Lightroom catalogs corrupt!

[Graeme Brown]

I've used Lightroom successfully for over a year, with very few issues. Two weeks ago I had my first issue of catalog corruption. Since then every catalog I have opened (I use a seperate catalog for every job) has become corrupt.

I have tried importing the catalog into a new catalog, but the import fails. I have tried building new catalogs (with different files), but they all become corrupt after an hour or two, even while they are still open - I will be working away and suddenly see the 'Catalog corrupt' error.

I have tried deleting the preferences files, and completely removing and reinstalling Lightroom, to no avail. I have tried changing discs and restoring from backups, but no good.

I have now had to stop using Lightroom, but I want to solve this (Capture One just isn't as good). I'm using Lightroom 2.3 on Mac with all up to date patches. Everything else on the machine works without issue.

Is anyone else having problems like this? Any suggestions?

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Hello Graeme, fancy seeing you here!

Don't suppose you've checked any of these corrupted catalogs on another machine, have you? I'm wondering if it's giving a false result. Feel free to drop one on my FTP if you want me to take a quick look.

Other than that, where are the catalogs stored? Checked the drives with something like DiscWarrior? Run MemTest to check for dodgy memory? Can you remember what else was going on when you had your first corrupted catalog?

 

[Graeme Brown]

Victoria, the Queen of all things Lightroom - what a surprise

I haven't tried the catalogs elsewhere, that's a good suggestion - I'll upload one to you shortly.

I remember exactly what was happening when I had the first corruption - nothing! I was working away in the morning quite happily, went out for lunch with a couple of photographer friends, came back from lunch and the message was on the screen. I don't usually have other apps running, but Chronosync runs on a schedule, that's about the only thing.

Stupidly I didn't have Lightroom set up to save XMP files (should have learned that trick from you).

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Does Chronosync back up your catalogs? Could it have tried to back up the catalog that was open?

I'll have a look when you've uploaded.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Graeme, I hate to tell you this, but it's definitely corrupted. That said, when I opened the catalog in an SQLite Database Browser, there is still data there, which is a good start. I tried the usual trick of importing into a clean catalog, but that fails too. That said, there's a very nice guy at Adobe who may be able to help. I'll drop you his email address.

At this point, I'm more concerned about how the catalogs are becoming corrupted. They don't usually spontaneously combust. Are they kept on an external drive or internal? When it does happen, it's usually hardware. Hopefully Dan will be able to help, and get an idea of what's happening too. In the meantime, I wouldn't suggest opening any catalogs that may still be ok!!!!

 

[Graeme Brown]

Thanks for checking this out Victoria. I don't think it's drive related, I've got two mirrored drives and I've tried opening catalogs from both of them and had corruption. I wondered about Chronosync being the culprit, but I've used this setup for a while without any difficulties (before this episode I have never had a corrupt catalog), and the scheduler runs only twice a day so I would think it's unlikely to be the cause. Also, the main drive sits on my desk, so I notice when Chronosync is running as it starts whirring & flashing.

I'll get in touch with your man at Adobe and see if he has any brilliant ideas, thanks.

 

[Graeme Brown]

Just to follow up ... the table corruption in my catalog was able to be repaired by Super-Dan which rescued me from having to completely re-work an entire wedding!

I haven't got to the bottom of the cause yet, the most likely culprit (ie the onyl change I had made to my system recently) was using Chronosync to mirror a pair of discs to store my catalogs and work files. Since stopping using Chronosync I haven't had any further corruption, however I have only processed one job so it's hardly a scientific test.

Anyway, thanks to Victoria (yet again!) and Dan for saving my neck.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

3 cheers for Dan!!!!!!

 

[Jddolbee]

Don't know if this will help, but I recently had a serious issue with catalog corruption, and found that one of my presets (a print preset) was causing the problem. I would start with a clean catalog, make a print using a particular preset and then the next time I opened the catalog, it was bad. I deleted the presets file (next to the preferences file), recreated the preset, started with a clean file and that worked.

jim