Problems with newest update June 17, 2026

[Tinkerbell]

Lightroom Version Number

15.4.1

Operating System

1. Windows 11

Hi,

I am having a problem since the latest update to Lightroom Classic and I am not sure how I should handle this and any suggestions you might be able to provide would be greatly appreciated.

Two or three days ago when I opened LRC, a window came up saying that it needs to upgrade my catalog for the new upgrade and it will do something to the other catalog and store it some place, which I cannot find.

The problem that I am having is when I first open up LRC it takes a very long time, about 2 minutes, to load up and when trying to do some things occasionally it will say LRC is not responding and some of the actions are very slow. If I sign out of LRC and open it up again, then everything is working fine. I don't know whether to backup my catalog first then uninstall LRC and reinstall it or if there is something else I should do. I am using Windows 11 on a laptop, version 15.4.1.

Thank you any help you may provide.

 

[clee01l]

Two or three days ago when I opened LRC, a window came up saying that it needs to upgrade my catalog for the new upgrade and it will do something to the other catalog and store it some place, which I cannot find.

Look for a folder named "Old Lightroom Catalogs". you shoule fins your v15.3 or earlier catalog in that folder.

The problem that I am having is when I first open up LRC it takes a very long time, about 2 minutes

How big is your catalog file? How much freespace do you have on C:\? Another isssue is your Malware app. Have you removed all of your Lightroom related files from a scan by you r malware app?

 

[Tinkerbell]

Thank you for your reply. My catalog is only 24,000 and I have 428 GB free on my c: drive. My Malwarebytes VPN is turned off and will have to check into if the Lightroom related files are being scanned by Malwarebytes. I have never had this problem before this update though.

 

[clee01l]

My catalog is only 24,000

I should have been clearer. What is the size of the catalog on the Disk? Numbers for both files lrcat and lrcat-data..

I'm sure a number of windows user have installed v15.4.1 and yours is the first issue raised here.

 

[Tinkerbell]

Thank you for your reply. The lrcat-data file size is 49.7 m , Previews are 29,276 KB and when I open the Catalog Settings it show 29.57 GB for size.

 

[clee01l]

when I open the Catalog Settings it show 29.57 GB for size.

If this is true, then you have a lot of detritus hiding in your catalog file. We need to clean up your catalog. We can copy the good stuff into another catalog file:

1. Backup your master catalog so that you have a fall back incase there is a problem in the following steps
2. In your master catalog menu {Library}{Find all missing Photos}
3. If there are missing photos, you need to resolve this until all of your imported images are in a correct location and {Find all missing Photos}. returns zero images missing."
4. Open a New Catalog from the menu {File}{New Catalog}
5. In the new (empty) catalog, choose from the menu {File}{{Import From Another catalog...} and select you master catalog that you have been using
6. From the dialog that opens check "All Folders". and in File Handling select "Add new Photos without Moving"
   
7. Then click the {Import} Button

This will create a new master catalog that should be much smaller. Possible as small as 1GB or less. Any time a catalog file exceeds ~4GB I would suspect data crap, orphaned records and possible corruption.

 

[Tinkerbell]

Thank you very much for your instructions and hopefully I should be able to do this later on today. I take it then every once in a while this will need to be done even though I optimized the catalog every time I do a backup?

Thanking you again for your advice and may you have a great day and I will keep you posted on how this went.

 

[Tinkerbell]

I have a few questions regarding your instructions yesterday and hoping you can clarify these for me.

1. You indicated in my new empty catalog I should choose from the menu {File}{{Import From Another catalog. I do not use the File system instead I use Collections only. Is the procedure the same or is it done another way when creating a new Catalog to bring in my photos?

2. I have four large external drives: Two of them are from a while ago and are labeled drive E and drive D. The D drive is a back up for the E drive. The other two external drives are current ones and are also labeled drive E and D and D is a back up for E drive.

My question is can I connect the two E drives from the past and the current one at the same time or should it be external drive E, the older one, and drive D for the current one for creating a new catalog? Or, do I use just connect one of these drives? If I do connect the two drives will that get rid of all of the junk?

3. Do you know of a good program to use for making both of my E & D drives the same so when E crashes I can then use the D drive?

Thanking you again for your input and any suggestions you may have.

 

[clee01l]

I have a few questions regarding your instructions yesterday and hoping you can clarify these for me.

1. You indicated in my new empty catalog I should choose from the menu {File}{{Import From Another catalog. I do not use the File system instead I use Collections only. Is the procedure the same or is it done another way when creating a new Catalog to bring in my photos?

Your master catalog is a file in the file system. You need to replace it with a clean one. These instructions will create a new clean catalog file

2. I have four large external drives: Two of them are from a while ago and are labeled drive E and drive D. The D drive is a back up for the E drive. The other two external drives are current ones and are also labeled drive E and D and D is a back up for E drive.

My question is can I connect the two E drives from the past and the current one at the same time or should it be external drive E, the older one, and drive D for the current one for creating a new catalog? Or, do I use just connect one of these drives? If I do connect the two drives will that get rid of all of the junk?

Windows (and MacOS) will allow you to connect as many external drives as you have ports to connect. What will happen in Windows is that you can have only one Drive D: and one Drive E: So in connecting the other drives Windows will assign different drive letters. This has nothing to do with the contents of the catalog file.

Let's say you have a catalog file named "Lightroom Catalog v15 Nov 25.lrcat". It is this file that has all of the "junk" in it that is causing you to have a long delay when opening.

3. Do you know of a good program to use for making both of my E & D drives the same so when E crashes I can then use the D drive?

Good question for a current Windows user (I am not). The Best question should be: "What system backup app should I be using to protect all of my critical files when one of my drives fails?" You do not want a clone of a drive. It just perpetuates the mistakes in the primary disk. You want a backup of all of the critical files in your system including your Lightroom Catalog file AND your master images files. You want to be able to recover the state of a file from 6 months or a year or last week.
MacOS (which I am currently most familiar) comes with a system backup just for this purpose. called "TimeMachine". For Windows, there are third parties that make similar software. Macrium Reflect. is often recommended for Windows user by Lightroom Windows users. Also there are cloud backup apps that will backup your critical user data to the cloud which is useful for catastrophic events like fire, flood, civil unrest. and generally times when you might need to totally replace your computer system. Both types of backup are important

 

[bobbabe]

Your master catalog is a file in the file system. You need to replace it with a clean one. These instructions will create a new clean catalog file

Windows (and MacOS) will allow you to connect as many external drives as you have ports to connect. What will happen in Windows is that you can have only one Drive D: and one Drive E: So in connecting the other drives Windows will assign different drive letters. This has nothing to do with the contents of the catalog file.

Let's say you have a catalog file named "Lightroom Catalog v15 Nov 25.lrcat". It is this file that has all of the "junk" in it that is causing you to have a long delay when opening.

Good question for a current Windows user (I am not). The Best question should be: "What system backup app should I be using to protect all of my critical files when one of my drives fails?" You do not want a clone of a drive. It just perpetuates the mistakes in the primary disk. You want a backup of all of the critical files in your system including your Lightroom Catalog file AND your master images files. You want to be able to recover the state of a file from 6 months or a year or last week.
MacOS (which I am currently most familiar) comes with a system backup just for this purpose. called "TimeMachine". For Windows, there are third parties that make similar software. Macrium Reflect. is often recommended for Windows user by Lightroom Windows users. Also there are cloud backup apps that will backup your critical user data to the cloud which is useful for catastrophic events like fire, flood, civil unrest. and generally times when you might need to totally replace your computer system. Both types of backup are important

I've been using Backblaze for a while now and it seems to running well in the background. so far, I havne had a situation where I need it.

 

[Tinkerbell]

Sorry, but I need a little more clarification on whether I need to connect both external drives or not. If I just connect one drive only then what happens to all the photos that will show up as missing that are on the other drive that is not connected when doing this?

Thank you for all your help and expertise

 

[clee01l]

Sorry, but I need a little more clarification on whether I need to connect both external drives or not. If I just connect one drive only then what happens to all the photos that will show up as missing that are on the other drive that is not connected when doing this?

Thank you for all your help and expertise

OK you are trying to find all missing photos. I understand what you are after now.
Windows is the only modern operating system that uses Drive letters in the path to the file. Your image files were imported into the Lightroom Catalog when they were located on one particular volume. At that time Windows had assigned that volume a particular drive letter. For purposes of illustration let's say that drive letter was D:\. Since Lightroom does not store the image, it stores the path to that image on your file system in a record in the database that is your catalog file. That field in the record is called "absolutePath". In Windows that field must contain the drive letter that pointed to the volume that contain the image file. Once imported Lightroom knows where to go to find that file when it needs the original. If you move the file or put int on another volume with a different drive letter, Lightroom can not see the image file at the end of the path in the "absolutePath" field. So it is reported as missing.

What you need to do is mount the drive containing your images with the same drive letter that Windows assigned when they were imported. If that was Drive D:\ then just make sure your drive is mounted and contains all of your cataloged images.

If you had Drive D:\and Drive E:\ connected at different times when you were importing, then you will need both drive mounted for Lightroom to be able to find all photos. This is another issue that we can help you fixe after we finish the current problem with a catalog file that contains a lot of detritus.

Once you have resolved any missing photos, you can proceed with the remaining steps.

 

[Tinkerbell]

I'm sorry for the confusion. I am not trying to find my missing photos. What I would like to know is when creating my new catalog to get rid of all the junk, do I need both external drives (E & D) connected to my laptop in order to create the new catalog? If one drive is only connected then what happens to the missing photos from the drive that is not connected? I am assuming though that an external drive should be connected during the process.

Thank you again

 

[clee01l]

I'm sorry for the confusion. I am not trying to find my missing photos. What I would like to know is when creating my new catalog to get rid of all the junk, do I need both external drives (E & D) connected to my laptop in order to create the new catalog? If one drive is only connected then what happens to the missing photos from the drive that is not connected? I am assuming though that an external drive should be connected during the process.

In the instructions, the first step is to find and resolve all missing photos in your master catalog. You can only import from this catalog correctly IF all of the images are present. Once you have created this new catalog and have transferred all of your image data to it. It does not matter if you have all or any volumes mounted to use the catalog file. During export or printing Lightroom will require the image to be present and available.

So, for clarity, You need to have all images present and available to use the Import from Another catalog function. If that means mounting both Drives D & E then yes. When Importing from another catalog, Lightroom will only import valid data leaving the "junk" as you call it behind. It can't import files whose path is not valid.

 

[Tinkerbell]

Thank you so much for clarifying this for me. I don't know if I will be able to get to this today but I will get back with you tomorrow. I really appreciate your patience with me and thank you again.

 

[Tinkerbell]

All of my missing photos are now all taken care of now. But I am having several problems.

1. When I go to do another backup of the catalog it is show this.


I did do a backup on my D: drive before and now want to do the backup on my c: drive for my laptop as shows in the Backup folder but this message in red comes up. So where is this backup going to go. The c: drive or the d: drive which isn't connected?

2. In trying to create this new Catalog I am running into one problem after another.

a. On the first set of external drives E & D dated from 2006 to 2022, drive E is fine but drive D, for the backup of E, will not let me eject it it and says "it is currently being used" by other programs etc. Everything is closed and the only way I can eject this safely is to completely closed down the computer, then disconnect it. If I have to put this question on a new thread, please let me know.

b. When the E drive is connected and click on the missing photo exclamation point to find the photo and go to the folder that it is located in, I get an error message: An internal error has occurred: ?:0: a attempt to index field 'source' (a nil value). The drive is correctly connected (showing E drive) and the images are all on the external drive.

I do not know what is going on and this was not happening before since the upgrade and doing a backup of the catalog and don't know how to fix these problems.

3. On my second set of external drives E & D drives dated from 2023 to present the D drive shows all of the pictures are missing. When the E drive is connected, they are not missing. So apparently now I will not be able to connect the E drive from 2006 to 2022 and the D drive from 2023 to present in order to create this new catalog. Now what do I do?

I do not know how to handle this now. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated and thanking you for your advice. So sorry for all of these problems now or why these things are happening.

 

[clee01l]

All of my missing photos are now all taken care of now. But I am having several problems.

1. When I go to do another backup of the catalog it is show this.

This is telling you that the folder where you normally send backup is either missing, renamed or deleted. If you have moved it thant {Choose} its new location or pick another backup destination.

a. On the first set of external drives E & D dated from 2006 to 2022, drive E is fine but drive D, for the backup of E, will not let me eject it it and says "it is currently being used" by other programs etc. Everything is closed and the only way I can eject this safely is to completely closed down the computer, then disconnect it. If I have to put this question on a new thread, please let me know.

3. On my second set of external drives E & D drives dated from 2023 to present the D drive shows all of the pictures are missing. When the E drive is connected, they are not missing. So apparently now I will not be able to connect the E drive from 2006 to 2022 and the D drive from 2023 to present in order to create this new catalog. Now what do I do?

You need both drives connected. Drive D: is being used by another app (Lightroom?) Plug Drive E: into another port. If you do not have another port, you need a USB hub to extend the one you have (IF your external disk drive is USB) Tell me more about your hardware set up.

 

[Tinkerbell]

Regarding my backup I have not renamed, moved, or deleted it. When I go to my c drive on my laptop, folder it shows "Lightroom Classic, New Master, Lightroom Classic Catalog-v15 then the Backup folder". I clicked on the backup folder for the backup. Is this the wrong folder to choose for my new backup? I would like to get this straightened up before making my new catalog.

Tinkerbell said:
a. On the first set of external drives E & D dated from 2006 to 2022, drive E is fine but drive D, for the backup of E, will not let me eject it and says "it is currently being used" by other programs etc. Everything is closed and the only way I can eject this safely is to completely closed down the computer, then disconnect it. If I have to put this question on a new thread, please let me know.

Do you know how I can fix this problem so it is working correctly? How can I find out if D drive is being used by another app? And will it be safe to use this drive for the new catalog? If it is, then I will connect the D drive (the old one) and connect the E drive for the current drive and see what happens.

Tinkerbell said:
3. On my second set of external drives E & D drives dated from 2023 to present, the D drive shows all of the pictures are missing. When the E drive is connected, they are not missing.

Why would it show all of the images are missing when the D drive is connected but when I connect the E drive they are not? Both drives are exactly the same. I don't understand this at all or why this is happening now.

I have 3 usb ports and there will be no problem in connecting both of these drives. When I plug in the E drive sometimes and when it loads that it is a D drive then I go Disk Management and change the drive letter back to E. My first set of external drives are both a 10TB My Passport drives and the second set are also a My Passport but are 14TB drives, which is the current drive that I am using now. If it is safe

Boy when it rains it pours doesn't it. Thanking you again for all of the help you are providing me. I really appreciate it.

 

[John Little]

I haven't digested all the above posts, but it sounds as if you can simplify matters by changing the drive letters of your external drives as described by the Lightroom Queen at https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-do-i-change-a-drive-letter-on-windows/ .

 

[John Little]

To add one point, many LRC users change the drive letter to something further in the alphabet, e.g. P for "Photos", on the theory that Windows will never have so many drives attached that it will later assign a letter this distant on its own. This point is made in the comments to the LR Queen link.

 

[clee01l]

To add one point, many LRC users change the drive letter to something further in the alphabet, e.g. P for "Photos", on the theory that Windows will never have so many drives attached that it will later assign a letter this distant on its own. This point is made in the comments to the LR Queen link.

The OPs issue is that there are two physical disks and Lightroom catalog has imported to both at different times

 

[clee01l]

I clicked on the backup folder for the backup. Is this the wrong folder to choose for my new backup? I would like to get this straightened up before making my new catalog.

I repeat:

Tell me more about your hardware set up.

 

[Tinkerbell]

Apparently what I mentioned above is not what you are looking for and now I am not sure what you need.

Upon doing a lot of thinking what could be wrong with my D: drive, I figured out that my Lightroom Catalog is not recognizing my D: Drive for my photos. But . . . . . if I go to import and re import it, then it is back into the catalog and is no longer missing. My question is - is there an easier way to get Lightroom Catalog to recognize my D: drive so I don't have to re-import 25,000 photos so they are no longer missing?

Thank you again for your help

 

[clee01l]

Apparently what I mentioned above is not what you are looking for and now I am not sure what you need.

What I am looking for is something like this:
Operating system
INCLUDED IN CURRENT CONFIGURATION
Windows 11 Home
ALTERNATE OPTIONS
Windows 11 Home
Windows 11 Pro
Windows 11 Pro
Processor and graphics
INCLUDED IN CURRENT CONFIGURATION
Intel® Core™ Ultra 5 325 (up to 4.5 GHz with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology, 12 MB L3 cache, 8 cores, 8 threads) + Intel® AI Boost (47 NPU TOPS) + Intel® Graphics
ALTERNATE OPTIONS
Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 355 (up to 4.7 GHz with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology, 12 MB L3 cache, 8 cores, 8 threads) + Intel® AI Boost (49 NPU TOPS) + Intel® Graphics
Chipset

Intel® integrated SoC
Neural Processing Unit (NPU)

Intel® AI Boost (49 NPU TOPS)
Memory
INCLUDED IN CURRENT CONFIGURATION
16 GB DDR5-5600 MT/s (1 x 16 GB)
Storage
INCLUDED IN CURRENT CONFIGURATION
512 GB PCIe® Gen4 NVMe™ M.2 SSD


External I/O Ports
2 USB Type-A 5Gbps signaling rate
1 HDMI-out 2.1
1 headphone/microphone combo
2 USB Type-C® 10Gbps signaling rate (USB Power Delivery 3.1, DisplayPort™ 1.4, HP Sleep and Charge)

Especially the part in red.

Upon doing a lot of thinking what could be wrong with my D: drive, I figured out that my Lightroom Catalog is not recognizing my D: Drive for my photos. But . . . . . if I go to import and re import it, then it is back into the catalog and is no longer missing. My question is - is there an easier way to get Lightroom Catalog to recognize my D: drive so I don't have to re-import 25,000 photos so they are no longer missing?

Can you post a screen shot of your folder panel in Lightroom that shaws all of the folders in your catalog and all of the disks that have cataloged images?

 

[Tinkerbell]

Here are the screen shots that I took. Is this what you are looking for my system? I do not know how to locate what you are looking for that is outlined in red. The screen shot of my catalog shows the C and D drives that where connected. When the E drive is connected the photos are not missing but when the D drive is connected they are missing.