Catalog corrupt

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WesternGuy

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It would appear that my catalog has been corrupted and maybe all the backups(?). So I am faced with the prospect of rebuilding the entire catalog. I am assuming that I simply start with creating a new catalog and maybe import my most recent images and then import the older ones as time allows, unless there is a "better" way to do this.

If anyone has a better approach, then I would appreciate your sharing your thoughts and ideas. Thanks.

WesternGuy
 
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1. Have you tried exporting your catalog to a new catalog and see if that solves your problem.
2. Why do you think your catalog is corrupt ?
 
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How has it become corrupted, and why do you think all your backups are also corrupted?
 
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Gnits said:
1. Have you tried exporting your catalog to a new catalog and see if that solves your problem.
2. Why do you think your catalog is corrupt ?
Click to expand...
1. and 2. Lightroom tells me that it cannot find the catalog. When I start LR, it wants to immediately begin importing files and none of my folders show up where they are supposed to be. It's like the catalog doesn't exist.
 
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Jim Wilde said:
How has it become corrupted, and why do you think all your backups are also corrupted?
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I don't know how it became corrupted, or how the backups are corrupted. It is just that I do not seem to be able to find them - go figure. I did a search for any ".lrdata" files and it came up empty.
 
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Are you windows or Mac.

The Lr catalog has a filename ending in .lrcat. Maybe you can find your catalog and not have to revert to a backup.

I would search my machine for all files which end in .lrcat. Were you using external drives?
 
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Gnits said:
Are you windows or Mac.

The Lr catalog has a filename ending in .lrcat. Maybe you can find your catalog and not have to revert to a backup.

I would search my machine for all files which end in .lrcat. Were you using external drives?
Click to expand...
I have done this search to no avail. The images are on an external drive, but the catalog and all its associated files were on an internal drive. I am beginning to believe that I may have deleted them by accident - not sure, but that is often the case when things just disappear.

I am running Windows 10 Pro.
 
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If you cannot find the catalog then it is worth looking for any backups.

Search for all zip files and see if any of them contain a catalog file.
 
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Gnits said:
If you cannot find the catalog then it is worth looking for any backups.

Search for all zip files and see if any of them contain a catalog file.
Click to expand...
There has got to be a better approach than "Search for all zip files..." I have a large number of zip files and searching through them is going to be extremely time consuming. Surely, there must be a location where LR saves its backups that someone knows about that will save me a lot of "searching and looking".

WesternGuy
 
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The location where Lightroom backups is user changeable. Assuming you have Lightroom perform backups, when you exit Lightroom, it'll ask where to save the backups.
From Catalog Settings:
Screenshot 2017-03-14 21.39.52.png

Screenshot 2017-03-14 21.40.11.png


When you exit Lightroom:
Screenshot 2017-03-14 21.40.39.png
 
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In addition to previous message..
The backups will be named {catalog name}.lrcat.zip
 
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Global search through my hard drives did not find any "lrdata" files. So, I guess it is time to start over and let it run all night as I cannot think of anything else to do or anywhere else to look.

WesternGuy
 
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Also, I have never been happy using the standard Windows search tools. I have tried to get it to find files I know existed, but it did not show them. The reason is that some index Windows was using was not fully populated. Maybe later versions of Windows has a more usable Search feature, but UltraSearch is now my goto search tool.


Fastest File Search: UltraSearch

I own TreeSize Pro which has a fully featured Windows Search module, but I still prefer to use the Free version linked above.

Here is a sample output, simply search for Lrcat on my C and P drives....

upload_2017-3-15_7-0-22.png
 
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Gnits,

Thanks for the pointer to Ultrasearch. I knew I needed a better search tool, but somehow never went looking for one.
 
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Hal P Anderson said:
Gnits,

Thanks for the pointer to Ultrasearch. I knew I needed a better search tool, but somehow never went looking for one.
Click to expand...

I highly recommend Ultrasearch on Windows machines.

I also have a high regard for TreeSize from the same stable .

I have sent some suggestions to Jam Software in terms of improved usability of the Pro version built into TreeSize. I must check if that module has changed, since I have not looked at that app for a long time.
 
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Gnits said:
I highly recommend Ultrasearch on Windows machines.

I also have a high regard for TreeSize from the same stable.
Click to expand...
FWIW that's my experience too; Ultrasearch was invaluable.
 
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Gnits, I found some old backup using your recommended search program - Ultrasearch. It is good. The backups it found were up to December 2014. This means not all is lost, I hope. I created a new catalog for my photographs for the last few days and will try to merge this older one with it. That way I only have the 2015 and 2016 images to worry about.

Thanks for all your help with all this and for the tip on Ultrasearch.
 
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Gnits said:
Great that you are making progress.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I leave tomorrow for a field workshop in New Mexico, so I won't be able to get at this until I return towards the end of the month. Then all my major time commitments will be behind me. I shall see how it goes then. I have the instructions on how to merge the "backup" with my newly created catalog. Hopefully there are no hitches along the way.
 
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Well, good news, for me anyway. I was able to use Recova to find my last catalog backup on the drive that it had been stored on. I then pointed LR at the unzipped version and updated this with some of the recent files and everything seems to be back together again. My thanks to all who contributed ideas and to Gnits for his persistent in keeping me going at this problem.

WesternGuy
 
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