Severe problem after upgrade from ver 12 to 13

[tjg63]

Severe problems after Lightroom Classic upgrade from ver 12 to ver 13

HELP!!!!!  Looks like 10 years of work is gone after upgrade from ver 12 to 13.

1.  History in develop module missing for ALL images in the catalog.  History shows as original import without adjustments.  Image is in original imported state.  If I make adjustments now these current adjustments are retained.

2.  Film strip does not show image and only border.  If I click on image box in film strip eventually image appears but indicator with ! asks me to select import from disk or overwrite from catalog.  Clicking either does nothing to the image.

3.  If I attempt to open a backup ver 12 catalog I am asked to upgrade to ver 13 which is when the problems started.

I am on Win 10 which has the latest updates along with all driver updates.

[GoldingD]

As you are involved in an Upgrade, not an update. Check that the correct catalog was updated or not. Sometime during an upgrade, LrC goes and upgrades the wrong catalog. Symptoms are:

• Many photos missing.
• Many edits missing

And sometime LrC does not upgrade an existing catalog at all, but upgrades a default catalog as if you had no catalog, symptoms being:

• No photos at all

This appears to mostly occur for a very few users that have the default setting of opening most recent catalog, in /preferences/general/ (I cannot prove that) As opposed to us who have LrC prompt for what catalog to open.

I suspect, but cannot prove, and their is no documentation that I can find on this, that the startup preferences file might be at issue (once again not one bit of proof can I provide)

If on the other hand, all your photos do show up, especially any new ones from just before the upgrade, but the history is fouled up/missing and edits gone missing. Then something else is involved.

But first things first. Check what catalog is being upgraded by finding it outside of Lrc, and double clicking on it (pre v13) . Maybe you will luck out.

[tjg63]

Update of upgrade??  Creative Cloud has an update button si I guess the correct term is update.

I was on ver 12.5.1 when Creative Cloud notified me of ver 13.0 availability.  So I clicked the update button.  After the update Lightroon opened a box notifying me that the latest catalog needed to be updated to work with 13.  So I let Lighroom do that update.  That is when the problems began.

Since then there have been three additional updates and I am now on ver 13.1.

At this point I may roll back the ver. 12.5.1 and open that last ver 12 catalog I have to see what happens.

[JohanElzenga]

Rolling back will never be a permanent solution, unless you are willing to keep using version 12 for the rest of your life. A catalog upgrade can fail sometimes. Because such upgrade creates a new copy of the catalog, it is not really a big deal. Just trash the upgraded catalog and try upgrading the old catalog again.

[tjg63]

The current plan is to roll back to ver 12.5.1 and open the last ver 12 catalog (Oct. 8, 2023) which, hopefully, has all the history and my final images after adjustments.  If that works I will import the images after Oct. 8 which includes 8 days of photographing in New Zealand.  All the images have the .xmp files.

If that works then the final steps will be to move to ver 13 and let Lightroom update the catalog again.

I plan to take these steps in the next few days and I will post an update with the outcome.

[tjg63]

I rolled back to 12.5.1 and opened the last ver 12 catalog I had as backup.  I have the images and history.  I can make a virtual copy of an image and reset to the original import if I wish to edit differently.  Most images have an arrow in the upper right corner of the filmstrip preview.  When I click the arrow I am asked if I want to import setting from disk or use catalog settings.  Clicking either does not change the image.

For images after the last catalog I imported and they do not have a history except for import.  They do have the final version of my edits but I cannot reset if I iwish to make changes.  The .xmp files for all the images are on disk.

The next step is to update Lightroom Classic to ver 13 and open up ver 13 backup catalogs to determine if any of them are usable.