Repair of corrupted catalogs

[Tomiron]

Trying to open a corrupt catalog of mine makes LR freeze forcing me to kill the actual LR-process to proceed. I also need to delete the preference files to start LR again. It is not possible to import any data from the corrupted catalog to a new one. (My latest backup catalog works just fine though, but lacks quite a few hours of work...)

Is there by any chance a way to check integrity or do any other kind of catalogue repair of corrupted catalogs that doesn't open in LR? If I'd been more of a tech-pro I'd might been successful in using sqlite3 or sqlite analyzer to check the database. Now is that not the case..

I'm aware of that holding down the Alt-key (on Win) or Opt-key (on Mac) while simultaneously clicking on the LR icon in the dock cause LR to open but not to open the default catalog. Instead it shows a dialog with a list of available catalogs and an option to create check integrity of each catalog. In my case - this doesn't work. If I choose my corrupted catalog following this procedure this will still cause LR to crash.

Working in LR 4, Win7 64 bit, 4GB RAM, accessing catalog and previews from an external drive, images stored on a multiHD-NAS.

 

[naddl]

Hi!
I'm trying to recover a corrupted Lightroom catalog using sqlite3. I guess I really don't know what I'm doing with sqlite3. I try running the first command and nothing seems to happen. All I get is "...>" I don't see any .sql file created. I have entered the following command:
sqlite> echo .dump | sqlite3 LightroomCatalog.lrcat > recoveredcatalog.sql

 

[clee01l]

Welcome to the forum. Presumably you have no catalog backups to use. It can be very difficult to recover a corrupt catalog, So recovering corrupt catalogs is a last resort process.
If you need to use SQLite tools, I strongly recommend that you get a copy of Navicat Essentials for SQLite http://www.navicat.com/download
It is a GUI front end that has a lot of the maintenance functions accessible via the menu. You can Analyze, Vacuum, & Reindex the database as well as use standard SQL queries to dump and build a new database. Beyond that, it will take a really knowledgable person to rebuild the corrupt database. Victoria has contact with some one at Adobe that has been helpful in this regard in the past.

So, to begin, tell us about your catalog backup situation and how you came to be in this predicament.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Victoria has contact with some one at Adobe that has been helpful in this regard in the past.

Yep, he's still happy for me to pass on problem catalogs, and if anyone can fix it, it'll be Paul.

 

[swubbe]

Hello,

I am new to this forum, but not new to Lightroom. In general, I believe can perform all the basic tasks to process my images. But now I am faced with an issue and google was so kind to point me to this forum.

My laptop experienced a rather unfortunate crash after the Windows 10 update. It could be resolved, but it meant my harddrive had to be cleared. No problem so far, all my images are on a second drive. Just before I wanted to start the installation, I remembered that for some reason I had placed my Lightroom Catalog on the same drive as Windows. So clearing that drive would also clear my catalog. With the aid of a command prompt (what were those magical DOS commands....?) I manage to copy the .lcat file to the Data drive.
Now that my laptop is freshly installed, I also reinstalled my Lightroom 5.7.1 copy and opened my catalog. Not.

LR tells me the catalog is corrupt. I tried to import the content into a new fresh catalog, but still no succes.
So hopefully somebody here can help me. I read things about extracting information from the database, using software, but I know for sure that is out of my leauge.
Any suggestion would be welcome. It would be a shame to loose 3 years of photowork (and typing this, I think I should have made a catalog per year. Reduces the loss in case of emergencies...)

Many thanks for your response (and now I will explore this forum in more details),
Sjoerd

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Sometimes I think that Lightroom should behave a little like 'ransomware'. It should lock your computer completely, and not let go until you've connected an external disk and made a proper backup of your entire hard disk... :sad:

 

[clee01l]

Hello,

I am new to this forum, but not new to Lightroom. ...
LR tells me the catalog is corrupt. I tried to import the content into a new fresh catalog, but still no success...

Welcome to the forum.

This will be your best chance: #53 if you do not have a recent catalog backup.

 

[swubbe]

Welcome to the forum.

This will be your best chance: #53 if you do not have a recent catalog backup.

Thanks. I have taken the liberty to upload my file.

@JohanElzenga: Still do not know why I did not place my catalog on the separate Data-drive (with a backup to my NAS...)

Sjoerd

 

[AOJ]

Hi people, first post here ... and you know why, as you can imagine

I was working with Lr doing some brush adjustments, when suddenly a light shortage occurred. Now my catalog is corrupt, and none of what I've tried has worked (the usual new catalog and import, doesn't work nor anything found on the internet right now).
Trying SQLite3 dump and init commands doesn't solve the problem:

echo .dump | ./sqlite3 ~/lightroom_catalog.lrcat > ~/lightroom_catalog.sql
seems ok, having an sql file a little bigger than the .lrcat . Then:
./sqlite3 -init ~/lightroom_catalog.sql ~/lightroom_catalog_restore.lrcat
gives me an Error: incomplete SQL: ■P"

Certainly I'm a bit desesperate, and I have no backup of the catalog (stupid wifi auto backup programs ...)
Your help will be MUCH appreciated. Using Lr 5.3 on Windows 10. 170Mb catalog file.

 

[hassiman]

Not exactly sure what I am dealing wth her... any ideas?

I am in a bit of a pickle. I have been having NO trouble with LR CC 2015.

Two weeks ago I got back from a short vacation and imported 277 RAW NEF files from my Nikon D810 into LR CC. I THOUGHT everything was fine until the next day when I took the same 64GB SanDisk SD card to work to copy the files to my work computer… It said that the files on the SD cared were corrupt and unreadable. Yikes!

I went home and started up the MacPro ( New MacPro 4 core, running 16GB RAM and Yosemite. ) Connected the calDigit Thunderbolt 2 RAID 1 TS external which houses my LRCAT data and had a look. In the Library Module Loupe View You could see the loupe views BUT also a full image display behind the image tiles ( as shown in the attached screen shot. ). Strangely enough when the library view is open as shown on the images the loupe tile will move around when my mouse cursor moves across the Loupe view display area…

Fortunately the NEF files themselves are all there and can be opened. I was able to find them and copy all 277 files onto a flash drive.

I was wondering if I should DELETE all 277 images from the LR Catalog through LR and re-import from the flash drive?

Some people have said I should delete my LR CC Preference file but I am hoping to avoid that. I seems as though all of my previously imported files display just normally.

I was trying to figure out just what happened and all I can think of is that the SanDisk 64GB SD card was an SDXC card and with that reader ( 5 years old.) I had only previously used 8 & 32 GB SDHC cards. Bought a new Hoodman reader…

What do you think I should do? REMOVE and re-import from the folders already there? Delete and re-import from the Flash drive? Delete the Preference file? If I have to delete the preference file will I need to re-do the Copyright preset that is applied to all of my images on import?

Thanks for your time.

 

[Jim Wilde]

If you think the problem was caused by a faulty card reader, and if you still have the original images on the SD card, why not do what was suggested in your other thread? Select the "Previous Import" or, if you've done other imports since, find the folder containing those 277 images, select them all, right-click, select Remove, use the Delete from Disk option.

Before re-importing, does that removal clear up the problem? BTW, is that "chequer-board effect" actually on the screen, or it it just an odd effect from taking a picture of the screen?

If the problem seems cleared, re-import using the new card reader.

No, you wouldn't lose your copyright preset if you trash the preferences file....see here.

 

[hassiman]

Thanks Jim.... I will give it a shot. The original files on the SD card were totally corrupted... even my D810 could not read then so I re-formatted in the camera. I WAS able to go into my LR catalog area and find those files and copied them to a thumb drive.
So what you are saying is to use the option that will totally delete the imported files from the hard drive and then re-import them from the thumb drive as the originals on the SDXC card no longer exist, correct?

 

[Jim Wilde]

Yes, but if the originals on the sD card are totally corrupted, I'm not sure how the copy of the files on the thumb drive are going to be OK?

 

[swubbe]

Thanks!

Maybe not the right place to post, but I just downloaded my repaired catalog and all is well.:grin:
Big thank you to the person(s) who helped me out!

~

Sjoerd

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Happy to help Sjoerd! Love the minion!

 

[RCD]

Another corrupt catalog problem

I just processed a new batch of photos in Lightroom CC. Was able to edit and deleted photos just fine. I then removed my SD card while Lightroom was still up. All my files and catalog are installed on a Drobo. I think in removing the SD card from my laptop I lifted the edge of it and possibly the connection to the Drobo was lost. I say that because doing troubleshooting a short time later, checking the status of the Drobo it wasn't connected. The long and short is my catalog is corrupt and needs to be fixed. I've tried all the suggestions to no avail. Backups are done weekly but it is corrupt as well. Can I send my catalog file in to have someone look at it? Any help would be most appreciated.

thanks
Bob

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Yikes. I can pass it on to my contact at Adobe (he might be at the Max conference this week). Zip up the lrcat file and use www.wetransfer.com or Dropbox to send it to [email protected].

How come the backup's corrupt too?

 

[Ferdinand]

HELP

I needed to recover my LR catalog because of a system crash. I got the file back, but it seems to be corrupted. I also restored my backup folder, but the backups seem to be corrupted, too.

Is there any chance, that i can send my file to any of you guys in order to repair it?

Oh it is a LR 5.6 catalog and i am working on a windows 7 64-bit system.

Got quite an amount of work in that catalog...


Ferdinand

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Yep, follow the instructions above and the magician will see what he can do, but whether it's repairable will depend on how the corruption was caused. You didn't have a backup on another hard drive I guess?

 

[Ferdinand]

Thank you very much!

No unfortunately i did not... :/

 

[Ukdalr]

Hi Victoria, I am hoping you can get your Lightroom wizard assist with the recovery of my catalog. I just finished culling a whole stack of images from a recent wedding, I subsequently had my pc lose power on the same day - resulting the "not recoginsed as a valid catalog" issue. Unfortunately, the backup doesn't contain my most recent updates that I made over the last 3-4 days. Would greatly appreciate any assistance!

 

[Amraiz Yasin]

Hi Lightroom Queen. I have all my fingers, legs and toes crossed that you can help me. A lovely guy from Germany called Holger has been looking at my corrupt catalog and has been trying to fix it with the SQLight tools / processes. Unfortunately he is struggling somewhat and has referred me to yourselves as the best way to go, I have literally thousands of images that have been edited but not exported as full res JPEGS. Nor have I backuped up the catalog.
Sadly my external hardrive failed and once most of the files were recovered, the lightroom cataolg has not loaded since and I'm very stressed as to how I can fix this. please please help.

 

[holgermischke]

Hi Lightroom Queen. I have all my fingers, legs and toes crossed that you can help me. A lovely guy from Germany called Holger has been looking at my corrupt catalog and has been trying to fix it with the SQLight tools / processes. Unfortunately he is struggling somewhat and has referred me to yourselves as the best way to go, I have literally thousands of images that have been edited but not exported as full res JPEGS. Nor have I backuped up the catalog.
Sadly my external hardrive failed and once most of the files were recovered, the lightroom cataolg has not loaded since and I'm very stressed as to how I can fix this. please please help.

Just to provide more info: Amraiz could not open the file anymore. After the recreation of the LRCAT file using sqlite it was only about170 MB (the original file was 417 MB). I managed to open it in Lightroom 5.7.1, but there was nothing there. No reference to any photos at all. I looked at the SQL file extracted from the original catalog file, tried the same procedure without the transaction commands, but still - no images. I hope you all can help Amraiz.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Hi Amraiz & Holger, welcome to the forum!

No backup catalogs anywhere to be found? Perhaps on another drive?

If you'd like to zip the original file and send it to using www.wetransfer.com to [email protected], I'll pass it on to a Lightroom engineer, who has the best shot at recovering it, if it's recoverable.

 

[Amraiz Yasin]

Hi Amraiz & Holger, welcome to the forum!

No backup catalogs anywhere to be found? Perhaps on another drive?

If you'd like to zip the original file and send it to using www.wetransfer.com to [email protected], I'll pass it on to a Lightroom engineer, who has the best shot at recovering it, if it's recoverable.

Hi Victoria, thank you so much for the taking the time to reply. sadly I never new the value of backing up the catalog and always 'skipped' that option when closing the application. something I will no doubt live to regret :-( .

Thanks for email address, I will the original file via we transfer to you.

Admittedly I really didn't think i'd get a response on this forum so I'm really happy that there really are kind people in the world that genuinely like to try and help where they can. Thank you

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Hi Victoria, thank you so much for the taking the time to reply. sadly I never new the value of backing up the catalog and always 'skipped' that option when closing the application. something I will no doubt live to regret .

Thanks for email address, I will the original file via we transfer to you.

Admittedly I really didn't think i'd get a response on this forum so I'm really happy that there really are kind people in the world that genuinely like to try and help where they can. Thank you

As you use a Macintosh, don't you have a Time Machine backup? If you don't, buy an external HD today and start making backups! No doubt you have more valuable stuff on your HD than just a Lightroom catalog...