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Finding Collections and Restoring them

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Mrdavie

Mrdavie

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131
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Intermediate
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Lightroom Version Number
12.1
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  1. Windows 11
Because of distractions from photography this year, it has been impossible to maintain a regular interaction with Lightroom. It seems when I get around to working in Lightroom an upgrade has occurred. And, sometimes that includes a conversion of the catalog (I’d eally like to know why Adobe needs to change the catalog file structure at all!). At some point in a recent catalog conversion, the Collections disappeared. The totality of images are intact, but the Collections are gone! Do you have a method for retrieving Collections and adding the back into the catalog?
 
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Mrdavie said:
I’d really like to know why Adobe needs to change the catalog file structure at all!
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The catalog is a database, and a database has records and fields. New functionality means new fields to store the parameters of that functionality, and so the database needs to be upgraded to add those fields.
 
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Mrdavie said:
At some point in a recent catalog conversion, the Collections disappeared. The totality of images are intact, but the Collections are gone! Do you have a method for retrieving Collections and adding the back into the catalog?
Click to expand...
An upgrade should not do that. Try upgrading the old catalog again. The upgrade creates an upgraded copy, so you should still have the old catalog as well.
 
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Ok, My Stupid. The Collections were always there. They were COLLAPSED under a box titled "From Lightroom."
But, regarding my initial comment about having to convert the catalogs, which I know is simply a database, there is also the Lightroom executable application itself. Some releases do not require conversion of the database. In fact, it seems like all computer applications are manipulating data in a "database." Autodesk, for example improved it's CAD software without hardly ever having to modify the database. I'm just saying, if a database has to be modified to upgrade an application, it's risky.
 
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I’m sure these catalog upgrades are inevitable, due to the nature of the new or changed features. Adobe is not doing that for the fun of it or to annoy you! I used FileMaker Pro for a long time, and it was the same thing. Databases had to be updated regularly upon the release of a new version of the application.
 
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The upgrade of the database might also be required by the upgrade of the database engine (SqLite ine the case of LR) itself.
 
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