Restore delete catalog from cloud

[rmwu]

I wanted to delete my catalog on the cloud only, so I downloaded everything and deleted the catalog, but it turns out that Lightroom doesn't store anything locally :(((( How do I restore my catalog??? I don't want to store RAWs on the cloud...

[JohanElzenga]

If you do not want to store your images in the cloud, then Lightroom is not the right application for you. Consider switching to Lightroom Classic.

[rmwu]

Yes, I can switch to Lightroom Classic afterwards. But is there any way to retrieve what I deleted so I can migrate?

[JohanElzenga]

Select all images and then export 'as original'.

[rmwu]

I'm not sure if you understood my question, but there are no more images. I deleted the catalog online, assuming that there would be a local copy, but there wasn't. I would like to restore what I deleted. This post seems to suggest that this would be possible. https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-ecosystem-cloud-based-discussions/permanently-deleted-all-p... 

[JohanElzenga]

By default there is no local copy of the images, unless you changed that in the preferences. I'm not sure how you could delete the online catalog. You can delete the online images, however. These can be retrieved for one month. They will be in Deleted.

 

[rmwu]

Yes, and I clicked "Store locally" for every single album. The green checkmark indicated that they were saved. I assumed they would remain after deleting the Lightroom catalog online, but they were deleted anyways. Since I deleted the entire catalog, nothing shows up here or in the deleted section online.

[JohanElzenga]

If you store albums locally then Lightroom stores the originals inside the 'Lightroom Library.lrlibrary' package in your Pictures folder. I hope you did not delete that too! If you still have it, then right-click on it and choose 'Show Package Contents'. The file will open as a folder and inside you will see a folder with a long incomprehensive name. On my computer is is called '33d187a13d994eeea338e7509f3927ce', but I assume that will be different on your computer. Inside that folder will be a folder called 'originals'. That is where your images should be. I do think the edits will be lost, however.

[rmwu]

Thanks for trying to help! :') Not sure I can extract stuff from the cache but I'll see what I can do.

[PeterB2 · Accepted solution]

We will also share what we were able to recover from the server.  Since you deleted your entire catalog, it is a more straightforward process.  I will send you a private message with the data.

-Peter