Smart Preview catalog Issue (You will not be able to make adjustments to the photo.)

[kleinski]

I'm working on this smart preview catalog from a client but it shows in the Histogram panel that it has Original + Smart Preview. Thumbnails won't load in Library both on Loupe and Grid View, photos will load in Develop module. Here's a screenshot of the catalog. What could be the possible problem for this issue? Is there any thing that I can do to fix this? It usually just shows Smart Preview below the Histogram but now it shows Original + Smart Preview.

OS: Windows 10

Lightroom Classic Version: 13.1

[Per Berntsen]

The exclamation mark in a black circle means that the file is damaged or cannot be read.

Are you able to edit the files in Develop?

[kleinski]

Yes, I can but the previews are not loading. All images except the one that is selected are grayed out.

[JohanElzenga]

The 'Original + Smart Preview' suggests that the folder '01. RAW' that is supposed to contain the originals is present, but most likely does not really contain original images, so Lightroom Classic chokes on what it does contain. How did the client sent this catalog to you? Was it perhaps via a link to some cloud storage? If that case the explanation could be that the folder contains links to online images, but Lightroom Classic can't work with that. Removing the folder should solve it, because then Lightroom Classic will start to use the smart previews (providing these are not just links as well...).

[kleinski]

Hi, thank you for the informative reply. Yes, it was sent via Cloud storage server (NAS) it's his own Synology drive server. I noticed that the 'previews.lrdata' folder only has 236kb size. I usually get around the 500mb+/- size for that folder. I tried deleting it and still it shows the same problem. But I can still edit the photos in Develop module but then all the previews are unavailable. Is there an option in LR that I can turn-off the Original and use Smart Previews only even in Library module? 

[JohanElzenga]

Did you try to delete the 'previews.lrdata'? It may be corrupted so deleting it and letting Lightroom rebuild it may do the trick.

[kleinski]

Yes, I did. But it is still the same. The catalog is still reading it as Original + Smart Previews.

[JohanElzenga]

You will have to do both, because these seem to be separate problems (although caused by the same online-only links). Remove the '01.RAW' folder if there is indeed such a folder inside the catalog folder and remove the previews.lrdata.

[kleinski]

Hey, I know this is very late response but I encountered the same problem with a different catalog this time. I tried your solution of deleting 01.RAW folder inside the catalog and previews.lrdata folder but after Lightroom rebuild the catalog, all it does is it removes all the photos. 

[JohanElzenga]

I'm afraid you have not understood my suggestion. You should not remove the 01.Raw folder from Lightroom (like the screenshot shows you are about to do)! That will delete the images from the catalog and that is not the idea. You must remove it from the catalog folder using Windows Explorer. Just move it to somewhere else. The idea is that by moving this folder from its current location, the folder and the original images go 'missing' in Lightroom. The images will still be in the catalog, but Lightroom will have lost the link to them. And so Lightroom will switch to using smart previews.