To recover photos removed (not deleted) from a master folder (not in Collection)

[David PZ]

Lightroom Version Number

5,7

Operating System

1. macOS 10.14 Mojave

Accidentally removed a number of virtual copies in a main folder. They were edited differently and I had wanted to make them master photos. How can I get them back? Thanks.

 

[David PZ]

Of course, I hope to get these virtual copies back in their edited form. They are in my LR backup. Is there a way to go into the backup and retrieve them? Wonder if I can also go into Time Machine to retrieve them. Last time, a technician was able to retrieve a file missing on my desktop from TM. Doing it from LR in TM may be more tricky.

 

[Paul McFarlane]

Find a backup of the catalog with the VC's still in
Select the photos and VC's
Export as a catalog (this is a temporary one)
Import the (temp) catalog

 

[David PZ]

Paul, thank you. I need some help in understanding what you have said to me. (1) I have the backup of the catalog with the VCs, but I have never opened one yet. Do I just double click on it & go from there? (2) Select the photos and VCs—does photos mean the masters from which the VCs were made? (3) Export as a catolog—how do you export the selected files as a catalog? Do you mean exporting the entire catalog? Also, do you export it to desktop or somewhere like that? (4) Then you import the catolog into LR—the whole catalog would now end up in a temporary folder in LR?

Sorry I ask so many questions. I know if I don't try it on my own, I wouldn't know. Then I am afraid if I don't understand everything clearly, I would make some mistake along the way.

 

[Paul McFarlane]

(1) Yes
(2) - yes, select the masters and VC's
(3) - it's under the File menu and it'll only export the ones you selected
(4) you import to your main catalog - all it's doing is pulling back the missing VC's

 

[David PZ]

Paul, I opened the backup and was asked if I want to relaunch this catalog. Of course, I need to. Then that's going to close the current catalog and restart. Does that mean the current catalog would be replaced? Now I can pick those masters and VCs. Under File, I do see Expert as Catalog. If I click that, what would I see? Would the Main Catalog be what I choose to import to? But it's been replaced now, right? Wouldn't the current catalogue have to be relaunched? I guess I am not that clear about going from (3) to (4).

David

 

[David PZ]

Paul, wonder if this would help. If I can see the editing of those VCs, then I can just copy them down and create new VCs and apply the editing to them. I am thinking of avoiding exporting and importing. But perhaps this is not possible, since to see them you must launch the backup catolog. Once lauched, where does the the current catalog go? Would the relaunching of the current catolog be necessary? Also, do you need to close the backup catolog at the end.?

So my thinking is that Get the editing info from the backup catalog, then close it, and get back to and open the current catolog and create new VCs.

Thanks.

 

[David PZ]

Paul,
I solved the prob. I backed up my current LR version. Opened the old backup that had the missing VC's. I double-clicked. This time I wasn't asked if I wanted to relaunch or not. I found the six missing VC's and easily copied the all the development settings and closed it. Then I clicked on the latest backup & got the current LR version back on. It's a happy day for me. Thank you for your kind help. (BTW, I also found this relevant article Queen wrote. But since I solved the problem, I didn't bother to study it carefully.)
David