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So dumb but hopefully a remedy

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sherwoodmaiden

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Joined
Jul 29, 2022
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17
Lightroom Version Number
Lightroom 6
Operating System
  1. macOS 11 Big Sur
I deleted my problematic LR6 off my external HD because I read to do that and just reinstall it. I have the 6 with the disk, come to find out is no longer possible. So I was able to get the program from an old back up on the other external HD I have but it was an old catalog. I thought I was backing up to the disk with the LR program on it but I guess I wasn't, it is the wrong HD:( Is all the latest information in the .lrcat even if I didn't back it up? If I find the lrcat I just deleted will it be the latest one or does it have to be a backup version? Sorry talking in circles, my mind is fried because of this. I have a Mac and it was a stand alone LR6. I was able to find a backup from 2021. But need my latest work.
 
You may be 'at a brick wall' with v6 from 2017 (that's 5 years- ancient in computer years!)
Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina and M1 Macs do not run 32-bit apps or games. Apple dropped support for 32-bit applications in macOS Catalina and the last macOS to support them was Mojave.
So you cannot install v6 with its 32bit installer. (unless you revert to Mojave)
You will need to consider the Photography Plan 20GB subscription. $9.99 PHOTOGRAPHY PLAN (USA)

Now Catalogs: are database files with the file-type suffix of {.LRCAT}. Finding your most recent version will be a search of all available {.LRCAT} files. (Catalogs restored from trash often have problems)
Lightroom 6 End of Support
 
So the most recent .lrcat I find will be the one I recently used even if I did not back it up? If I go back to Mojave I can install with the disk? Would the most recent catalog be there?
 
Catalogs will adopt a 'Modified Date' when opened, so the date shown in the OS Finder may not show which is the 'latest' catalog. You may need to 'open' each .LRCAT file with Lightroom to view what it contains.
If I go back to Mojave I can install with the disk?
I believe so (Me- not a Mac person!) BUT download Version 6.14- as that was the last perpetual version.
Here- https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/lightroom-6-end-of-support.html
with the disk? Would the most recent catalog be there?
NOT on the install CD-disk! On an external Drive- possibly!
Search in Finder for all available {Lightroom Catalog.LRCAT} files (or similarly named.).
 
Ok, thank you. The latest catalogs were on the files I deleted on my external HD. Because I deleted LR I can not see where I backed it up but I know I did. I have #1 and #2 HD. 1 had the LR program on it that I used, #2 did have a backup from 2021.
 
To be sure you are understanding- The "Backup" procedure when you close Lightroom App only creates a copy of the Catalog.LRCAT file -not the Lightroom App, and not your photos!.

So to run a Lightroom (Perpetual) system you need-
1) The App installed- Lightroom v6.14
2) A Catalog file. (the latest you can find)
3) Your photo files. (on a connected local drive
 
So I found a. lrcat in time machine but it says it is from March 2019 but the time machine date was July 22 2022. When I restore it, it Is is a brand new catalog directing me to the pictures folder which contains most of the photos....does that make sense? So it is basicially just a new catalog, none of my personal settings applied. Now I have a few catalogs going on, all over my desktop with one of those with an old catalog!
 
So I found a. lrcat in time machine but it says it is from March 2019 but the time machine date was July 22 2022. When I restore it, it Is is a brand new catalog directing me to the pictures folder which contains most of the photos....does that make sense? So it is basicially just a new catalog, none of my personal settings applied. Now I have a few catalogs going on, all over my desktop with one of those with an old catalog!
Restoring a catalog from a backup does not automatically mean that Lightroom will start to use it. What you describe suggests that Lightroom is probably still using a new catalog it created. Open the folder with the restored catalog and double click the catalog file. That will launch Lightroom with this catalog, so now Lightroom knows where it is. Check in the preferences that Lightroom uses the ‘most recent catalog’, and you’re good to go. From now on Lightroom will use this restored catalog.
 
I deleted my problematic LR6 off my external HD because I read to do that and just reinstall it. I have the 6 with the disk, come to find out is no longer possible. So I was able to get the program from an old back up on the other external HD I have but it was an old catalog. I thought I was backing up to the disk with the LR program on it but I guess I wasn't, it is the wrong HD:( Is all the latest information in the .lrcat even if I didn't back it up? If I find the lrcat I just deleted will it be the latest one or does it have to be a backup version? Sorry talking in circles, my mind is fried because of this. I have a Mac and it was a stand alone LR6. I was able to find a backup from 2021. But need my latest work.
I can't help you because It has been many years since I have installed a program from disk and no one backs up programs or operating systems anymore. It just isn't done. Unheard of. Unworkable. Can't do it. So let me advise you in another way:

Programs are loaded from your accounts - Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, Norton, Good Sync, RawDigger, Helicon Focus, or many other programs that I could name that we use in our photography.

If you just lost some old legacy program that you bought (or were given) on disk ages ago (saved from the ancient computer world we all left so long ago), that is a good thing and in your case is the powerful and ancient Gods of Adobe (who have absolute control of all the Aztec, Greek and Hittite Gods of the Ancient World) telling you it is time to load a new version of LR from your Adobe account, which you must open now if you want to use LR or PS. Loading this new version of LR and having an Adobe Account will open up a whole new world for you. By the way, did someone hand you that disk 7 years ago or did you buy a copy from Adobe with a copy/account number? Doesn't matter. That was then. This is now. Anyway, if there were still no Adobe prescription program, under the old rules you would still have to buy a new version by now anyway. So, look at it as a blessing.

Welcome to a new version of LR, (which you have to buy because it is impossible to pirate like I did with my first 2 versions of Photoshop 23 years ago - LOL!).

You must thank the Ancient Gods that have spited you for trying to use this old LR version from the Ancient World. They removed it from you like a cyst from your armpit - painful but will make you happy in the long run.

You losing that version of LR is a blessing in disguise. I tell photographers all the time that the 12 bucks a month I pay Adobe for LR and PS is the best deal in the world of photography. I'm being serious here. I'm not joking. Trust me. It is time.
 
Thanks, Greg. I did buy it in 2019. If I were a professional, family feeding, bread winner, booked schedule photographer I would "possibly" consider a subscription BUT I am non of the above. Use to do family and a wedding here and there but now being retired I enjoy the more simple things like, my family and grands, birds, nature, traveling etc. I do have a lot of photos from the ole "iphoto" and now photo and just on my hardrive. I am just going to have to find a new program without a monthly fee. There are a few and I do have Affinity but it seems so complicated. Maybe I can just really focus on that program. But no cataloging. I just don't understand where my backups were going when I didn't have the correct drive mounted???? Should be in my "picture" folder from what I have read but no go. I can find the .lrcat but there is nothing in it. I have time machine backing up too but I can't do anything with that BA file either. I think it is hopeless.
 
I have time machine backing up too but I can't do anything with that BA file either.
Apple Time Machine is a good backup solution and there is no reason why you would not be able to restore a Lightroom catalog from such a backup. So what exactly is the reason why you can’t do anything with it? Do you not know how Time Machine works?
 
I know how everything works when it comes to backing stuff up and OS time shots. I'm not talking about the catalog backup which I have been doing every day for the past 11 years via LR - not separate backup or sync schemes from other programs. I'm talking about an ancient version of LR that the OP is having trouble with and wondering how to reload from lost disk. Besides, his cat backup should be backed up via LR to a safe spot and not part of a sync or overall backup routine.
If you guys are using some kind of old-school overall backup that includes your operating system and programs, then in my opinion (which is only an opinion) you ain't doing it the best way.
By the way, one of the biggest topics on all of the photography boards for the past 3 years has been people complaining about the Adobe subscription model. I always tell them they might as well complain about taxes and their eventual death because there ain't no avoiding it. Much better than the old way. Very powerful and a great service to mankind and photographers.
 
Thanks, Greg. I did buy it in 2019. If I were a professional, family feeding, bread winner, booked schedule photographer I would "possibly" consider a subscription BUT I am non of the above. Use to do family and a wedding here and there but now being retired I enjoy the more simple things like, my family and grands, birds, nature, traveling etc. I do have a lot of photos from the ole "iphoto" and now photo and just on my hardrive. I am just going to have to find a new program without a monthly fee. There are a few and I do have Affinity but it seems so complicated. Maybe I can just really focus on that program. But no cataloging. I just don't understand where my backups were going when I didn't have the correct drive mounted???? Should be in my "picture" folder from what I have read but no go. I can find the .lrcat but there is nothing in it. I have time machine backing up too but I can't do anything with that BA file either. I think it is hopeless.
Apple Time Machine is a good backup solution and there is no reason why you would not be able to restore a Lightroom catalog from such a backup. So what exactly is the reason why you can’t do anything with it? Do you not know how Time Machine works?
Maiden, I hear you. I am blessed with a large family and enjoy my life too and also (like you) don't like to waste money. I have heard this a thousand times. Do what you gotta do, but you are slaying imaginary dragons in my opinion.
Go on DPR and post what you said above. You will get 50 responses telling you to abandon Adobe because they are furious with the prescription model and feel abused and used. Then 100 guys like me will lecture you about way you must pay up and joint the club, and the countless benefits that provides.
Then you decide what to do. I could tell you what program to get if you are mad at Adobe or just don't want to spend the monthly fee on the Adobe model. But it won't be as good as LR.
You decide, but you should take my very good advice if you enjoy post processing and enjoy shooting raw, and especially if you are any kind of earning pro. Hey - these are First World problems. I'm sitting here about to buy a monochrome Q2 when I already have a color Q2. So.... We all have to make choices in photography.
Good luck.
 
Well I guess I don't know if I can't get it to work:) I am not sure where the most recent catalog I had on my EHD went when I deleted it. Not sure time machine backed up my EHD. I used LR off of an external HD. Deleted the program and all the files. I will entertain any ideas or explanations.
 
Well I guess I don't know if I can't get it to work:) I am not sure where the most recent catalog I had on my EHD went when I deleted it. Not sure time machine backed up my EHD. I used LR off of an external HD. Deleted the program and all the files. I will entertain any ideas or explanations.
That is a bad luck. I hate it when I get stung with computer use glitches, which happens to me a lot.

But unless that cat is buried somewhere in some backup or backed up to your internal or external disk and you just can't find it....

Search hard, My Maiden.

Lr backs up on every exit with me to another internal SSD and then I back it up once a week externally too, along with all my data to all kinds of internal and external drives. Why? Because I'm a backup sync freak because I have made catastrophic errors in the past and learned from it.

It is painful, but you have committed a couple of cardinal sins. If you lost that LR Cat, I feel terrible for you. But do this going forward. Subscribe to LR/PS. Then back your cat every time you exit LR and know where it is going (not the boot disk LR is on). If and when you get a new machine, run LR off the internal boot SSD. Put your images wherever you want. Storage is getting fast and cheap, but if you get a new machine have them on an internal fast SSD. Just know where it all is and back it up more than once.
What I'm saying to do is not expensive or hard. It just takes a little diligence. We all live in fear of losing our images. If I lost my LR Cat I would cry for a week. Then I would flail myself with a switch on my back like the Medieval Monks doing repentance. While I suffered I would chant backup, backup, backup 155 times.
 
Thank you for all your words of wisdom. I do have another issue, the real issue that caused this situation. I did find an old .lrct and it does have some pic on, although not updated but all the photos are "missing". I know where they are and when I direct LR there the program crashes. Ever.Single.Time. I know, switch to the paid but I wonder if my computer is having issues with that being the old, obsolete program.
 
Well I guess I don't know if I can't get it to work:) I am not sure where the most recent catalog I had on my EHD went when I deleted it. Not sure time machine backed up my EHD. I used LR off of an external HD. Deleted the program and all the files. I will entertain any ideas or explanations.
Deleting files on a Mac, even from an EHD usually means Move to Trash. Have you checked the Trash Can to see if your files are there?

I recently did an oops myself and deleted a full days session of photos. To top it off had also formatted the cameras memory card. After a few moments panic did a google search which lead me to check the trash and sure enough, all the files were there. A quick select and choose Put Back recovered everything I had lost.
 
I know it will be only become more difficult to solve this problem if many people in this forum all come up with different advice, so just use common sense. If you deleted stuff while you do have backups, then use those backups to restore that stuff. That is what backups are for! Yes, there may be other options. But if you try a little bit of this and a little bit of that, then the end result may only be worse and certainly more confusing.
 
That is a bad luck. I hate it when I get stung with computer use glitches, which happens to me a lot.

But unless that cat is buried somewhere in some backup or backed up to your internal or external disk and you just can't find it....

Search hard, My Maiden.

Lr backs up on every exit with me to another internal SSD and then I back it up once a week externally too, along with all my data to all kinds of internal and external drives. Why? Because I'm a backup sync freak because I have made catastrophic errors in the past and learned from it.

It is painful, but you have committed a couple of cardinal sins. If you lost that LR Cat, I feel terrible for you. But do this going forward. Subscribe to LR/PS. Then back your cat every time you exit LR and know where it is going (not the boot disk LR is on). If and when you get a new machine, run LR off the internal boot SSD. Put your images wherever you want. Storage is getting fast and cheap, but if you get a new machine have them on an internal fast SSD. Just know where it all is and back it up more than once.
What I'm saying to do is not expensive or hard. It just takes a little diligence. We all live in fear of losing our images. If I lost my LR Cat I would cry for a week. Then I would flail myself with a switch on my back like the Medieval Monks doing repentance. While I suffered I would chant backup, backup, backup 155 times.
So when I had the wrong EHD connected but I told LR to backup to one that was not connected where did it backup I wonder? For some senior moment, quite a long moment, I had LR on one but chose the other to be backing it up. I think. With not being able to. look at my old catalog and settings I am not sure where it was told to backup but it is not on this one with the program on it.
 
So when I had the wrong EHD connected but I told LR to backup to one that was not connected where did it backup I wonder? For some senior moment, quite a long moment, I had LR on one but chose the other to be backing it up. I think. With not being able to. look at my old catalog and settings I am not sure where it was told to backup but it is not on this one with the program on it.

If LrC can not find the Backup path, it reverts to the default backup folder inside the Lightroom Folder.


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So it should be somewhere on my HD? Not there.

Did you check the folder where your catalog file is located? There should be a folder there labeled Backups. If not then simply exit LrC with the volume contains the backup folder mounted and make a new more recent backup.


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