LR Vers 3.2

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Safariholic

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Just went to OPEN LR only to discover No Catalogs, Photographs, Folders, Collections etc etc. The whole bleep thing is Vacant/empty. The Only Options I am offered is to "Click the IMPORT Button to begin". This I suspect will import a load of my Pics from C Drive or wherever and require me to re-do all the DEVELOP and sorting all over again. Desperate to avoid that b***ache. I have copies of ALL the pictures off-line in other drives, so cannot (he says !!) loose them altogether. Many thanks in anticipation
 
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Nick, search your computer for *.lrcat files. Don't reimport - you want to go find your existing catalog.
 
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Try File > Open Recent - your existing Lightroom catalogue should be listed.

If it isn't, close Lightroom. In Explorer, look through your hard drive for files with an lrcat extension. Lightroom Library.lrcat would be the default name, and you would normally find it under My Pictures.

John
 
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Thanks for your input. Now done the Search and have found a load of "lrcat" files. One is even dated the 1st November 2'1', which is most recent date that all was OK in LR Photo's-wise, BUT now what do I do - in idiot-proof terms (I wont take offence and just might understand & get it right). Thanks again.
 
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Where is it on your hard drive?

If it's in a sensible place where you'd like to keep it, just double click to open it. If it's not, then move it somewhere sensible and then double click it.
 
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Sorry, but:

1. Where is what on my hard drive ?
2. Why would I choose where to put it & How would I (put) it there in the 1st place ?
3. How do I recognise 'it' when I see 'it' ?
4. This sounds to me like something that should have been done XYZ ago (& wasn't).
5. I do not understand the point of organising Back-ups to be done at regular intervals, when the one thing they do not contain is a copy of the most pertinent thing - namely your photograph.

Cheers & thanks (honest) .... !! :)

Nick
 
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1) your latest lrcat file that you found as per your previous post.
2) you decide where you want to store files on your PC, the catalog is no different.
3) you already found it
4) Without any history I can't really comment
5) You need to have a backup of your catalog and your images. LR does the catalog, you need to do the images.


Try File > Open Recent - your existing Lightroom catalogue should be listed.

If not then double click the catalog dated the 1st November 2'1' and let us know if it contains what you expected.
 
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Thanks very much one and all. Update:
1. Search for lrcat revealed dozens of files
2. Tried most recent (double click) and it opened in LR (after asking for Confirmation and Upgrade - NOT to 1st Class !!) and appeared to have all the recent Photos.
Then asked me to IMPORT Photos & choose a Source - I'v by-passed that & all looks fine.

Clearly I am missing something, so in the interests of avoiding heart seizures in future:

a.) How 'should' I organise myself so CATALOGS are created in 1st place.
b.) How 'should I organise myself so as to HAVE copies of the IMAGES.
c.) Is it possible to place Images in a particular order or sequence (used different Cameras that had not been sync'd in date& time before trip), AND retain that order during an EXPORT to another drive, file or iPAD ?

All basics I'm sure and maybe I should have read more of destructions before hand, but we are where we are.

MANY many many Thanks once again

Nick
 
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Best practice is to keep this as simple as possible when you are starting out.

You should have one catalog only. This should be backed up to another drive for safety. Lightroom can manage this for you.

You should have one folder that contains all your images, this can have sub folders if you want to arrange the images. You also need to copy this to a backup disk either manually or by using some backup software.

When you import your images into Lightroom they are just being registered in the catalog so that LR knows where each image is on your hard drive. DO NOT MOVE OR RENAME the images on the hard drive unless you do it inside Lightroom.

You can set Lightroom to always open the same catalog up when it starts, do this in the Preferences Dialog from the top menu bar and it will avoid you opening a backup or copy by accident in the future, see attached image.

Next I would suggest you follow some of the online Adobe training so can see how Lightroom is supposed to be used as its philosophy is quite different compared to old style image editors like Photoshop, Paintshop etc...

It is possible to fix the dates in your images in Lightroom. Most File systems and device order files alpha-numericaly so the names of the files dictate the order they are shown or listed. You can rename the files in Lightroom too. At this stage though I would recommend some form of training (even reading the manual) before attempting this or you could end up ruining what you have.

Get your backups working and tested before you attempt anything you are unsure of.
 
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