local catalog damaged

[classified33]

i go to open lightroom (not lightroom classic) and a red message pops up saing local catalog damaged. below that it says you can fix this problem by restoring from your cloud backup and gives step by step below but i cant find the file they start off with for this procedure. ive tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app on my computer, restarting my computer, and searching through my documents but cant find anything. i just want to be able to edit my photos again, please help

[john beardsworth · Accepted solution]

Just confirm, when you start Lightroom do you see a splash screen with a brown dog or a Paris street?

What operating system? If Mac, go to Pictures, on and you'll see a file called Lightroom Library.lrlibrary - that's the local catalog. As Lightroom's catalog is in the cloud, you can delete this local catalog (or just rename it) and restarting LR will make it recreate one.

[Ddrice1992]

This definitely worked! Everything else didn’t. Not even the solution adobe provided. Thank you soooooooo much! 

[ebruatlan]

Thank you so much for the info. I have been trying to solve this problem for 2 days. Nothing helped but this definitely did!

[rivasad21]

Thank you!! I tried other ways and this worked beautifully! 

[jonathan5C79]

Thanks, Saved me a headache! worked to perfection!

[AnneLeoVideo]

Thank you @john beardsworth !

[Abbey0D4D]

Came here from google because Adobes fixes weren't working. Easiest fix I've ever used for anything. Thank you!

[Crystal5E79]

This worked! and was wayyy more simple than what adobe help provided! THANK YOU!

[ZKostile]

Thank you a thousand times. I am now connected. You are a genius

[Tmoenssen]

Thank you so much! the steps that Adobe provided did nothing but this worked.  

[brucecarterward]

John, what is the purpose for the local catalog? Thanks.

[john beardsworth]

Assuming we are talking about cloud-dependent Lightroom, think of its catalog as just being a cache and for when you are working offline.

[defaultuqc05v8c4jsb]

This worked! And it was way easier than the nonsense Adobe posted as a fix. THANK YOU!

[staubzilla]

OMG. YOU ARE THE BOMB.  Thank you so much - not like editing a wedding and THIS happens.  Thank you for the LITERAL saved hours.  

[defaultaqop3wv5tpuk]

Thanks. Adobe's instructions about deleting the previews folder in the Catalog ID string didn't work, but simply renaming the Catalog ID string worked for me.

[jeffberg1]

Brilliant!  Thanks so much.  I was experincing the same issue and was incredibly tentative to take your advice and delete the local catolog.  I took the chance to rename it and it worked brilliantly.  Thanks for sharing, John!

[defaultwa1xq8xswko5]

Thank you soooo much! idk why adobe couldnt have just said that! literally fixed my 3 day issue in seconds!

[viincent23]

You saved one more person ! Thank you 😄

[Kyd B. Wilde]

What the heck! Imagine a blackhole consuming the stress of every soul within a billion mile radius...that was my heart when I read the currupt message and spent 30 minutes researching adobe's answers (btw - there are no Youtube tutorials for Mac Users). Then I read this...Mr. John Beardsworth tells me to copy and past Lightroom Library.lrlibrary into my icloud drive finder and BOOM! Problem fixed...simple...I will rest easy now 🙂

[Derek229254729tnr]

THIS is the Answer I needed!! Thank you!! Adobe doesn't even know how to fix their own problems! 

[Shaniqua27293246gtf0]

Nothing I tried has worked......THIS WORKED!!! Thanks so much!!!

[99jon]

1. On Windows Close Lightroom
2. Hold down the windows key and Press R to bring up the run dialog
3. Type %appdata% and hit return
4. Navigate  the file path through Local to Data and open the folder with a long string of numbers
5. Rename the file Managed Catalog.mcat to Managed Catalog.old
6. Delete the previews database
7. Close Explorer and re-launch Lightroom
8. Wait for sync to complete

On Mac OS start from Pictures and open Package Contents.

See Local Catalog Damaged for more information.

[classified33]

When i get to Local, there is no Data option for a folder. I tried clicking
through the Adobe folder from that point and then Lightroom but there is no
manage cat anything, just Caches or Preferences

[Milos25743228r51a]

I didn't everything that you said and it still doesn't work 😭

Do you know any other way to fix this problem?

Thank you in advance