All synced images gone from collections

[thommy]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom Classic version: 11.2

Operating System

1. Windows 10

Hi

Suddenly all my images in my synced collections are gone - empty collections.
And no images at https://lightroom.adobe.com
Images still exist in their folders.
And all non-synced collections seems to be intact.
I will check my backups later to validate if there are images in my synced collections.
I have no idea how this has happened.
Any ideas?

Thommy

 

[Califdan]

I had a similar experience a week or so ago. Was looking at the "All Synced photos" Special Collection and found a dozen or so images that were junk (price tags in stores, etc) so selected the first group of about 5 and removed them from the collection. Rather than taking a few seconds it seemed to be taking a bit more time, but just chalked it up to a slow patch in internet speed. So, while that "process" was still running selected the next group of 3 or4 and did the same thing. Now I had two processes running, both doing deletes from the All Synced Photos Special Collection. Again slow progress bars. So, after a minute got worried and cancelled those two processes and shut down LrC. Re-launched LrC and low and behold my All Synced Photos Special Collection was now empty (had contains over 2,000 images). I didn't check but I'm sure my regular collections that were synced to the cloud were also empty. In other words, rather than removing just the half dozen or so selected (highlighted) images from the All Synced Photos special collection it had deleted all the images from that special collection and proceeded to "sync" that delete up to the cloud. BTW, I am 100% sure I only had those half dozen images selected (highlightred) when issused the remove from collection command and not the entire set of images in the special collection.

Fortunatly this was the first thing I had don that day and I had a backup of the entire LrC folder from just before I shut down the evening before. So, restored the entire LrC folder (including all the helper files/folder) and problem resolved. Also checked phone app to assure that images were indeed still there.

Lrc 11/2
Windows/10

 

[Jim Wilde]

How many images did you have in your cloud account? And do the images still exist in their folders when viewed in LrClassic?

There are a few things that could have been done in order to create the situation where the synced collections still exist but have no content, and your LrWeb app contains no images:

1. You could have manually selected all the synced images in any of your cloud apps and deleted them. In that scenario, the images would still exist in their folders in LrC, but the synced collections and LrWeb would be empty.
2. You could have manually selected all the synced images in LrC and removed them from the catalog. In that scenario, all the synced collections and LrWeb would have no content, and the images would also have been removed from the folders in LrC.
3. You could have selected all the images in the All Synced Photographs special collection and removed them from that special collection. In that scenario all the images would still exist in their folders in LrC, but the synced collections and LrWeb would be empty.

There may be some variations of those 3 scenarios, but in the main one of those would have had to have been done in order to create the situation you are describing. It's difficult to see how any of them could have been accidentally done, though the third option could have been done without understanding the consequences. But only you can say if any of these scenarios strike a chord with you. The alternative would be some horrible bug in Lightroom cloud, but I have not seen any reports of such a catastrophe on the various Lightroom forums.

Have you checked in the LrWeb app if there are any images in the special "Deleted" album? Hopefully all your synced content would be there and could be restored.

 

[thommy]

How many images did you have in your cloud account? And do the images still exist in their folders when viewed in LrClassic?

There are a few things that could have been done in order to create the situation where the synced collections still exist but have no content, and your LrWeb app contains no images:

1. You could have manually selected all the synced images in any of your cloud apps and deleted them. In that scenario, the images would still exist in their folders in LrC, but the synced collections and LrWeb would be empty.
2. You could have manually selected all the synced images in LrC and removed them from the catalog. In that scenario, all the synced collections and LrWeb would have no content, and the images would also have been removed from the folders in LrC.
3. You could have selected all the images in the All Synced Photographs special collection and removed them from that special collection. In that scenario all the images would still exist in their folders in LrC, but the synced collections and LrWeb would be empty.

There may be some variations of those 3 scenarios, but in the main one of those would have had to have been done in order to create the situation you are describing. It's difficult to see how any of them could have been accidentally done, though the third option could have been done without understanding the consequences. But only you can say if any of these scenarios strike a chord with you. The alternative would be some horrible bug in Lightroom cloud, but I have not seen any reports of such a catastrophe on the various Lightroom forums.

Have you checked in the LrWeb app if there are any images in the special "Deleted" album? Hopefully all your synced content would be there and could be restored.

Hi

I had around 8650 images in my cloud. They do still exist in their folder viewed from LrC.
And I found a backup in February with all synced collections intact.
What is the best way of resolving this?
Export all folders after February as a catalog and merge them into the February catalog that contains all synced image collections?

Thommy

 

[thommy]

I had a similar experience a week or so ago. Was looking at the "All Synced photos" Special Collection and found a dozen or so images that were junk (price tags in stores, etc) so selected the first group of about 5 and removed them from the collection. Rather than taking a few seconds it seemed to be taking a bit more time, but just chalked it up to a slow patch in internet speed. So, while that "process" was still running selected the next group of 3 or4 and did the same thing. Now I had two processes running, both doing deletes from the All Synced Photos Special Collection. Again slow progress bars. So, after a minute got worried and cancelled those two processes and shut down LrC. Re-launched LrC and low and behold my All Synced Photos Special Collection was now empty (had contains over 2,000 images). I didn't check but I'm sure my regular collections that were synced to the cloud were also empty. In other words, rather than removing just the half dozen or so selected (highlighted) images from the All Synced Photos special collection it had deleted all the images from that special collection and proceeded to "sync" that delete up to the cloud. BTW, I am 100% sure I only had those half dozen images selected (highlightred) when issused the remove from collection command and not the entire set of images in the special collection.

Fortunatly this was the first thing I had don that day and I had a backup of the entire LrC folder from just before I shut down the evening before. So, restored the entire LrC folder (including all the helper files/folder) and problem resolved. Also checked phone app to assure that images were indeed still there.

Lrc 11/2
Windows/10

That is kind of similar to what I remember I did a month ago.
Marked all non-raw images and deleted them from "All synched photos".
But not 100% sure I did the cleanup correctly - so maybe I did a mistake.
Now I need a method of adding my images back into the synced collections.
I have backups where I can see everything in the synced collections intact - just need to come up with a restore solution.

 

[johnbeardy]

Marked all non-raw images and deleted them from "All synched photos".
...
Now I need a method of adding my images back into the synced collections.
I have backups where I can see everything in the synced collections intact - just need to come up with a restore solution.

If that is definitely what you did, then go into your Lightroom Web page and open up All Photos. In there is a Deleted section where you can select and restore photos.

Otherwise, I'd suggest simply dragging and dropping the photos into the collections.

 

[thommy]

If that is definitely what you did, then go into your Lightroom Web page and open up All Photos. In there is a Deleted section where you can select and restore photos.

Otherwise, I'd suggest simply dragging and dropping the photos into the collections.

Great - that solved it! Restored all 8500 images.
Forgotten about the Deleted folder.
I was looking in the Creative Cloud Desktop app and Files tab - nothing in the Deleted folder. Stupid

Thanks for helping me!

Thommy