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Repair of corrupted catalogs

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Tomiron

New Member
Joined
May 28, 2012
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3
Location
Sweden
Lightroom Experience
Advanced
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.
 
And the moral of this story is, "Back up every single time you shut down Lightroom." If you quit for the night, that's a great time to do the shutdown.
 
And the moral of this story is, "Back up every single time you shut down Lightroom." If you quit for the night, that's a great time to do the shutdown.
Currently, this thread has over 250 entries. This may be the longest thread in the forum. The solution to the corrupt catalog problem is so simple, yet time and time again here we are. I almost wish Victoria had not made the option possible. I have not made an analysis on the success rate of repairing corrupt catalogs, but I would guess that the number of successful repairs is small.
[Begin Rant] The recommendation (rule) is to regularly back up your master catalog file as insurance against corruption. I don't understand why there are people that think the rules do not apply to them and they deserve special treatment [End Rant]
 
My corrupt catalogue did not result from not backing up. I backup every time I exit Lightroom Classic.
I have a removable 2TB Seagate expansion drive which holds my photographs and LRC catalogue and move this drive between a laptop and a desktop PC. I have a main backup of the catalogue and photographs on the desktop PC and when I am away from home a backup of the photographs I had been working on, on the laptop.
I had been away from home and had been working on the PC. When I got home I connected the removable drive to the desktop to backup the catalogue and found the catalogue folder on the removable drive was corrupted. The catalogue folder also contained the Lightroom exit backups and they were also corrupted.
I then realised how stupid I was to hold the catalogue and its backup in the same folder. In future I will continue to save the catalogue to the removable disk but will save the backup to the internal drive of the PC.
I have a backup copy of the catalogue on my desktop PC but it is about a month old.
It was my process which was the cause of my problem not that I was not backing up.
I do not know what caused the catalogue folder corruption but I do strongly suspect Lightroom.
 
My corrupt catalogue did not result from not backing up. I backup every time I exit Lightroom Classic.
I have a removable 2TB Seagate expansion drive which holds my photographs and LRC catalogue and move this drive between a laptop and a desktop PC. I have a main backup of the catalogue and photographs on the desktop PC and when I am away from home a backup of the photographs I had been working on, on the laptop.
I had been away from home and had been working on the PC. When I got home I connected the removable drive to the desktop to backup the catalogue and found the catalogue folder on the removable drive was corrupted. The catalogue folder also contained the Lightroom exit backups and they were also corrupted.
I then realised how stupid I was to hold the catalogue and its backup in the same folder. In future I will continue to save the catalogue to the removable disk but will save the backup to the internal drive of the PC.
I have a backup copy of the catalogue on my desktop PC but it is about a month old.
It was my process which was the cause of my problem not that I was not backing up.
I do not know what caused the catalogue folder corruption but I do strongly suspect Lightroom.
Some people keep old backups going back months. I think it was Clee who said he had to go back six months to rectify a really bad issue involving the catalog. A 4TB external drive costs less than $100 these days. Western Digital Desktop External Hard Drives | Newegg.com.

How much is your time worth to recover from a corrupted catalog?
 
Hi David,

I know I am a bit late on a reply, but from your description, it sounds more like NTFS corruption than just a catalog. Was anything else on the drive or folder corrupted?

While there is no guarantee, there are companies as well as software that can do filesystem recovery. It just depends on the real root cause. So depending on the criticality of that data, there could be other options.

Another option for your workflow could be to always keep the catalogue on the internal drive and have scripts on the drive to copy the catalog to and from the removable drive. I don't like using external drives like you are because I have seen too many problems with usb connections and they (normally) are not as fast as internal drives.

Best,
Jonathan
 
Hello, I have a corrupt catalog after lightroom suddenly in the middle of a workflow stated it was missing a file and I can't for the life of me figure out sqlite, is there a way to get help from a wizard. I'm truly desperate. thank you all!
 
Hello Victoria, I sent you the corrupted .lrtcat via wetransfer! I was in the middle of finishing the work done and uploading and hadn't quit the program to backup during that day hence no backup, well lesson learned to always backup even during a session of power editing. I hope it's okay I sent it through. Having trouble figuring out SQlite on my mac :/

- Monja
 
I'm quite new to this place. Could you please help me out find the correct forum as I couldn't find it?
Lightroom Classic - top on on the list.

We'll let you know on the catalog, it has failed, we'll get some input from a colleague at Adobe.
 
Some repair was possible, but some data was lost. Catalog on it's way back to you.
 
In my case - this doesn't work. If I choose my corrupted catalog following this procedure this will still cause LR to crash.
You'll need to look to use a backup of that catalog then, check how recent that is.

Cletus - this isn't the same poster as the repaired catalog.
 
Hello,
I wonder if you might be able to point me in a decent direction please, still on lightroom 6.14 here!

My catalogue has been giving me grief for a long time and I only recently realised I had an actual problem (I've spent a lifetime just thinking lightroom is awful / rubbish etc but not I see that it's not that at all! the downside is that all of my backups are newer than the problem), yes a bit slow on the uptake I know.

My problems are keywords where sometimes I can take actions (add, remove, edit etc), other times (generally after a couple of actions on keywords but sometimes on startup) the keywords stop responding for instance I cannot move keywords, edit shows a blank box, delete does nothing & the main keyword windows says "waiting...." and if I try to open pictures on a given keyword the main panel just says "loading".

I am assuming that I've got something broken in the keyword tables (but not so badly that lightroom cannot operate) but I don't know how to identify what needs fixing - I understand SQL (the language) but driving sqlite is a challenge (I've just downloaded sqlite3, not a clue what I am doing there yet!).

Is anyone able to point me in a direction to check what might need checking / fixing please - at least identifying what might be the issue!

Yes I have thought about & testing exporting to a new catalog (export works, import doesnt strangley) but I had it in my mind I might be better off fixing the problem before exporting although I wonder if perhaps I am being dim and export would just recreate everything from scratch that it can export and hence I will clean the problem out (I admit it might be easier to recreate my published services that to fix the keywords).

I've waffled I know but any pointers much appreciated.

Thanks

Chris
 
Hello,
I wonder if you might be able to point me in a decent direction please, still on lightroom 6.14 here!

My catalogue has been giving me grief for a long time and I only recently realised I had an actual problem (I've spent a lifetime just thinking lightroom is awful / rubbish etc but not I see that it's not that at all! the downside is that all of my backups are newer than the problem), yes a bit slow on the uptake I know.

My problems are keywords where sometimes I can take actions (add, remove, edit etc), other times (generally after a couple of actions on keywords but sometimes on startup) the keywords stop responding for instance I cannot move keywords, edit shows a blank box, delete does nothing & the main keyword windows says "waiting...." and if I try to open pictures on a given keyword the main panel just says "loading".

I am assuming that I've got something broken in the keyword tables (but not so badly that lightroom cannot operate) but I don't know how to identify what needs fixing - I understand SQL (the language) but driving sqlite is a challenge (I've just downloaded sqlite3, not a clue what I am doing there yet!).

Is anyone able to point me in a direction to check what might need checking / fixing please - at least identifying what might be the issue!

Yes I have thought about & testing exporting to a new catalog (export works, import doesnt strangley) but I had it in my mind I might be better off fixing the problem before exporting although I wonder if perhaps I am being dim and export would just recreate everything from scratch that it can export and hence I will clean the problem out (I admit it might be easier to recreate my published services that to fix the keywords).

I've waffled I know but any pointers much appreciated.

Thanks

Chris
Now that's a bit disappointing, created a new catalog and the keywords behave the same, so that's not the fix :-(
 
Now that's a bit disappointing, created a new catalog and the keywords behave the same, so that's not the fix :(
So I got enthusiastic and installed a new install of LR 6 on my laptop (unimaginably slow), boy that was fun (adobe logins ; lots and was painful turning off 2fa as text messages simply don't happen & you cant get adobe support without logging in!) - anyway new install and the newly created catalog and within 2 minutes I can recreate the same problem - so it's not my skanky old PC :)
 
So I got enthusiastic and installed a new install of LR 6 on my laptop (unimaginably slow), boy that was fun (adobe logins ; lots and was painful turning off 2fa as text messages simply don't happen & you cant get adobe support without logging in!) - anyway new install and the newly created catalog and within 2 minutes I can recreate the same problem - so it's not my skanky old PC :)
What version of LR 6 are you running? From memory, LR6 had lots of problems until about 6.10. Whatever, if you are not running 6.14, you need to find a way of getting to 6.14. If you are running 6.14, you could try deleting your LR preferences. Reinstalling LR doesn't necessarily clean up all existing problems and a problem with the preferences is a common problem area.
 
What version of LR 6 are you running? From memory, LR6 had lots of problems until about 6.10. Whatever, if you are not running 6.14, you need to find a way of getting to 6.14. If you are running 6.14, you could try deleting your LR preferences. Reinstalling LR doesn't necessarily clean up all existing problems and a problem with the preferences is a common problem area.
Hi, it is 6.14 & I've just installed that onto a different machine so the preferences were a fresh install and made no difference, my PC is getting long in the tooth so I was almost hoping that it would turn out to be my PC that was the problem!

I will try clearing them to see if it makes any odds but not holding my breath :)
 
Hi, it is 6.14 & I've just installed that onto a different machine so the preferences were a fresh install and made no difference, my PC is getting long in the tooth so I was almost hoping that it would turn out to be my PC that was the problem!

I will try clearing them to see if it makes any odds but not holding my breath :)
Deleting the preferences didn't change a thing unfortunately :-(
 
Anyway know anything about the database structure? Just rummaging (on a copy I hasten to add) and there are entries in AgLibraryKeywordCooccurrence where Tag1 or Tag2 is not a valid id_local in AgLibraryKeyword so I wonder if I just have a basic integrity issue?

Any points appreciated as I'm clutching at straws
 
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