Grayed out Previews in Library mode.

[mdanubio4]

Lightroom Version Number

LR Classic

Operating System

1. Windows 10
2. macOS 10.14 Mojave

Hi. This is my first post in here. Hoping to get some insight from all of you experts! I followed Lightroom Queen's instructions on moving lightroom to a new computer. I went from a Mac to a PC and everything seemed fine. All of photos were there, matched up/synched up, etc. I am now using an external hard drive that is exFAT format - the other one I was using on the Mac was Passport for Mac so I couldn't go back/forth between my Mac and PC. Now, to the question... I imported photos today on the Mac from an SD card. They are flowing nicely to my hierarcy, but in the Library mode they are just gray blocks. If I click on a photo and go to develop, it shows up and I can work on it. But I have to go back to Library, click on a gray block and then go to develop mode to see what the photo is and decide if I want to keep or delete. This is only happening with new imports (all the other previews are in tact). Never experienced this before. I googled a few things but want to come here to see if I can get some help. Thanks all!

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Sounds like your previews cache is corrupt. Open your catalog folder and look for the file called ‘catalogname previews.lrdata’. Move it out of the catalog folder and start Lightroom. Initially you will not see any previews, but then Lightroom should start rebuilding them so they appear one by one. If that works as expected, you can trash the previews file you moved aside.

 

[mdanubio4]

Thanks Johan. Before I try that - I moved everything from one external drive to another. The catalog folder is in the hard drive as a stand alone and the previews file is as well. Here is what everything looks like - happy to share more if this is helpful to getting me back on track. Thanks!

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Don’t open the folder, but move the entire ‘catalogname previews.lrdata’ folder out of the catalog folder. On a Mac the previews look like a file, that is why I mentioned that it was a file. I now realise you moved from a Mac to the dark side rather than the other way round

 

[mdanubio4]

I know - the Mac basically was dying and while it was on life support I wanted to be able to go between my PC and the Mac. I have friends that seem to do this seamlessly. NOT to seem obtuse, but if you look at my file tree the ‘catalogname previews.lrdata’ folder is just sitting as a stand-alone on the external drive and isn’t “in” the catalog folder...just simply moving that folder (say to my desktop) will solve the problem? Thanks!

 

[Jim Wilde]

NOT to seem obtuse, but if you look at my file tree the ‘catalogname previews.lrdata’ folder is just sitting as a stand-alone on the external drive and isn’t “in” the catalog folder...just simply moving that folder (say to my desktop) will solve the problem? Thanks!

Well technically the previews folder IS in the "catalog folder".....for some reason you seem to have setup the catalog in the root folder of the hard drive, so the previews folder is then automatically created in the same folder, i.e. the root folder. So yes, moving that previews folder to another drive WILL cause Lightroom to create a new previews folder which will hopefully cure the problem.

However, it would probably be better if you first placed the catalog file into a dedicated folder on the hard drive (I wonder if that "Lighroom" folder was intended to be the catalog folder?), then the new previews folder will be created inside the same catalog folder. If you do that, you'll also need to put the "......Helper.lrdata" folder and the "Lightroom Settings" folder into the new catalog folder before starting Lightroom. Also, if you do all that, Lightroom will not find the catalog when you launch it, as the path will have changed, so launch Lightroom first by double-clicking on the catalog file, and after it has started make sure you update the Default Catalog in the Preferences>General Tab to point to the current catalog in the new location.

 

[mdanubio4]

Well technically the previews folder IS in the "catalog folder".....for some reason you seem to have setup the catalog in the root folder of the hard drive, so the previews folder is then automatically created in the same folder, i.e. the root folder. So yes, moving that previews folder to another drive WILL cause Lightroom to create a new previews folder which will hopefully cure the problem.

However, it would probably be better if you first placed the catalog file into a dedicated folder on the hard drive (I wonder if that "Lighroom" folder was intended to be the catalog folder?), then the new previews folder will be created inside the same catalog folder. If you do that, you'll also need to put the "......Helper.lrdata" folder and the "Lightroom Settings" folder into the new catalog folder before starting Lightroom. Also, if you do all that, Lightroom will not find the catalog when you launch it, as the path will have changed, so launch Lightroom first by double-clicking on the catalog file, and after it has started make sure you update the Default Catalog in the Preferences>General Tab to point to the current catalog in the new location.

Okay, I tried that and moved the catalog and the associated files you recommended into the "Lightroom" folder. Here is what the root looks like now. There are three different views so you can see the root, then the exploded view of the previews and then an even more exploded view of one of the folders under previews. I pointed everything back to the drive but most files are still gray squares in library mode. Let me know what you think.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

As I said before, you need to remove the 'previews.lrdata' folder and let Lightroom build a new one. The first screenshot does not tell us whether you did that, because it only shows the modification date, not the creation date. The other two screenshots are a bit more revealing however. Most of the folders in that screenshot have a modification date of 3/7/2020, which clearly suggests that you did not follow the advice yet.

So remove the 'Lightroom Catalog-2 Previews.lrdata' folder and then start Lightroom again.

 

[mdanubio4]

As I said before, you need to remove the 'previews.lrdata' folder and let Lightroom build a new one. The first screenshot does not tell us whether you did that, because it only shows the modification date, not the creation date. The other two screenshots are a bit more revealing however. Most of the folders in that screenshot have a modification date of 3/7/2020, which clearly suggests that you did not follow the advice yet.

So remove the 'Lightroom Catalog-2 Previews.lrdata' folder and then start Lightroom again.

And jackpot. I deleted the previews file and voila! I am back in action. Thank you so much @Johan Elzenga and @Jim Wilde !

Much appreciated.