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Lighroom 4 Catalog has gone missing!!

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pelliott1954

New Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2013
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14
Lightroom Experience
Intermediate
Hi All,

I have no idea what has happened, I was in LR 4 looking for a specific Folder and was checking the Collections ( which I don't knowingly use) and I may have clicked on the - Button.


Anyway, I am having trouble at the moment with my Computer and it keeps switching itself off and it did so as I was still looking, when I came to restart LR4 I got a message box telling me I had to choose another catalog as the current one was open elsewhere (or words to that effect) It allowed me to make a new folder and use as a new catalog, but my existing LR4 Catalog has disappeared.


Then after another unscheduled shutdown and restart another Box opened to tell me LR had encountered an error when reading from it's previous cache and needs to quit.

When I opened again, in the Library mode I can see all my Folders with my amended and saved pic's in, from My Pictures, but can't see any folders with photo's imported into Lightroom but never worked on??


Can anyone help, please?

Regards Paul
 
Paul, When your computer crashes with LR open, LR is unable to tidy up after itself with a normal shut down In the folder where your master LR catalog resides is a file with the name {YourCatalogName}.lrcat.lock. The presence of this file tells LR that the catalog was left open or is currently open with another instance of LR. If you simply delete this file, LR will open normally.
If you are still having difficulty, come on back and we'll assist further.
 
Thanks for your reply Cletus, I did indeed just find the file ircat lock and deleted it, however, I had been able to open LR just by creating another file and giving it a name of LR New, sadly as I mentioned all my previously imported pic's which I had not worked on went missing, I can still see them by opening files with for example all of 2013 in but they do not show any previous workings on the photo's which I have always been able to see before, therefore I can't tell which have had work done and which haven't.

Following my deleting of the file you mentioned I opened LR again but still the same and then when I returned to the Folder, ircat lock had reappeared, this probably means something to you but as an old technophobe sadly it means nothing to me, does this file appear as normal every time LR is openend?

As LR is opening, I am most worried about the loss of the work I have done so far on my images.

Regards Paul
 
Paul do not import into a new catalog.
First when Lightroom is ope there will be a .lock file next to the catalog.
You seem to be using the new catalog you created so no previous edits are in there. Find your original (search for files with .lrcat) and open that one, all your original edits will be there.
 
While LR is open, Go to File->Recent. Your old catalog may be listed there which will make it easier to find and get back to. As others have pointed out, remove the .lock file if needed (while LR is closed).
 
Thanks Dave, sadly when I go to File - Recent my old Catologue is not there.

Geoff, the only Ircat File I can find is when I go to Control Panel - Programmes - Default Programmes - Set Associations, then when I try to open it, it asks me for a Programme to use to open it with, sadly that's me lost then, as the LR Logo is there to choose to open it with but nothing then happens at all!!

Mystified.Com
 
Did you search with Explorer and look in the trash??
 
Thanks again Brad and geoff for the latest replies.

I have now found the Missing Catalogue, it was indeed in the recent listing and found when I looked in LR by using the Start/All Programmes route whereas previously I had looked for the catalogue where it had resided previously in the My Pictures Folder.

All is working again now, still got no idea why it disappeared though!!

Regards Paul
 
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