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Unexpected error opening catalog.

Community Beginner ,
Jul 02, 2018 Jul 02, 2018

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Unexpected error opening catalog.

The catalog could not be opened due to an unexpected error.

Started running into this dialogue when opening catalogs other than my current one. A few details on my system/organization before I get into the other stuff.

Background Info:

macOS High Sierra 10.13.5

2015 Macbook Pro

I organize my catalogs by year, generally 1 catalog per year.

Until last week, I kept all of my catalogs on my laptop and had a program back them up to 2 external drives roughly every other night.

Last week, I did my annual system wipe, and realized I only need my current 2018 catalog with me at all times. So after I reinstalled macOS, I only brought back my 2018 catalog. I suspect this is somehow related, but I haven't opened my 2017 catalog (or others) in a few months, so I can't verify. My Home folder and User Name is the same as before.

Tonight I tried opening my 2017 catalog for website stuff and ran into this dialogue. This also happens for any catalog that isn't my current one on both the main drive and backup. I went through the forums and didn't find any solid answer, but did find one locked thread where a staff member was PM-ing a handful of users with the issues and apparently helping/fixing privately—no one ever disclosed the solution, or even the problem, in that thread, which is frustrating.

Solutions I've Tried:

– Restarting computer

– Repair disk permissions on Macbook and external drives

– Changing Get Info > Sharing & Permissions for all users on Macbook and external drives

– Trash LR CC Preferences

– Importing old catalogs into a brand new catalog (I get error "Lightroom cannot import from this catalog. The catalog does not appear to be a valid Lightroom catalog.")

– Copying old catalogs to Desktop, then opening

– Copying old catalogs to their original location on my Macbook

– Rolling back Lightroom Classic CC to version 7.3, 7.2, and 7.1

– Deleting the .lock file (most of these catalogs do not have one)

– This one is strange: I tried repairing the catalog with LR and received the error:

Temporarily Unable to Repair Corrupt Catalg

Lightroom encountered problems reading or writing from disk when attempting to repair "2017-cc"

My external drives have 2+ TB free and my Macbook has 300+ GB free. I tried both, and have permissions set to Read & Write for everyone.

Odd Note:

The backup catalogs that LR makes about once a week seem to open fine. However, this is still concerning to me as this happened to ALL of my old catalogs and I don't know why so I can prevent it from happening again.

Has anyone found a solution to this or know what caused it? I find it peculiar/terrifying that my backed up catalogs on external drives won't open—kind of defeats the purpose of having redundancies.

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Adobe Employee , Jul 03, 2018 Jul 03, 2018

Thanks for sharing the information Kris, could you share the catalog with me via private message, so that we can test it at our end, if it's corrupt then we can try repairing it.

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Adobe Employee ,
Jul 03, 2018 Jul 03, 2018

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Hi Kriscave,

We're sorry to hear about the unexpected error, could you please let us know on which location did you give the read and write permission?

Also, could you try enabling the root user on mac and then try opening the catalog and let us know if it works?

Please check this link for steps on how to enable the root user: How to enable the root user on your Mac or change your root password - Apple Support

Regards,
Sahil

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 03, 2018 Jul 03, 2018

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Hey Sahil,

Thanks for the quick response! I gave read and write permission on all the catalogs and on all the hard drives (Get Info > Read & Write for all Users > Apply to enclosed items) so everything should be free to read/write.

Just enabled root user on Mac and got all of the same errors.

Something interesting I discovered last night: old catalogs that need to be updated to LR Classic before opening seem to be fine.

Also, thankfully the LR generated backup catalogs open fine, and they were made the last time I opened those catalogs—so for now it seems I haven't lost any work. But this issue is still troubling, so if we could find the cause or a solution to fix, that would be most appreciated!

Best,

Kris

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Adobe Employee ,
Jul 03, 2018 Jul 03, 2018

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Thanks for sharing the information Kris, could you share the catalog with me via private message, so that we can test it at our end, if it's corrupt then we can try repairing it.

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 03, 2018 Jul 03, 2018

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You got it, thank you.

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New Here ,
Feb 05, 2019 Feb 05, 2019

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Hello Sahil,

I'm experiencing the same problems. Can I send you my catalog to you to test it at your end and if corrupt please try to repair it?

KR Annemiek

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Adobe Employee ,
Feb 05, 2019 Feb 05, 2019

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Hi there,

I have sent you a private message, please check & respond.

Regards,
Sahil

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New Here ,
Jun 30, 2020 Jun 30, 2020

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Hi Sahil,

 

I am having the same issue. Could you help me as well?

 

Thank you

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 19, 2020 Jun 19, 2020

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Hi Sahil,

 

Im having the same problem with my catalog. Can you help?

Thanks.

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New Here ,
Feb 18, 2021 Feb 18, 2021

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Hello Sahil!

 

I know this is an old thread, but i am having the same issue.  Can i send it to you to get it fixed as well?

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