"Lightroom catalog not found" Error all of a sudden - on a mac

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ralf11

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Lightroom Experience
Beginner
Lightroom Version
Lightroom Version Number
LR6
Operating System
  1. macOS 10.13 High Sierra
I closed LR6 a day or so ago (just to periodically let it backup & clean, etc.). Today, when I tried to open LR6 I got the catalog not found error for some reason. I am using an iMac

I know not to move/delete/eff with the catalog and did not do so (myself). Nor is it in the trash. (I did try to use Google cloud to backup the computer but it was a miserable failure so I stopped... perhaps Google deleted my catalog??). I always let LR backup my catalog when I exit the program.

There is a zip file from about 2 days ago in the Lightroom/Backups sub dir. I can select that or I can look around in Time Machine (Apple's local backup software).

I don't recall exactly what I may have done in the last few days in LR, and would prefer not to lose track of any files and not lose any edits I've done either.

Thanks for the best idea on what to do...
 
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Update:

there is no Lightroom Catalog.lrcat in the subdir now (Feb. 4), nor is there one from Feb. 3 but Time Machine does show such a file in the subdir on Feb. 2 - BUT the date stamp on that file is Jan 25...
 
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That's an odd one Ralf. It does sounds like something else delete the backup, or the drive is dying. Losing the catalog isn't something Lightroom could do itself.

I'd use Spotlight to search for files with a .lrcat extension to see if it accidentally got moved somewhere.
 
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It is gone. There are only LR .zip files and they are all in the LR.../Backup folder.

I am sure that Google's cloud backup program deleted them.

I guess I should try to launch with the latest backup??
 
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First: From a Finder window that is open to where your current catalog should be, enter Time Machine and then use the back button to look back by each backup until your catalog reappears. If Time Machine is running normally (ie. the TM drive is attached. and you have "Backup Up Automatically" checked) you should be able to find it there before it was accidentally deleted.

Second: Try double clicking the latest .zip file. That should uncompress and give you an folder with backed up version of the .lrcat file.

-louie
 
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Thx. I did that but am unsure what might be missing.

Is there a way to figure out what photos got "left out" during the time period over which the missing version of the .lrcat file was updated?
 
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Hi Raff,

I don't think that there is a way to recover any edits that were made during the since your latest backup catalog.

You should be able to find any images that were previously imported by going to the Folders tab in left panel and use CMD-click on one of the latest folders to open the context menu and select "Sychronize Folder". This will bring up the "Synchronize Folder" dialog box showing how many images it found in the selected folder. This

You should click "Show import dialog before importing" so that you can review the images that were found and verify them.

You might want to add them to a special collection so that you can easily review them and redo any editing or metadata work that was lost.

-louie
 
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Thx. I don't think it lost many images, maybe none.

I strongly advise against using Google drive in synch mode and then running out of space on Goggle however.
 
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