There’s an updated Lightroom 4 version of these instructions in the Knowledgebase.
David just posted this very question in one of my blog comments, so I thought it was about time I posted this for reference…
If you’ve deleted your original files, you don’t have backups, and they’re not in the Recycle Bin (Windows) / Trash (Mac), the next thing to check is whether the photos are still on the memory card. If you haven’t reshot the entire card, it may be possible to rescue some of the original photos using recovery software.
If that’s not possible, before you do anything else, close Lightroom, find the catalog on the hard drive, and duplicate the catalog and previews just in case something else goes wrong. Big warning here – LRViewer is offered freely but without support, and although I’ve never seen anything go wrong, backups are always crucial whatever you’re doing.
It’s possible to retrieve Lightroom’s previews using Marc Rochkind’s free LRViewer software, which can be downloaded from: http://basepath.com/LRViewer/ The resulting JPEGs will only be the size and quality of the previews, but they’re better than nothing.
Having downloaded the software from the link above, install and open it. It’ll ask for your catalog location, and once you’ve navigated to your catalog, it’ll open into the viewer window. You can then select the photos and go to File menu > Export JPEGs… to export the previews to the location of your choice.
JD says
June 8, 2011 at 6:33 pmDavid, as someone who has used computers for many years with many different robust programs like LR V3, may I suggest you buy a roll back program or if you are using MS windows there is always restore which is not so robust. If you are a Mac user I am not familiar with that platform being a Windows user. For Windows XP a program called “GO Back” by Norton has saved me from sudden death deletes or goof ups many times. I am now using Windows 7 64 bit which is not supported by Go Back. I did buy a program called Roxio Roll Back. It is not cheap at $80 but it really does work and I am always amazed by how far back I can take my computer to restore a major or minor goof up. It is really worth the investment as you have probably invested a great deal of time taking your photos. Good hunting.
Jaime Naftel says
July 8, 2011 at 9:53 pmI had a terrible system of storing all of my photos so in an attempt to make everything neat and clean and organized, I decided to go through all of my hard drives, rename things, moving things, deleting old things. I thought the best way to do this would be to delete my catalogs in lightroom and reimport everything. This way I wouldn’t have to go through the missing link situation. Now I’m realizing that that was a terrible idea because I’ve lost my color codes, flags, edits, etc. I have a lightroom catalog that was created on June 28, which is when I started to re-import things into lightroom, however, that catalog has since been modified. Is there a way to get lightroom to open the catalog from the day it was created? Or to import my photos into lightroom with all of its previous color codes and filters? I am kicking myself in the butt for this.
[Hi Jaime. Ouch!!!! Do you have any backup catalogs from before you started moving things? And any hard drive backups that might have the old names and locations? Either way, it’s going to be a bit of a job, I think. If you can find any backups, it would probably best easiest to talk you through it over on http://www.lightroomforums.net rather than trying to fix ti all via forum comment. – VB]
phyllis says
December 30, 2015 at 7:19 pmHi Can I delete my lightroom catalogues and start over without loosing the original files?
I was way too disorganized when I started. I need to begin again.
Thanks!
Victoria Bampton says
December 31, 2015 at 9:50 amYes, although you’d lose any work you’ve done to them. Personally, I’d just move them into a backup folder and maybe zip them up so you don’t accidentally open them. That way you still have access to them if you need them again in future.
Shannon Kaye says
January 15, 2016 at 8:12 pmHow to open the recovery bin so that I can get the photos that I accidently dumped there?
Victoria Bampton says
January 16, 2016 at 11:11 amDo you mean the Recycle Bin on Windows or the Trash on Mac, perhaps? The Windows Recycle Bin usually has an icon on the desktop, or the Mac Trash Can has an icon in the dock.