Library module Library filter not finding any metadata

[gish]

Lightroom Version Number

13.4

Operating System

1. Windows 11

Hi all,

Today I moved my image folders to an external hard drive and identified the new locations from within LR (I was running out of space). It all seemed to work well, but now if I try to look at the focal lengths used for a folder of images using the library metadata filter, it shows 0 cameras, 0 lenses, 0 focal lengths etc. Clearly it's not reading the metadata, but the right hand panel is still showing all the metadata there.

I've tried resetting LR preferences, and Restore Default Presets in the filter menu, and even deleting the "<catalog> Helper.lrdata" file, according to some advice given on the Adobe forum, but nothing has worked.

I don't have a lot of experience with LR - can anyone help?

 

[Jim Wilde]

Make sure you haven't got an additional filter also selected, e.g. an Attribute filter. If that's not the case, can you post a screenshot showing a selected folder in the Folders Panel and the Library filter?

 

[Johan Elzenga]

If another filter does this, then the result would be zero images in the grid. Is that the case, or do you see images and yet no metadata?

 

[John R Ellis]

I've tried resetting LR preferences, and Restore Default Presets in the filter menu, and even deleting the "<catalog> Helper.lrdata" file, according to some advice given on the Adobe forum, but nothing has worked.

These are the normal magic incantations. If the other suggestions don't help, please post a full-resolution screenshot (not a phone pic) of the ENTIRE LR window? (All the details will help.)

 

[clee01l]

These are the normal magic incantations. If the other suggestions don't help, please post a full-resolution screenshot (not a phone pic) of the ENTIRE LR window? (All the details will help.)

And note the screen resolution on many monitors produces an image that exceeds the size limits permitted in file attachments. You may need to download size the image to attach it to a post.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[John R Ellis]

Or better, simply resave the full-resolution image as a JPEG, which will be under the size limits of this forum.

 

[Califdan]

You didn't fully describe exactly how the images go moved/copied to the new hard drive. Can you please proivde a step by step list of what you did and be sure to include what app or program you used in each step.

 

[gish]

Thanks so much for your replies everyone - here's a screenshot. I think maybe the catalogue is not healthy - it's taking ages just to show images in the library module. That's why I moved the images to an external SSD in the first place - I thought maybe LR was running slowly because the laptop's drive was filling up. Moving the files has made my laptop faster for other things but LR is still very laggy.

I moved the files according to some instructions from this site. Everything used to be in the Pictures folder on my laptop in various subfolders. I made a folder on the external SSD called 'All my photos', then copied over one of my old image folders to this new folder, went into LR, right clicked on the old folder and used 'Update folder location' to show it the new location. This seemed to work well (images all there, developing still there, no missing folders) so I repeated the process for the other folders. The LR folder with the catalogues etc is still in the Pictures folder on the laptop.

I'm not sure if moving the files is the cause of the problem. My catalogue was already slow before I moved the files and it's been a while since I used the library filter, so maybe it hasn't been working for some time. I used to have Onedrive backing up the Pictures folder but turned the sync off before I started moving files to avoid issues. Ondrive was showing that it couldn't sync the latest LR catalgue files, even though LR was closed - maybe Onedrive messed up the files, or couldn't sync them because they had problems?

I've been looking at videos about exporting and importing catalogues (not something I've ever done before) - is it possible to 'start fresh' with a new catalogue but keep my editing, to somehow get rid of whatever bugs this one has?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Califdan]

Your method of moving the files is a good one. What I was concerned about was if for some misguided reason you expoorted the fimages from LrC to the new drive which depending on settings in the export dialog can strip metadata. But you didn't do that so there must be something else.

The next step is to check if the images actually have EXIF metadata (info from the camera) like lens, exposure, the the like. Unfortunatly your screen shot is showing the "default" set of metadata fields, so on the Metadata Panel header, select "Exif & IPTC" rather than "Default). then select 1 image and see if all the camera related data shows up. and let us know (another screen shot would be good)

 

[gish]

Thanks Califdan!

I changed the metadata panel to 'Exif & IPTC'. It's a long panel, so I can't show it all in one screenshot, but I scrolled down so you can see that the date, camera and lens data etc is all there. In the 'Metadata status' field it says 'Up to date', if that means anything.

 

[John R Ellis]

I recall a similar report in the last year or so, but I can't find it. They too tried the usual incantations ("resetting LR preferences, Restore Default Presets in the filter menu, and even deleting the "<catalog> Helper.lrdata" file").

You could verify that the files do indeed have valid metadata, as already indicated by the screenshot of the Metadata panel. Make a test catalog and import a couple dozen of the photos (be sure to use the Add import option to leave the photos in place). Assuming that filtering works properly in the test catalog, that would indicate that your main catalog is corrupted.

 

[gish]

Thanks John - I did that (made a new catalog and imported some old images) and the library metadata works properly. (I also tried importing some recent images to the old catalog and the library works, but only for the new folder.)

So the old catalog is corrupt - what's the best thing to do? Try opening backup catalogs until I find one that isn't corrupted and go from there?

 

[Califdan]

I assume you've chosen to optimize the catalog since this problem has come up so the next would depend on how long ago the problem occured. the only way to know that is to open sucessively older catalogs till you find one without the problem. If you wind up goin g back to catalogs that requires the catalog to be updated, I'd delete each upgraded catalogs after checking it to keep down the confusion of a large number of catalogs in check. If you have to go back too far you may consider another approach.

This other approach is to select all your images and export as catalog to create a new catalog (don't have it export negative files). BUT there are some drawbacks to this approach. Publish services (if you use them) may lose track of the relationship between the images in the actaul service and those in the Publish Service Collecctions. But if you don't use Publish services then that is not an issue. Another problem is if you sync with the Lightroom Cloud. After creating the exported catalog if you then make that catalog the sync catalog all manner of problems can occur depending on which system the original import was done in and if synced images are sill sitting in the designated Lighroom Sync folder. If you are not syncing between Lr and LrC then this too is not a problem. However, if you are using cloud sync and feel that this is a better options than reverting to a backup catalog, please seek more input from this forum - or myself BEFORE you attempt this. Yyou can do the export as catalog and check it out to see if it solved the problem, but don't turn on cloud sync in that new catalog without futher guidance.

 

[gish]

Thanks so much for your kind help Califdan. Fortunately I found a backup from the end of August that works, so I've now updated all the folder locations in it and will delete all the corrupted catalogs to prevent confusion. I've learned a lot about LR catalogs in the last couple of days! I might use the library metadata as a 'canary in the coal mine' to check catalog health from now on, because if not for that and the slowness I wouldn't have known there was a problem - I even made LR check the integrity of the corrupted catalog but it didn't find anything wrong.

Thanks again to everyone who replied. What a great thing this forum is!

 

[Califdan]

I might use the library metadata as a 'canary in the coal mine' to check catalog health from now on

This is only one symptom of a corrupted catalog - there are many more. So by all means keep your eye on this but also keep your eye out for ANYHING that looks odd or different than you think it looked before.

Reverting to a backup catalog is usually pretty safe but if you are syncing with Lr/Cloud some undesireable things may occur depending on what has been done in Lr and LrC since that bacup catalog was created. It gets especailly dicy where images were moved to another folder or deleted in LrC or deleted from Lr in that gap. If you are (were) syncing with Lr, before you turn on sync with the recovered catalog, let me know and I can go over some of the issues.

 

[gish]

Thanks Califdan, I will keep an eye out for any clues that the catalog is unhealthy. I can see why some people have multiple catalogs. I was planning to combine this catalog with my big one from a desktop PC but I’m not sure now.

I don’t use the cloud version, luckily - I like to keep it simple!

Thanks again for all your help, it’s much appreciated.

 

[clee01l]

I will keep an eye out for any clues that the catalog is unhealthy. I can see why some people have multiple catalogs. I was planning to combine this catalog with my big one from a desktop PC but I’m not sure now.

That still not a reason to have multiple catalogs. What is important is that you make a backup copy of your master catalog every time you exit Lightroom. You can't have too many backup catalogs IMO.

If you import this catalog as a catalog into your master catalog only the good records will import. You will not lose any good data. Then you won't need to worry about the integrity of this catalog any more.

 

[gish]

OK, that’s good to know (about importing). I need to move the old catalog to the laptop - I have the LR Queen pdf guide to help me but I’ll be sure to post on the forum if I get stuck.

I was planning to make a new master catalog and import the two I have into it - given the issues I just had with my small catalog, I’m not confident that my big catalog doesn’t have some hidden problem, so I’m not sure I want to use it as a master. Is that a good idea?

 

[Califdan]

That still not a reason to have multiple catalogs. What is important is that you make a backup copy of your master catalog every time you exit Lightroom. You can't have too many backup catalogs IMO.

I 100% agree. Having multiple catalogs mainly causes confusion.

OK - shot in the dark here. When we see corrupted catalogs, a large percentage of them reside in a folder managed by a cloud sync service such as One Drive, iDrive, Drop Box, Google Drive, etc. Having your catalog automatically "synced" to a cloud server such as those mentioned is a sure fire way to corrupt your catalog. Some such services are better than others in not corrupting your catalog but I don't know of any that have been proven clean in this regard. It's OK to have your catalog copied to cloud based servers when LrC is not running but using real time sync on the folder containing the catalog is courting disaster. I'm just throwing this into this thread in case you are using such a service.

 

[gish]

I agree Califdan, I won't be letting Onedrive sync that folder again. I do use Backblaze as a backup though - I'll check the settings.

 

[Califdan]

Backblaze is fine as that is a "Backup" (one way) transfer rather than a "sync" operation.

 

[gish]

Backblaze is fine as that is a "Backup" (one way) transfer rather than a "sync" operation.

Ah, I see. No wonder it messes up files. Thanks.