The Lightroom catalog is corrupt and cannot be repaired

[alexd31392631]

Hi there,

I keep getting the following message every time I open Lightroom now:

"The Lightroom catalog "Lightroom Catalog" is corrupt and cannot be used or backed up until it is repaired".

But when I try to repair it I then get the message:

"Lightroom encountered problems reading or writing from the disk when attempting to repair "Lightroom catalog".

I try again and again and the same thing happens.

I'm unable to open any of my backed up catalogues as they're corrupted.

Any clues as to how I can resolve this situation?

Thanks in advance!

Alex

[ManiacJoe]

"problems reading or writing from the disk"

This is suggesting that the drive containing the catalog is starting to go bad. I would recommend using your OS tools to scan the drive for bad sectors and other problems.

Are your catalog backups being put on the same drive? (They should be on a different drive.)

[alexd31392631]

Hi there, thanks for the response

I scanned my E drive (an external hard drive where the pics are backed up) and my C Drive (where Lightroom is installed) and neither have any issues. Both my laptop and my external  drive are less than a year old and I've had no problems with either before.

I wonder if Lightroom can't figure out where the backed up files are and can't connect to them.

Not sure how I can resolve this, if I uninstalled Lightroom and tried to reinstall (it's a legacy edition so it's an actual CD I'm installing) would that solve things?

[alexd31392631]

No closer to resolving this issue, so I'll try the last question again:

Will uninstalling and reinstalling Lightroom affect my ability to use the product if I have the classic version?

Help much appreciated.

Alex

[Sahil.Chawla]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about the corrupted catalog, uninstalling and re-installing the app will not have any affect on the ability to use it.

Try installing it on a different drive this time and see if it opens up.

Regards,
Sahil

[alexd31392631]

Thanks,

I didn't have the option to reinstall anywhere but on my C Drive so I reinstalled and deleted the old backed up catalog folder and created a new one on an external drive, and this seems to have done the trick. I don't know what caused the original catalog to become corrupted though.

Any clues so I may avoid it happening in the future? It seems to be an issue affecting quite a few users.

Many thanks,

Alex

[ManiacJoe]

I use a gamer's mentality: save early and save often.

For db apps like Lightroom, saving is really just flushing the disk cache, which basically means running queries that return lots of data, like clicking on a large folder of images not related to what you are editing.

I have never had faith in the sleep/pause modes of laptops. I always exit the app, wait ~10 seconds, then close the lid.

[Rob_Cullen]

I have just read this thread and feel I must make some comments from your posts.

Lightroom encountered problems reading or writing from the disk

Disks do go bad- I can vouch for that. My C:drive SSD failed and was replaced under warranty.

Also Disk/Folder/File 'Permissions can change (with OS updates etc). 'Read Only' will prevent Lr writing to disk.

Disks....less than a year old

They will fail at some time. Age is often not a factor.

I wonder if Lightroom can't figure out where the backed up files are and can't connect to them.

Lightroom does NOT "connect" to backed up files. The Catalog makes a referenced index to the files in their 'master' folder location. Backups of photo files are only for restoration in the event of the 'masters' being lost or damaged.

if I uninstalled Lightroom and tried to reinstall

Usually no benefit. Often if a Catalog is corrupt and cannot be repaired, only restoring from a Backup Catalog is of benefit.

it's a legacy edition so it's an actual CD I'm installing

And which version might that be?

Recent versions of Lr save Catalog backups as .ZIP files that must be unzipped to use.

A "Legacy Version" of Lr may not 'zip' the catalog.

And what Operating System and Version Number are you running?

I didn't have the option to reinstall anywhere but on my C Drive

In Windows that is the common and default location for all software. (C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom Classic)

You Catalog can be located on any connected Drive (not NAS).

Any clues so I may avoid it happening in the future?

Run the CHKDSK command to check drives. (Still a useful DOS command - I just resurrected a 2TB external drive!)

Backup your Catalog frequently. (Set Preferences to "ask every time" you exit Lightroom)

In the Backup dialog- select [Test Integrity] and [Optimize Catalog] regularly.

I hope you are 'up-and-running' with Lr now.

[default2pflsk5utj76]

My catalog got corrupted today and none of the automatic copies taken by syncing to Google drive seems to work. Exactly how an entire catalog can be corrupted when it's supposed to just be a text/db file with a list of changes I don't understand.