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alexd31392631
alexd31392631
Participant
June 9, 2019
Question

The Lightroom catalog is corrupt and cannot be repaired

  • June 9, 2019
  • 3 replies
  • 6792 views

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

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    3 replies

    D
    default2pflsk5utj76
    Participant
    November 1, 2021

    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.

    alexd31392631
    alexd31392631Author
    Participant
    July 11, 2019

    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
    Adobe Employee
    Sahil.Chawla
    Adobe Employee
    July 11, 2019

    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
    alexd31392631Author
    Participant
    July 13, 2019

    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
    ManiacJoe
    Inspiring
    June 9, 2019

    "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
    alexd31392631Author
    Participant
    June 11, 2019

    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?

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