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Lightroom database is corrupt

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wazzels

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Jul 10, 2017
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We have been using LR for a year now, and today suddenly it says "The lightroom catalog is corrupt and cannot be used or backed up until it is repaired".

If I repair it, I end up with nothing, 10,000 edits are gone.
Then, I went to a backup from last week. SAME ERROR!
Then I went to a backup from 2 weeks ago, SAME ERROR!

This isn't funny. My wife has put in over 16 hours a day for about 12 months working on projects and now it is totally lost?

Please tell me what to try next.
 
Got to this page SQLite Downloads and download sqlite-tools for your system.

Ensure your Lightroom does not run while you execute these commands.
After download and unzipping you can verify your catalog (i.e. LR Database) with this command:

Code:
sqlite3 "<full path to our .lrcat catalog file>" "pragma integrity_check"

In order to repair execute

Code:
sqlite3 "<full path to our .lrcat catalog file>" .dump | sqlite3 "<new .lrcat filename>"

Afterwards you can rename repaired file <new .lrcat filename> like original file name and try to start LR again.

Best Regards
Wernfried
 
Wazzels, welcome to the forum!

Wernfried's solution may well work, but just be aware it's not supported by Adobe, so keep good backups etc.

Otherwise, zip up the catalog (just the lrcat bit) and send it to me using www.wetransfer.com to [email protected] and I'll pass it on the one of the engineers at Adobe to take a look. Might be worth sending the last backup too.
 
Thank you both. I tried Wernfried's suggestion but it created a zero byte catalog.
I couldn't get WeTransfer to work so I used my own file hosting system and sent a notification to Victoria.
I hope Adobe can look at this soon, pro-photographer is in a real bind now.

Thanks.
 
Update:
Wernfried, I looked closer at your suggestion. I took the text output of the dump (5 gigs), edited it, added an "END TRANSACTON;" to it, and reimported it.

That seemed to work. I have been spot-checking stuff and so far all the data seems to be there! Over 50,000 images.
Thank you so much for the suggestion.
 
Dear @Victoria Bampton and @Wernfried !
Sorry for a post into old thread. But I am in the exact same shoes as Wazzels...

My wife lost her months of work yesterday due to catalogue being corrupted. Backups are corrupted as well. And it is a little tragedy here...

Are you around to help?
I’ve done the Sqlite steps to the letter, and it does create a new lrcat catalogue from the dump file. But when I try to open it - I get “this is not a valid Lightroom catalogue” error...

Would be much grateful for any hints or help...
 
I got your wife's catalog Bailante and I've forwarded it to Adobe to see if they can rescue it.
 
Dear Lightroom Queen,
I am in the Galapagos at the moment and my catalogue is not working and cannot be repaired. Help!!
Jerry
 
No problem Jerry:
wetransfer.png

(I've switched to adding this as an image to reduce the amount of spam I get!)
 
Try again? It's ok here. Or use Dropbox or Creative Cloud space or some other large file transfer.
 
Thanks for the help. Unfortunately the upload via satellite will take 123 days for the zipped file. I guess my catalogue will need to wait until I get home.
Jerry
 
Oh boy, yes, that's a bit slow. Note that I'd only need the lrcat file zipped, not the previews.
 
Lrcat file is 140MB and the satellite is too slow to send this. Will try once at home. Thanks for your kindness and efforts.
Jerry
 
Hi Victoria,
Back home and I sent you a Dropbox zipped file. Hope it can be repaired. Interesting that I have a recent backup which also shows a corrupted file while one from 4-6 weeks ago is intact.
Thanks again for your kind help.
 
Try again Bonsaihunk? That zip is corrupt, so I can't even open the zip to get to the lrcat. You could try without zipping, if that helps.
 
Very puzzling. Today I noted an uncorrupted database file in the Lightroom folder and it works!! Appreciate all the hard work Victoria. Thanks.
 
Oh that's great news!
 
Hi Lightroom Queen,

First off all, sorry if my english isn't perfect (not my native language) :) Well I have a similar issue, yesterday I wanted to move my external HD from one computer to another, and when I opened LR on the second computer I got this message (see attached picture) I have tried to use a backup of the catalog, but same problem. I also tried with SQLite, I managed to get a new LR catalog file but it wouldn't work. Any chance you guys knows what to do?

Thanks in advance, Christian from DK
 

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That looks like proper file corruption. Does the catalog still look ok on the first computer?
 
Hi,
No sorry to say, it's the on both computers
 
You're going to need to restore from your last good backup. I'd suspect a problem with the hard drive or its cable.
 
I tried that also, and it's the same problem. I have copied some of the files to another hard drive and into a new catalog, the files are fine there, but of course all the edits are gone :-(
 
So sorry to bring up an old thread again but I’m in a real pinch... similar situation to all listed above. Could you perhaps help me?
 
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