Lost All Edits, Keywords .. Everything!

[jammasterjake]

So there I was tonight, innocently rearranging my file structure in Finder. I flipped back to Lightroom, used what I thought was a cool "Synchronize Folder" on my pictures folder.

It said to delete & reimport them, I said ok.

I have lost everything. Everything. Zillions of hours of work. I do have a catalog backup from 1'/14, and I am hoping someone can tell me how to restore to it.

PLEASE.

Thank you for any assistance.

 

[jammasterjake]

I've been browsing the forums because I think I screwed myself and lost all of my edits. I redid my file structure in Finder, then went and synchronized folders in LR, not realizing that it would revert back to the original RAW files.

I perform backups, and according to LR, I have a backup from 1'/14, but I only have one .lrcat file.

How can I restore to that 1'/14 backup?

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Hi Jake, welcome to the forum! Sorry it's such a big problem that brings you here!

I've merged your posts into 1 thread so that we don't end up confusing you.

Ok, so you've learnt 2 nasty lessons:
1. Don't tidy up without Lightroom knowing
2. Make regular backups

But hopefully we can retrieve something.

For a start, do you backup your whole computer? Because if you do, you may have a more recent backup there.

To restore your 1'/14 backup, simply duplicate the *.lrcat file that's in the backup folder and put it somewhere safe. We're duplicating just in case something happens to it, as we don't want to wipe out your only backup. Once you've put it somewhere safe, you can double click on it to open in LR. That becomes your new main catalog. Then you have the fun task of relinking all of the files that you tidied up.

 

[ernie]

Sorry for your troubles Jake. Good luck.
Victoria, this reminds me of a couple of questions I had. 1. If you do some changes to your files,etc outside of LR, just how do you let LR know? 2.When you have LR set to do a backup every so often, does the newest backup replace the previous one or just add a new one, thus leaving a list of backups until I do something with older ones?

 

[jammasterjake]

Well, I've calmed down a bit.

I also feel a little dumb, so I'll share part of my reason for worrying. Everyone was talking about "oh just restore to your backup," but I couldn't find it. I thought that once I had opened up the new catalog, it kind of rewrote my backup. That's not how it works.

Duh, jake, you've got a DIFFERENT external HD for your backups. So, after I posted last night, I did find my 1'/14 back up.

I have a Time Machine (I'm on a Mac PB) backup from 1/1/'9. Anyone know how that interacts with LR? Will it revert my non-backup catalog to 1/1/'9? (That would be great). Will it delete files? (I have pictures since 1/1/'9 no longer on my camera memory cards).

Thanks for being so kind to a forum newbie.

 

[DonRicklin]

Well, I've calmed down a bit.

I also feel a little dumb, so I'll share part of my reason for worrying. Everyone was talking about "oh just restore to your backup," but I couldn't find it. I thought that once I had opened up the new catalog, it kind of rewrote my backup. That's not how it works.

Duh, jake, you've got a DIFFERENT external HD for your backups. So, after I posted last night, I did find my 1'/14 back up.

I have a Time Machine (I'm on a Mac PB) backup from 1/1/'9. Anyone know how that interacts with LR? Will it revert my non-backup catalog to 1/1/'9? (That would be great). Will it delete files? (I have pictures since 1/1/'9 no longer on my camera memory cards).

Thanks for being so kind to a forum newbie.

It has been not recommended to use time machine to back-up LR catalogs. One has Time Machine ignore that folder (including previews) because it could lead to corrupt catalogues if Time Machine is active while using LR.

Don

 

[jammasterjake]

It has been not recommended to use time machine to back-up LR catalogs. One has Time Machine ignore that folder (including previews) because it could lead to corrupt catalogues if Time Machine is active while using LR.

Don

So between these options:

1) Use LR backup to get to where I was on 1'/14
2) Use Time Machine to get to where I was on 1/1

You say definitively number 1?

Thanks.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Time Machine *can* corrupt the catalogs. That said, you could try restoring the TM backup you've got, and see if it'll open. If it does, you're probably all set. (But I'd consider excluding the LR catalog in future).

When you restore using TM, it'll tell you there's a more recent version, and do you want to overwrite or keep both. I'd go with keep both if you're not entirely sure what you're overwriting. It'll just update the filename of one of them. Restoring the lrcat file (ignore the preview) should not touch the photos, it should only restore the lrcat (catalog) file itself.

Ernie, 1 - what kind of changes? 2 - it adds to the backups each time, it never overwrites an earlier backup.

 

[Brad Snyder]

Ernie, 2 - it adds to the backups each time, it never overwrites an earlier backup.

Ernie, so, yes, you've got a stack of outdated backups piling up, that you'll need to consider doing something with. Most people keep a mere handful of the backups, (plus any significant mileposts, like a filing/naming strategy change). The wisest test the most recent backup files for integrity prior to deleting any previous.

 

[ernie]

Victoria, I was thinking about moving folders around when I wrote first, but what is I send a file to Elements, resize for print, and then save the new file at that print size. That's something I could see myself readily doing.

 

[dj_paige]

Ernie, no need to send a file to Elements to resize. Lightroom Export will create copies that are resized versions your photos. So, in that case, there is no need to save a bunch of re-sized photos; just generate them as you need them.

Also, I don't think you want to re-size before printing ... crop, yes; resize, no.

 

[ernie]

I know LR will do everything, but I just "trust" Elements more. So far I haven't become a true believer in just generating as needed. I like to have a finished copy somewhere. I know, I know, but....
Lately I've been inclined to think I get better prints by subscribing to the theory of making the image the size you want at the resolution of the printer-ie 2'x3' at 3'' ppi for my Canon printer.
Still my question-how do you let LR know if you have either moved, or added, or modified a file somewhere in your folder structure

 

[dj_paige]

Lately I've been inclined to think I get better prints by subscribing to the theory of making the image the size you want at the resolution of the printer-ie 2'x3' at 3'' ppi for my Canon printer.

As I said before, you need to crop before printing, not resize. Resize changes the aspect ratio of your photograph ... stretching or compressing in one or both dimensions; or if it doesn't change the aspect ratio, resizing either interpolates pixels or extrapolates pixels.

If you think that taking a photograph and changing it go 2'x3' at 3''ppi improves the quality, then go right ahead. I think blowing a photo up like this to 18 megapixels extrapolates (that is, makes up) pixels, which lowers the quality.

As far as Elements vs Lightroom, sending the photo to Elements simply gives you an extra task each time you do it, and I don't think Elements does a better or worse job than Lightroom will do.

Still my question-how do you let LR know if you have either moved, or added, or modified a file somewhere in your folder structure

Again, you are making more work than you need to. Don't move photos outside of Lightroom. Move them inside of Lightroom. Don't add photos to a folder; import them into Lightroom. And if you have to modify a photo somehow out of Lightroom (like in Elements), use Lightroom to send the photo to the other program with Ctrl-E. Think of Lightroom as the place to do everything, or the place from which to initiate edits in another program. Don't do things to your photos in Windows. Doesn't get any simpler than that.

 

[ernie]

Why would anyone want to crop an image to make a bigger print. That seems backward to me.
By resize I mean up-rez or whatever word one chooses to use. Yes it creates pixels, and yes, they may not be as good technically as those created by the camera (and as software progresses some may be), but it beats the heck out of making a big print at 1'' ppi.
Maybe LR does as good a job as Elements, I just haven't had time to prove it to myself yet. And if LR would let you use cntrl E to make a jpg, then I would use that. I don't need extra tifs or psds floating around. That's more extra work to convert it back to jpg and delete the tif. I know and understand all the arguments about how much better they are, but as long as I can make just as good a print with a jpg. that's what I will do.
As with many things with photography, there's more than one way to do something, and plenty of opinions as to which is best.
I'd still like to know the best way to tell LR if I have changed something outside of it without screwing up something like the OP did. And I'm sorry if this has hijacked his thread. I thought it would be a simple question related to his problems.

 

[Brad Snyder]

Ernie, altho' Paige makes a lot of sense, to answer the question, start by right-clicking on a folder, in Lr's Folders panel, where you made a change, select Synchronize Folder.... , a dialog will appear, it's processing data, so give it time to finish counting. You'll be given options to add or remove photos from the catalog, it's less confusing (at least for me, but I'm easily confused) to select 'Show Import dialog before importing', that'll give you a very good idea of what's going to happen if you let the operation go forward. This is one of those places where people begin their slide into trouble, so get a good catalog backup first, and think about each step and the information presented.

 

[ernie]

Thankyou Brad. I'm easily confused too. LR is great, but there's a lot of little setings that can cause big problems if not set correctly. And then we wonder-how the heck did THAT happen.
I had thought that synchronize folder was how it should be done, but after reading the OP, I wasn't so sure. Checking the import box is good so there are no OOPS.

 

[jammasterjake]

Thanks all for the advice. I finally had some time today to check out Time Machine & my .lrcat. I was able to successfully revert to 1/1/'9 library (rather than the October backup from within LR), and I am happy about that. I only lost 2 photo session edits.

Now for the second part: excluding LR from future TM backups. The folder I'm excluding is User/Jake/Pictures/Lightroom which includes the files Lightroom Catalog and Lightroom Catalog Previews.

That is the folder to exclude, yes?

On another note, you don't have TM backup your external media HDs , do you?

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Yep, that'll do nicely.