Recovering 'missing plugin' data/settings

[nremy1984]

Lightroom Version

11.5

Operating System

1. macOS 12 Monterey

Hi everyone,
I have deleted a plugin file (publish service) by mistake, but fortunately its data/settings (synchronized collections/galleries) still appear to be in Lightroom.
However, I am very anxious about loosing them when re-installing the plugin (risk to lose the link between Lightroom and all my website galleries that include 1300+ photos). Indeed, the plugin developer stated the following warning on his website:

Do not remove the plugin from the Plug-in Manager if you wish to continue using a version of it. When removing the plugin, all information about previously published images is lost and cannot be recovered.

I've reached out to him, he was surprised my data/settings were still in Lightroom, but unsure how I might go about preserving them, while re-installing the plugin.

My questions:
1/ any suggestion on how to re-install the plugin without loosing its data/settings (the image galleries structures & their content)?
2/ In case the above goes wrong, I'd like to backup these plugin data/settings before trying to re-install. But I am unsure where these data/settings are (the plugin developer didn't know himself). I've read this helpful Lightroom queen article, which suggests this might be within Lightroom preferences. But preferences are part of Lightroom catalogue/can be re-generated as I understand. So I am puzzled: what would be the best approach to backup/restore my plugin data/settings, if re-installing the plugin happens to delete them?

Sorry for the extra long post, but below are some more details on the plugin, how it went missing, what I tried to do already, and screenshots of the warning/errors I get from Lightroom Classic.
By advance, a huge thanks to anyone who would spend the time to try & help me!
Nicolas


What the plugin does
I am referring to the Photodeck publish service plugin - Photodeck hosts my website photo galleries (similar to Photoshelter, SquareSpace...).
The plugin allows me to create web galleries from Lightroom, upload photos straight from Lightroom, and also update these galleries later on (adding/removing/updating photos), so the galleries on my website are kept in sync with galleries configured in Lightroom, within the Photodeck publish service:

How it went missing
2 days ago I have updated the plugin to its latest version. This involved replacing the PhotoDeck.lrplugin 150 kb file in the folder where I store my plugins, then going in Lightroom plugins manager and hitting "reload plugin". All went well I believe.
Few hours later, I noticed the "missing plugin" error message, and so the PhotoDeck.lrplugin file was indeed, not in its folder anymore.
I am not sure how it went missing, perhaps I pressed CMD+Z (cancel action on Mac OS) by mistake, not sure. My plugin folder is OneDrive-backed up, but I don't suppose this would have caused the removal.

What I did to try & resolve the "missing plugin" warning
I have copied again the PhotoDeck.lrplugin file in my plugin folder (where it was until then), I have closed Lightroom, re-started my Macbook, but when re-opening Lightroom I still have the "missing plugin" warning. The structure of my galleries & their content (photos) are still there, but I can't take actions on them, can't reach the configuration of the plugin neither,
be it from the Plublish manager:

and in the plugin manager, I can't see Photodeck anymore:

 

[johnbeardy]

"all information about previously published images is lost and cannot be recovered." That's wrong.

If you uninstall a plugin via LR's Plugin Manager, or if you delete or move it using the OS, the plugin's data remains in the catalogue database and some is also left in LR's preferences. That is the normal behaviour.

It may help to think of the plugin as an index to its data. Just like removing a book's index doesn't destroy the pages and words, so removing the plugin means LR can no longer use its data, but the data remains. Restore the plugin, and things make sense again.

You seem to have hit Remove in LR's Plugin Manager. So to see the data again, you just have to reinstall the plugin in LR's Plugin Manager.

 

[nremy1984]

"all information about previously published images is lost and cannot be recovered." That's wrong.

If you uninstall a plugin via LR's Plugin Manager, or if you delete or move it using the OS, the plugin's data remains in the catalogue database and some is also left in LR's preferences. That is the normal behaviour.

It may help to think of the plugin as an index to its data. Just like removing a book's index doesn't destroy the pages and words, so removing the plugin means LR can no longer use its data, but the data remains. Restore the plugin, and things make sense again.

You seem to have hit Remove in LR's Plugin Manager. So to see the data again, you just have to reinstall the plugin in LR's Plugin Manager.

Hi John, you can't know how relieved I am!
I did re-install the plugin via Plugin manager, and see the collections/galleries are "live" again. Thanks a million!!
There was a scary second when all the collections/galleries disappeared (replaced by the default "blog" gallery), but the second later they came back. I suppose it was the time needed for LR to load the pre-exisiting data/settings.

Thanks for the clear explanation too. Can I ask 2 more things for my own understanding:

1/ If I were to lose the LR preferences files (e.g. computer crash), would I be able to re- Whilst some of the plugin settings/data are saved outside the catalog (in LR preferences), would I be able to re-build them from a catalog backup?
Reason I ask: my catalog backups are regularly backed-up (OneDrive + external physical drive), but my preference files are not.

2/ After re-covering the Photodeck plugin data, I thought I'd delete the PhotoShelter plugin (not using it anymore), but then I got this warning message from LR:

Trying to connect the dots with our above discussion, I suspect this warning just tells me I would have to re-enter my PhotoShelter credentials, in the event I wanted to re-install the PhotoShelter publish service in the future (minor inconvenience, rather than an loss of data).

 

[johnbeardy]

1/ If I were to lose the LR preferences files (e.g. computer crash), would I be able to re- Whilst some of the plugin settings/data are saved outside the catalog (in LR preferences), would I be able to re-build them from a catalog backup?
Reason I ask: my catalog backups are regularly backed-up (OneDrive + external physical drive), but my preference files are not.

Plugin authors can do things in different ways, but usually publish plugins use the preferences to store info about the service (url, passwords, export settings etc), and use the catalogue to store data about the photos (eg ID on the service, collections). So you'd need to have backups of the preferences as well as the catalogue.

2/ After re-covering the Photodeck plugin data, I thought I'd delete the PhotoShelter plugin (not using it anymore), but then I got this warning message from LR:

Note that this message is talking about the Publish Service, not the plugin which was your problem before. As the message says, you'd be deleting all the plugin's data for that service. This would delete credentials and other info about the service, but would also clear the catalogue's information about the published service's photos and published collections. Often this would also delete those photos from the server too. You would be able to restore the catalogue, which will get back your published collections, but any remaining server-side data could be orphaned or inconsistent. Sometimes one wishes to delete a Publish Service, sometimes you don't.

 

[nremy1984]

Note that this message is talking about the Publish Service, not the plugin which was your problem before. As the message says, you'd be deleting all the plugin's data for that service. This would delete credentials and other info about the service, but would also clear the catalogue's information about the published service's photos and published collections. Often this would also delete those photos from the server too. You would be able to restore the catalogue, which will get back your published collections, but any remaining server-side data could be orphaned or inconsistent. Sometimes one wishes to delete a Publish Service, sometimes you don't.

Thanks John this clarifies, that 'plugin delete' action in the plugin manager does sounds irreversible.
I still don't know how my .lrplugin file disappeared (on the other plugin) but I am so glad it was re-coverable. I'll stay clear of the plugin manager now

have a great day
Nicolas

 

[johnbeardy]

Thanks John this clarifies, that 'plugin delete' action in the plugin manager does sounds irreversible.

Maybe read my explanation again, Nicolas - "Delete the publish service" is irreversible.

Removing the plugin in plugin manager is not. It leaves something like this, what I call an orphaned publish service with data that LR still records but cannot work with:



If I install the plugin again, the publish service again makes sense to LR:

 

[nremy1984]

Thanks John, all clear now