Posted by Julia Flanagan on December 21, 2017 at 6:32 PM
Hi all, I have an iMac, Mountain Lion (I think). I decided to do something I had never done and gave LightRoom 6 permission to backed up my images. I knew it would take some time so I left the computer alone. I didn't return to it for several days. When I did there was an error message (sorry I didn't record what the message said). I had restarted LightRoom and when I did LR acted as if I had no catalog. Basically it had no catalogs at all in the left-hand column where my catalog always pops up.
I always create a back up copy of my images when I import them RAW into LightRoom. Those are intact.
This is probably a pathetic amount of information for you to work from, but if anyone has any suggestions I'm open! I had 30K images cataloged and holding out hope there is some simple solution that this very non-technically savvy photography might apply.
Much gratitude in advance for your assistance.
Posted by John Reed on December 22, 2017 at 6:09 AM
Not sure how to do it with Mac but I would guess that Finder has a search capability. Search for the term "lrcat" without quotes and when you find it you should be able to just double click on it (or Mac equivalent) and LR will open with that catalog. If by some chance several copies of lrcat are found, you will then have to determine which was the one you were using. I suspect it would be the one with the most recent date.
Good luck.
JR
Call Adobe. They are great in helping you fix issues.
Andrew
Posted by Keith Bauer on December 22, 2017 at 9:11 AM
Need to get a couple of things cleared up first... You didn't give LR 6 permission to back up your images because LR NEVER backs up images. LR backs up its' own LR catalog, but it does not back up images. You should be backing those up via some software on your own. The best software on a Mac to do backups is Carbon Copy Cloner.
Too bad you didn't record the error message, but I'm guessing that during the process of backing up your catalog you chose to Optimize the catalog and Check the Integrity of the catalog via leaving those two options turned on. Those options are on by default and are fine to leave on but it sounds like you've never backed up your LR catalog before? If that is the case, then you have a problem. I'm guessing the error was that you catalog has some error in it and it failed the Integrity check, but that is just a guess.
On a Mac the default location for the catalog is under you home directory, then Pictures, then LightRoom. Check in that directory to see the catalog. The main catalog file would have a name something like LightRoom Catalog.lrcat.
Sounds like when you open LR you are getting a new blank catalog. Try to use the option under the File menu to "Open Recent" and see if you can open the most recent catalog that is not open. That should be your original catalog. If that fails, then you would need to restore from a backup, but if you haven't ever backed up your catalog, you don't have a backup unless you are also running Time Machine. If you have LR catalog backups the default location is in the Pictures Directory, then LightRoom then Backups. Look there for any backups you have.
If Time Machine is enabled, the catalog is on your Mac HD and would be backed up as well.
If none of this makes sense, you need to get an Apple person to help you to see if you have Time Machine running and restore from there, or look in the LR catalog backups directory described above.
You pictures are still on your machine. LR did not touch them.
Posted by Julia Flanagan on December 29, 2017 at 1:16 PM
Thank you all for your assistance. I found lrcat in my files unzipped it and double clicked on it. That restored my catalog from Jun 30, 2017. I could not find a later cataglog. The only files I'm missing are those I loaded since July 1, 2017. They are on my hard drive, but it looks like I will need to re-import them and go through the sorting, labeling/keywording process again, about 2500 images. A bummer, but not as big a deal if I had to re-keyword everything!
Discussion
4 repliesI always create a back up copy of my images when I import them RAW into LightRoom. Those are intact.
This is probably a pathetic amount of information for you to work from, but if anyone has any suggestions I'm open! I had 30K images cataloged and holding out hope there is some simple solution that this very non-technically savvy photography might apply.
Much gratitude in advance for your assistance.
Good luck.
JR
Call Adobe. They are great in helping you fix issues.
Andrew
Too bad you didn't record the error message, but I'm guessing that during the process of backing up your catalog you chose to Optimize the catalog and Check the Integrity of the catalog via leaving those two options turned on. Those options are on by default and are fine to leave on but it sounds like you've never backed up your LR catalog before? If that is the case, then you have a problem. I'm guessing the error was that you catalog has some error in it and it failed the Integrity check, but that is just a guess.
On a Mac the default location for the catalog is under you home directory, then Pictures, then LightRoom. Check in that directory to see the catalog. The main catalog file would have a name something like LightRoom Catalog.lrcat.
Sounds like when you open LR you are getting a new blank catalog. Try to use the option under the File menu to "Open Recent" and see if you can open the most recent catalog that is not open. That should be your original catalog. If that fails, then you would need to restore from a backup, but if you haven't ever backed up your catalog, you don't have a backup unless you are also running Time Machine. If you have LR catalog backups the default location is in the Pictures Directory, then LightRoom then Backups. Look there for any backups you have.
If Time Machine is enabled, the catalog is on your Mac HD and would be backed up as well.
If none of this makes sense, you need to get an Apple person to help you to see if you have Time Machine running and restore from there, or look in the LR catalog backups directory described above.
You pictures are still on your machine. LR did not touch them.
Thank you everyone for all your suggestions.