documents" default folder to the D:drive, or the Catalog Startup Preferences file was somehow trashed or deleted.

My system is working correctly (the way I want it!) now, so all good, and I know how to answer any other posts with 'empty catalogs'!

Thanks for replies.

On another note- I opened Photoshop yesterday (first time since the update done 6/1/22 ) and the 'Home Screen' was blank- No 'recent' files, the [New File] [Open] [Home] buttons were just grey 'blobs' and inactive. All restored to normal after opening one image from the top menu. Preferenes trashed?

[Santiago H]

Had the same problem updating to 13.2. Thanks for the post, was actually pretty scared 🙂

[Sarah33233807g1b9]

Thank you for this post. This just happened to me and sent me into a bit of a panic. I couldn't find my original catalog anywhere and figured it had been overwritten or something. As it turned out it was on the external drive where I keep my photos. I thought it was on the interal drive and didn't look closely at the external one.

In my case I suspect the external drive wasn't ready when lightroom looked for the catalog so it asked to load a different one and I selected the only one on the list. I didn't realize I was loading an older, empty catalog and once the upgrade was done everything was gone. Then it didn't show my original catalog when I tried the 'open recent' and I didn't know where to look under 'open catalog'.

[gilligan]

I had the Same Problem here (MacOS Sequoia, Mac Studio M2 Max). updated a catalog from V13.5 to V14.3. During updating I saw the new catalog getting bigger in data size. Then in an instant after packing the old catalog into a zip file and renaming, the updated catalog got reduced to 1.7 MB. Next try: I moved the the old catalog from my external drive to my standard folder for my working catalog and updated it there and it worked. The drive for my sworking catalog is also an external drive. The only difference is that its defined as the programs default. 🤷‍:male_sign: