Lightroom catalog completely missing after CC Classic upgrade

[ilovemegapixels]

Hello, I performed the Lightroom CC Classic upgrade, and when it asked to upgrade the catalog, of course I clicked yes. Now the program opens, and there are zero photos in the catalog. I can navigate to only two ircat files now, and they are both brand new files with zero images. My original catalogs are gone! ????

Please help!

[Rob_Cullen · Accepted solution]

In the Lightroom catalog that does open (even if empty)- can you go {Menu > File > Open Recent}

What do you see?

Have you searched the computer for catalog files that have the file-type of  .LRCAT  ?

If your working catalog (or catalogs) have really totally disappeared then you will have to restore from your most recent Catalog backup.

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/disaster-strikes-corrupted-catalog/#restore

Note; Recent versions of Lightroom make Catalog backups in .ZIP files, so you would need to extract the .LRCAT catalog from the .ZIP file.

[ilovemegapixels]

I had to restore from an older catalog. Unfortunately, my laziness in backing up resulted in using a backup that's several months old. Lesson learned, thanks for the link/help.

[marvind47040822]

I have the identical problem! I used file browser for .lrcat and only returned old catalogs. I can't find the place of my backups. 

[Rob_Cullen]

If you do not know where your backups are going, then I suggest you look in the Folder that has the Catalog .LRCAT file. The default location for Catalog backups is in a sub-folder called "Backups"

You should instead be directing your Catalog backups to another physical hard drive by setting this location from the [Choose] button in the Backup dialog!