Lightroom Broken

[Ian H]

Lightroom Version Number

15.2.1

Operating System

1. Windows 11

Despite backing up the catalog after every exit, I now cannot open my copy of Lightroom. A screen says it can't be used until it is repaired. On trying to repair, it says "Lightroom cannot use the catalog named "Lightroom Catalog V13-5 because it is not writable and cannot be opened".

This seems serious and I am at the end of my tether. Has anyone had a similar issue?

 

[Zenon]

Have you tried replacing the two zipped backup files with the current ones? I'd back a few updates before the corruption started.

 

[Ian H]

I'm sorry, just me being thick but I don't understand what you mean. What do you mean by current ones?

 

[clee01l]

"Lightroom cannot use the catalog named "Lightroom Catalog V13-5 because it is not writable and cannot be opened".

Have you checked the Windows permissions for this file? This messages does not necessarily mean the file is corrupt. Lightroom is telling you that it cannot write updates to the file. I would make sure Windows Lightroom has all of the read /write permissions that you need befpre replacing the file with a backup copy.

 

[Ian H]

Have you checked the Windows permissions for this file? This messages does not necessarily mean the file is corrupt. Lightroom is telling you that it cannot write updates to the file. I would make sure Windows Lightroom has all of the read /write permissions that you need befpre replacing the file with a backup copy.

Thanks for that, what permissions should I be looking for?

 

[Zenon]

First I'd follow the advise of a Lightroom Guru.

LrC lost track of all of files in January when I was traveling. It didn't even ask me to locate them. This is what I did. The circled files are your current catalogue and database. Go into the backups and unzip previous one and replace those two files with the current ones.

 

[clee01l]

Thanks for that, what permissions should I be looking for?

You will need to find a Windows person to guide you through the actual steps. I have not used Windows in about 15 years.
AI says: "To check file or folder permissions on Windows,
right-click the item, select Properties, and navigate to the Security tab. This shows which users or groups have access (Read, Write, Full Control). For more granular details, including inherited permissions, click the Advanced button in the same tab."

 

[Hal P Anderson]

"Lightroom cannot use the catalog named "Lightroom Catalog V13-5 because it is not writable and cannot be opened".

That's the message you get if you try to open a catalogue that is inside a zipped folder. Lightroom places its backed up catalogues in a zipped folder. Do you really want to open a backed-up catalogue? If so, you'll need to extract it from the folder. Here's a portion of my Windows Explorer app viewing a backup folder:

 

[Zenon]

That's the message you get if you try to open a catalogue that is inside a zipped folder. Lightroom places its backed up catalogues in a zipped folder. Do you really want to open a backed-up catalogue? If so, you'll need to extract it from the folder. Here's a portion of my Windows Explorer app viewing a backup folder:
View attachment 28669

Thanks. I goofed up and showed the locations on Mac. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[Ian H]

Thanks for your help. I think I've sorted it out now.

 

[Zenon]

What was the solution?

 

[Ian H]

I kept the catalog backed up up to a local D drive disc. Lightroom said that it needed the catalog which was stored on One Drive. When I tried the One Drive location, this is where the problem occurred. When I located the local back up, all was well.

 

[Gnits]

One Drive is a known cause of issue with Lightroom Classic… the root cause mostly the default settings of Windows, OneDrive and Adobe. So.. it is not user error. Microsoft puts Pictures Folder into OneDrive… and Adobe puts the catalag folder by default into the Pictures folder.

This becomes the location for the pre views and other work files as well as the catalog. The size of the catalog grows naturally over time and the number of preview files can grow exponentially related to the number of images in the catalog (and other factors).

Lightroom Classic and OneDrive may interrupt each other as both may be performing intensive i/o at the same time. Further.. OneDrive can start moving the contents of your catalog folder to the OneDrive Cloud… leaving behind a placeholder file. The Windows o/s understands this placeholder and will then go to the cloud to retrieve the details. Unfortunately, Lightroom expects to find the file where it placed it and also may not be able to handle delays in disk i/o while cloud based I/o operations run in parallel and probably at a much slower pace. This often leads to Catalog corruption, or corruption of previews and other work files.

The solution is to ensure that your Catalog folder is not under the control of OneDrive. Place it in a folder outside the OneDrive folder tree (or on a different drive completely).

This issue do not appear when Lightroom is installed, but the problem builds up over time as the size of the Catalog gets larger.

The issue is not restricted to OneDrive. Any Cloud Synch service has the potential cause this issue.

There are ways to configure these Cloud Services to minimise such problems, but most people are not expert enough to understand default behaviour, never mind more complex configurations. The simplest and safest option is to ensure your catalog folder is not managed or under the influence of OneDrive.

 

[Zenon]

I kept the catalog backed up up to a local D drive disc. Lightroom said that it needed the catalog which was stored on One Drive. When I tried the One Drive location, this is where the problem occurred. When I located the local back up, all was well.

Thanks.

 

[jrobnz]

The solution is to ensure that your Catalog folder is not under the control of OneDrive. Place it in a folder outside the OneDrive folder tree (or on a different drive completely).

To prevent future catalog corruption and having to restore from backups, be sure to do this. Very important

 

[Califdan]

To prevent future catalog corruption and having to restore from backups, be sure to do this. Very important

Do not ignore this advice! OneDrive may be fine for regular folders but it is deadly when used with the LrC catalog.