Lightroom cannot use the catalog . . .

[alanhunt]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom Classic version: 11.4 [ 202206021307-2f136917 ]

Operating System

1. Windows 10

Twice during the past month, I have tried to open my Lightroom Classic catalog and received the message "Lightroom cannot use the catalog named "xxxxxxx" because it is not writable and cannot be opened". The first time I spent a lot of time verifying that the permissions in folders and drives hadn't changed, that there was plenty of space on the hard drive, that there was not a .lock file, etc. Finally, I went to my most recent backup and opened the catalog from there. Then I closed the backup copy and went back to the copy that would not open and it opened fine this time.

Again today, this happened. This time, I copied the .lrcat file that would not open to another drive and then I opened it and closed it. Then I went back to the original version that would not open. Now when I tried, it opened fine.

I was just curious to see if anyone knows what might be causing this. To me it seems like strange behavior. Also, the first time this happened was before the most recent update (11.4). I updated to 11.4 earlier today before the problem occurred.

Thanks,
Alan Hunt

 

[Victoria Bampton]

That sounds odd. It sounds like you've ruled out all of the options that I'd have considered.

 

[alanhunt]

I may have found the source of the problem. I use Backblaze for online backup. The problem has occurred three times since my original post. Tonight when it happened, I was trying to resolve it and saw a message indicating that Backblaze may have the .LRCAT file enqueued. I paused Backblaze backup and was able to open the catalog. I am not going to make any changes to Backblaze now, but will wait until this happens again and see if pausing Backblaze solves the problem.

 

[warren.chrismas]

Thanks for this! Solved the issue I was having this evening.

 

[alanhunt]

I may have found the source of the problem. I use Backblaze for online backup. The problem has occurred three times since my original post. Tonight when it happened, I was trying to resolve it and saw a message indicating that Backblaze may have the .LRCAT file enqueued. I paused Backblaze backup and was able to open the catalog. I am not going to make any changes to Backblaze now, but will wait until this happens again and see if pausing Backblaze solves the problem.

It has happened once or twice more. Pausing Backblaze long enough to open Lightroom each time has solved the problem. Glad you found it helpful.

Alan