The catalog could not be opened due to an unexpected error - only when catalog is in pictures folder

[merkk]

LR 11 classic
Windows 10

Asus TUF laptop

I had this issue occur a few weeks ago right after an nvidia driver update. 472.12 was the last driver that worked. Or switching to the studio driver also worked. Tonight the issue re-occured even though I had not changed the video driver, i've kept it on 472.12 game-ready.

I tried restoring a backup catalog but that also throws the same error. But what tipped me off to a possible cause/solution was when i tried to create a new catalog. LR was unable to even create a new folder in the pictures folder. When i tried to have it create a new folder in the pictures folder i got this error: 

Could not find this item. This is no longer located in c:\users\my_user. Verify the items location and try again. 

I have not changed any persmission on the pictures folder. I've checked and my user account has full control over the folder. And I've also tried running LR as admin.

Moving my catalog to a new folder fixes the issue.

[GoldingD]

Many updates ago Windows had a major screwup and it fouled the pictures folder access. I forget the actual issue. I would recommend avoiding using that folder. Note that it is a system folder, not a user created folder. Make your own folder, move catalog(s) to it. 

Oh, and check the rights to the picture folder.

[merkk · Accepted solution]

Any idea why it would suddenly stop working? I'm ok using a folder other then the pictures folder. Just want to make sure this isn't part of some larger problem that might cause issues later on down the road.

As far as i can tell the rights on the picture folder are not an issue - my user account has full control over the folder. And i also tried running LRc as admin. 

[merkk]

Think i found the problem - looks like windows 'controlled folder access' was causing the issue. Not sure who to blame here - windows for not handling this in an intelligent manner or Adobe for not having a more intelligent error message 😜

[GoldingD]

Not a Defender user, many of us are not. That controlled access folder is key, it is probably the App, in this case LrC, that did bot have access rights. Similar to some lesser third  party Antivirus software getting in the way with LrC.

see: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/allow-an-app-to-access-controlled-folders-b5b6627a-b008-...

and others you will find via Internet search.

[merkk]

Yes, exactly. I'd say the fault here is 50/50 between microsoft and adobe. MS's implementation of controlled folder access is pretty lame. It just basically blocks everything and doesn't handle access requests in a good way. And considering I can't be the only person who ran into this issue, you'd think adobe would at the very least have a more helpful error message.

And I still don't understand why an Nvidia driver update had any impact on this.