Corrupted catalogue help request, screen shot included

[McPhil]

Hello,

My Lightroom 4.3 catalogue may be corrupted. It freezes up, and the folder locations are incorrect and/or not listed. I've been reading about repairing the catalogue on this forum but would appreciate if someone could look at the screen shot dialogue box that pops up when I select the Lightroom folders' structure.and help me with the repair decision. I have started working with a catalogue backup from a few days back; most of the photos are in this backup catalogue, however the User Presents are not there.

My .lrcat file is up to 5.99 GB. Is their a drawback to this large size?

Thank you,

Phil

 

[clee01l]

Welcome to the forum. The size of the LRCAT file seems large for one containing 17K images. Are you sure this is Just the LRCAT file or could you be also including the LRDATA folder (previews)? I have about the same amount of images in my master catalog and LR is only about 1/2GB.

Before we start can you (with LR not running) make a copy of your master LRCAT file (your LR catalog)?

After that is done, open LR and choose {Optimize Catalog...} from the {File} menu. Then do a "get info" on the Catalog file and tell me if the file size still is over 5GB.

Next I'd like to see a screen shot of your Folder panel with the "Volumes" folder and top two or three sub folders revealed.

The error message saying that LR is trying to update a row in a table and there are two rows with that information where one and only one should exist. I thinke we can fix this and the "Optimise Catalog..." instruction might be all that we need to do. I'll know more after you report back.

 

[McPhil]

Before and after optimizing LR catalogue

Hello Cletus,

Thank you for replying about this problem. I did what you've suggested and optimized the LRCAT. Have enclosed a few screenshots: the Folders Panel, and a Get Info screenshot of the problematic LRCAT file before/after optimization, along with the LRDATA Previews info (this file is huge at 17.53 GB). I couldn't show you any more folder hierarchy than the screenshot shows --- most selections don't work. Just the Mac HD shows; my external hard drive that holds my catalogue files folder and the Photos folder doesn't show up. The corrupt LRCAT file thinks the catalogue is on the Mac HD and not the external HD?

Next, I restarted LR with my LRCAT backup file from Jan. 3. This works OK. The screenshot of the backup shows two hard drives, which is normal; I store my photos and LR catalogue files, settings and backups on an external hard drive named "Photos-LR-Catalogue". One can see my photos folders. When I did a Get Info for the backup LRDATA previews file, it shows 2.1 GB, much smaller than the corrupt LRDATA file.

Thanks again, Phil

 

[clee01l]

OK, I see what needs to be done. Your current catalog folder panel needs to look like your backup catalog from Jan 3rd. I'm not sure how to make it so. From the standpoint of fixing the broken catalog, reverting to the backup would be the easiest, but there are lots of changes seen in the current catalog that are not present in the Jan 3rd.

I don't have a solution today and beginning tomorrow I'll be gone for a week. I'll ask one of the other gurus to see if they can step in.

 

[Kiwigeoff]

Let's see. I would start a brand new catalog and attempt to import the troublesome one without previews. See how that goes.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

I think this is a variation on the volumes bug. Backup your catalog, then try this... Right-click on the / folder and choose Hide Parent Folder. Then do the same for Users and Volumes. And then possibly for the next level down too. At some point, everything should disappear from the Folders panel - it'll appear empty - but that's perfect. Then restart LR and it should show up correctly again.

 

[McPhil]

Let's see. I would start a brand new catalog and attempt to import the troublesome one without previews. See how that goes.

Thank you for your reply,

I may try this. When I make the new catalog and import the troublesome LRCAT into it, how would I leave out the LRDATA preview file? Should I rename the preview file, or do something else to it so it won't get imported?

McPhil

 

[McPhil]

I think this is a variation on the volumes bug. Backup your catalog, then try this... Right-click on the / folder and choose Hide Parent Folder. Then do the same for Users and Volumes. And then possibly for the next level down too. At some point, everything should disappear from the Folders panel - it'll appear empty - but that's perfect. Then restart LR and it should show up correctly again.

Thank you for your reply,

I tried to do this with the catalogue, but I get a dialogue box with a warning.
Right clicks or selections don't produce much of anything at all. All folders are frozen or behave strangely. Perhaps the problem cannot be resolved...?

McPhil

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Hi McPhil. Hmmmm, ok, I'd be up for a quick play, if it suits you. Zip up the catalog (just the lrcat file) and send it to me via www.wetransfer.com or Dropbox to members AT lightroomqueen DOT com and I'll see if I can fix it. Worst case scenario, we have 2 options - reinstate the earlier backup and then try to transfer the work you've done since, or get in touch with Paul Kleczka at Adobe who is a miracle worker with dodgy catalogs (he's taken over from Dan Tull).

 

[McPhil]

Hi Victoria,
I zipped up the catalog yesterday (Jan. 15) and sent it to you via Dropbox. I used We Transfer, said it would take 5 hours to upload; wasn't sure it ever made the journey as I received no feedback from the We Transfer site thus far.

Thank you and other forum members for all the help.
McPhil

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Ah, perfect. I got the email and was trying to figure out which forum I'd seen you on!!! It's downloading from Dropbox at the moment, so I'll take a proper look tomorrow when it's finished.