Library empty after "profile" update

[charlotteblokhuis]

Hello. Panicking a little here - my lightroom photos are suddenly all gone.

Two days ago, when I opened the Lightroom mobile app, it suddenly prompted me to sign in and select a profile. I'm registered through an educational system, always have been, and nothing changed, I have no idea why I suddenly had to select something. But now all of a sudden my entire Lightroom library is empty. It doesn't matter whether I check the mobile app, desktop app or browser version. I think they might be linked to my personal profile by accident, but I can't access them. Whenever I try to log in to lightroom, it defaults to the organizational account. When I try to log out to switch, I don't get the option to choose between personal and organizational. I can still find my Photoshop cloud documents in the personal cloud.

This is immensely frustrating so I really hope someone can help me retrieve my photos. Any ideas?

[Sameer K]

Hey, @charlotteblokhuis. Welcome to the Lightroom Community. I've reviewed the email account you're signed in with into the community, and you have two profiles under your email.

Only one of the profiles associated with a business has an active subscription & the other profile has 105GB of storage. This new sign-in experience will help you manage your account if you have multiple profiles on the same email account. Check this to learn more: https://helpx.adobe.com/enterprise/kb/introducing-adobe-profiles.html

Use the Lightroom Downloader to download all your original images with edits. Check here: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/kb/download-lightroom-photos.html

You will need to export Lightroom Edit presets manually from the Presets tab by right-clicking & choosing 'Export presets.'

You can reach us via Chat or call. Contact our team via live chat for help with other possible options here: https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html

Thanks!

Sameer K

[charlotteblokhuis]

Hi,

Thank you for your response. Thankfully, the Lightroom Downloader did ask for profile selection on login, and I am now downloading my raws.

However, the issue remains that whenever I sign into either the desktop or browser or version of Lightroom CC, it will not let me into my personal profile to get to my presets. No matter how I sign in (email/password or via Google), and even if I do get the option to select a profile, Lightroom defaults to the empty one. Any idea what might be causing this and/or how to solve it?

Charlotte

[charlotteblokhuis]

Update: I've used Lightroom Downloader to back up my files, but I feel lke this solution is incomplete. I now have folders of each year's raws sitting on a hard drive. What I need is a complete migration back into Lightroom CC, including the folder structure, photos, edits, flags and presets. So I'm stuck with the following questions: 

- How do I import the photos I've backed up with the settings included? 

- How do I migrate the folder structure of my library?

- How do I access my personal profile in the desktop and browser version of Lightroom CC? (Which has both of the above)

I was reading about a possible way to export a complete CC library, including folder structure and flags, using Lightroom Classic as a bridge, but I try without being able to access my personal profile. I've spent hours so far trying to restore it to the way it was. Wildly frustrating.

[Phuxi]

I'm having the exact same issue. Even Lightroom mobile won't let me choose a profile, which means all my presets and images are gone. I also can't seem to figure out how to migrate everything to my business account so it all falls under my subscription. (Since your name sounds very Dutch, do you also use a Surfspot account like I do? If so, that would explain a lot.)

[charlotteblokhuis]

Yes, I do. I guess that explains the sudden profile setting change.

However, the problem is still not solved. @Sameer K do you have any further suggestions? I am still stuck without my library as described above. 

[Rens31888773cmf4]

I'm having the exact same issue aswell, the lightroom mobile app does not let me choose between my personal and my business account (it automatically signs me in to my business acoount everytime, even though I have automatic profile slection disabled in my account settings), meaning I don't have access to all my edits made on my personal account. It does not matter on which device I try to sign in to lightroom, everytime it skips the profile selction. I am also using surfspot for my business account btw. 

[Adrien318910846y8v]

Same for me!

It's the panic...

[Charlie.D]

Hello @charlotteblokhuis 

Our server team inspected your accounts, and found both the personal and enterprise/educational plans are expired.  This would explain login difficulties, at least for the Lightroom web app (lightroom.adobe.com).  The Lightroom desktop and mobile apps really should let you sign in, so you can at least download your files from your expired account.  

@charlotteblokhuis , @Phuxi , @Rens31888773cmf4 , @Adrien318910846y8v :
Our server logs show each of you chose not to migrate images from your original personal account to your new business account.  To do this now is not easy, but we may be able to help.

Migrating from the original personal profile to the new business profile will overwrite/destroy files currently in the business profile.  The server team needs to empty the business profile to allow the file transfer from the personal account.  

At this point, I recommend backup up your files from both personal and business Lightroom profiles.  Use the Lightroom desktop app to Export... Original + Settings to preserve images with edits.  Otherwise, use the Lightroom Downloader tool (link here) to save your desired original images and/or copies with edits applied--unfortunately this does not preserve edit metadata the same as Lightroom Desktop.

With all the files you want safely backed up on your computer or external storage, please advise us how you wish to proceed:

• You prefer to import files from your own personal account file backup to your business profile, or
• You want Adobe to erase your business profile, and transfer files from your personal profile.  Please confirm you have backed up files already, so you can re-import later... or confirm you need no backup of current files in your business profile.

Again, I strongly urge you to backup all files, so they can be restored later if needed.

[charlotteblokhuis]

Hello @Charlie.D,

Thank you so much for your response. This is very helpful. 

It seems the root of the problem is that I never had a "personal" versus "enterprise" plan. I had a single login for Adobe and everything was there, until one day it forced me to select something I wasn't informed about. I am guessing this was implemented by the organisation I purchased my subscription through. Anyway, I am very happy to hear there is a solution.

Since my entire library is on my personal profile (which I can't access and therefore can't export with metadata), and it would be much easier to re-import what is currently on my enterprise profile, I would very much appreciate your help with option 2: to erase my enterprise profile and transfer everything from my personal profile. I can confirm that I have backed up all my files from both profiles, and agree with overwriting the enterprise profile.

Thanks again, I really hope this puts everything back into place!

Charlotte

[Charlie.D]

Hello @charlotteblokhuis 

It sounds like the vendor that manages your plan (and perhaps a couple other users here) could have done a better job at messaging changes.  I still wonder if you reach out to them, could they unblock your sign in, for your personal profile.  It may be something they can do.  However, that should not prevent our server team from trying to copy over data to your enterprise profile.  I'll let the team know to start for your account.

Thanks for your kindness and patience as we try to sort out this problem!

[charlotteblokhuis]

Hello @Charlie.D -

Any idea on a timeline with the profile transfer? I am using Lightroom almost daily and backing up accordingly, but it is becoming more and more complex to organize this in a way that I can reimport later.

Sincerely,

Charlotte

[Charlie.D]

@charlotteblokhuis 

The effort on our side requires coordination between different teams, but we now know what to do.  As of today, please pause any sync efforts.

To confirm: your current enterprise account must be wiped, so that the personal account files can be migrated into it.  We will start this today, and I will let you know when the effort is complete.  You will then need to re-import files that were previously synced only to your enterprise plan since they will be wiped from the servers.