Another "Cannot use catalog... not writable and cannot be opened" issue.

After a restore of a Windows7 system backup image (using the built-in Windows tools), my main catalog is now stuck with this error. I do have daily backups which are all fine so I've only lost work on about 20 images (really only tagging and metadata since I didn't do much with them) so I am not at all bent out of shape. I'm more curious to know what is going on here since based on my troubleshooting I'm pretty convinced this isn't the Win7 permissions issue.
My setup:
-LR 3.3
-Win7 Ultimate 64
-Xeon server with SATA backplane
-C: and D: on same physical disk - windows, apps and "personal data" only (Vista and Win7 dual boot, haven't used Vista in a year so was removing that partition and resizing D, and that's what started this... learned to let sleeping dogs lie)
-F: 1TB PhotoDrive - contains my Lightroom folder with the .lrcats, and the Backup folder; outside that is my "Negatives" folder structure containing the NEFs and .xmp sidecar files.
-G: small RAID0 for Lightroom and Photoshop/Bridge (never use Bridge anymore) caching folders
I've searched this forum and found a number of similar threads (newest Jan 1); however, all have indicated permissions and ownership problems with Windows 7, so I've spent the last 4 hours or so researching and changing ownership type things on my system as regards the master file.
First I verified that I could create a new file into that same Lightroom folder. Check.
Next I copied the broken catalog in place and tried to open the copy (surely I own that one!) and no go.
Yet I can open all the backup catalogs just fine (same drive, same owner, same parent folder).
Then I manually went through the security properties of the Lightroom folder and added full permissions for everyone. Took awhile as I could see it going through all previews in subfolders as well ... but no change in behaviour.
I manually went through the advanced security properties and verfied that my user was in fact the owner of the individual lrcat file. (and then went back and did that for the folder as well). No dice.
I went back to the folder and changed the ownership to the administrator group. (just for grins, checked it now - still same behavior) Then changed the ownership back to me (still won't open).
Finally, I copied the catalog over the network to my laptop (where I can see the ownership properties of this file reflect my laptop user) and it still won't open using my laptop copy of LR 3.3.
It's frustrating to not be able to fix this (I mean, this *could* have been catastrophic!), but I've wasted enough time on it now. I also don't really know what caused it - it had been several days since working with photos, and my 1TB "PhotoDrive" was not touched during the system restore on the other disk (well... that's not true now that I think about it... since it is my largest drive, it's actually where I stored the system backup file, so it was the "source" drive of the restore).
I did want to post and report it; perhaps someone has already dealt with it. I'd love to know what's going on. Not sure if adobe tech monitors here or not, but if they want the file for forensics, I could try to post it somewhere, it's about 1GB so that would suck a bit.
-Brent

This may or may not be relevant but I suffered from this message (and not being able to open the catalog) when I was switching between using a catalog (on the same caddy based hard-drive) on two different PCs, one Win 7 64 and the other XP 32 BUT only if, rather than completely close down the PC, I hibernated it. As long as I closed the PC down I could open the catalog succesfully on the second machine but if I hibernated I could not (even if LR itself had been closed down). Something was apparently marking the files when I hibernated(?)
Hope that makes sense!
Like you I didn't lose much work as backups from both machines functioned just fine.

Similar Messages

Why do i get the following message when i attempt to open my backup file for lightroom cc? "Lightroom cannot use the catalog named "Lightroom Catalog" because it is not writable and cannot be opened". This message just started coming up after downloadi

why do i get the following message when i attempt to open my backup file for lightroom cc? "Lightroom cannot use the catalog named "Lightroom Catalog" because it is not writable and cannot be opened". This message just started coming up after downloading lightroom cc (previously using lightroom 5)...am i backing up properly or not???

Open Pictures folder and move the files named lrcat-journal and lrcat.lock to Desktop.
Make sure that , they are not inside Pictures folder any more and try to open backup from Lighrtroom and check..
Any LRcat file with .lock extension , move it to Desktop.

I'm not able to open a catalog. It says it is not writable and cannot be opened.

This has been happening to me for the past few weeks. If I close my LR5 program and try to re-open the catalog I get a error message that says
Lightroom cannot use the catalog named "Lightroom 5 Catalog 2014" because it is not writable and cannot be opened.
This could be caused by incorrect permissions or because another Lightroom application is using the catalog. You may try to correct the problem or you may select a different catalog.
Then I have the option to choose a different catalog / try again / Exit
I have to go to the backup every time. I am currently working in Windows 8.1
Please help!

Try the Firefox SafeMode to see how it works there. 
''A troubleshooting mode, which disables most Add-ons.'' 
''(If you're not using it, switch to the Default Theme.)''
* You can open the Firefox 4.0+ SafeMode by holding the '''Shft''' key when you use the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
* Or use the Help menu item, click on '''Restart with Add-ons Disabled...''' while Firefox is running. 
''Don't select anything right now, just use "Continue in SafeMode."''
''To exit the Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before using the Firefox shortcut (without the Shft key) to open it again.''
'''''If it is good in the Firefox SafeMode''''', your problem is probably caused by an extension, and you need to figure out which one. 
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes
''When you figure out what is causing that, please let us know. It might help other user's who have that problem.''

Some more 'not writable and cannot be opened" . . . one more time . . .

OK, I give up and need help. I have all LR 2.6 files and folders on an EHD (F:). I downloaded the LR 2.6 update to C: drive on my laptop (Vista) and upon the initial opening of the updated LR was able to open one of my two catalogs (.lrcats). However, upon closing that I am no longer able to access either THAT catalog again OR the other .lrcat because they are " not writable and cannot be opened".
I've read a multitude of threads on this problem and either the answers don't apply or I just don't understand what I need to do in order to open the F: lrcats on the laptop C: LR. Double clicking on the catalogs just brings up the above message. Properties indicates the catalogs are readable and have permissions . . . (It works perfectly on LR 2.6 on C: on my win xp sp3 desktop.)
I've tried everything I can think of (which AIN'T much - have always admitted to being computer-challenged). Any idea what I'm missing?

Well, is the catalogue (and the folder it is in) writable? Have you actually checked the permissions? Lightroom won't be spitting out the error just to tick you off, and - computer wizard or not - this sounds very much like something you'll have to fix at the OS level: it's probably nothing to do with Lightroom or those funny lads at Adobe.
Some light reading for you, courtesy of the site search: https://forums.adobe.com/search.jspa?q=%22+not+writable+and+cannot+be+opened%22&place=%2Fp laces%2F1383621&depth=ALL
It would help to know your OS.

Can't open Lightroom 5.3 catalog. Get ".. it is not writable and cannot be opened" message.

Hi everyone,
I'm having a problem opening a lightroom catalog. I get a message "Lightroom cannot use the catalog because it's not writable and can't be opened".
The catalog and several thousand RAW files are stored on an external drive.
Here are the steps which I believe caused the problem:
1. Worked with the catalog on my PC laptop. Disconnected the drive without closing Lightroom first (big mistake).
2. Plugged the external drive into desktop PC and did additional work. Closed Ligtroom (on desktop) and disconnected the drive.
3. Plugged the drive back into the laptop while original catalog was still open (see #1 above). Clicked on an image at which point Lightroom crashed and closed by itself.
The problem now is that the catalog no longer opens on either computer. Any attempt to open results in "Lightroom cannot use the catalog because it's not writable and can't be opened" message. There are no lock or journal files that can be deleted, just the lrcat file and tons of folders with preview data.
I'm hoping that it's not a lost cause and I can still recover the catalog. There are 2 days worth of work there.
Thank you for any help/advice in advance!

Ok. I found a solution. Since Ligthroom catalog is a SQLite database, you can use a database tool to fix it. Simply download SQLite from www.sqlite.org for your OS (Windows 7 in my case) and unzip to C:\SQLite for ease of use. Copy your corrupt catalog to C:\SQLite folder as well to keep things simple.
Go to command prompt Start>Run, type 'cmd' and click Enter. This will open the command prompt where you will need to execute the following commands:
1. cd sqlite
2. echo .dump | sqlite3 yourcatalogfilename.lrcat > tempcatalog.sql
3. sqlite3 -init tempcatalog.sql newcatalogfilename.lrcat
After executing line 3, you may or may not see error messages. No worries, it simply truncated faulty database records which is what cause the catalog to crash.
Now, copy the newcatalogfilename.lrcat back to your lightroom catalog folder and launch it. You should be able to get things back up and running to where you left of, or to the point where the original Lightroom catalog got corrupted in the first place.
Hope this helps. It took me a few hours to find a solution, but it saved me at least 2 days of work. The original credit goes to the author of the following article http://www.simplyness.com/more-photography-tips/recover-corrupted-unrepairable-lightroom-3 -catalog-with-sqlite.html. It seemed to have worked for Lightroom 3 and still worked for Lightroom 5.3 in my case.

LR must quit because Catalogue named lighroom Catalogue .lrcat is not writable and cnnot be opened.

Etc. Holding down the ctrl key etc. does not help. I recently lost most of my computer software, etc. - a disaster that I finally had to have a professional sort out (it included a disc failure and so on). I have reloaded everything, including my Photoshop CS3 and every thing works! So I thought I should reload the Photoshop Lightroom too. I did so but NO Joy. When I want to open it I get the message as mentioned under subject! There was not a lot of photos in the previous version before the computer failure, and most of the photos were backed up in the PS.CS3.How do I get the proper Catalogue opening? Would just reloading the entire LR again work. Or do I need to delete the LR software and then start over. Of course I would prefer to just make the version that I have now work! I use Win XP Pro, 2 G of ram, etc. Thank you for any suggestions or help. Roy.

If you have Catalog backups you can open your last back up: File > Open Catalog. If not, it sounds like you lost your Catalog.
If you still have your photos and you wrote the xmp data to them when you worked on them in LR, you can import them into LR and your adjustments, keywords, etc. will be written into the new catalog.
If you do not want to automatically write the xmp data to your files due to performance issues, be sure to do it manually so that xmp data is stored with your files.
It is critical to back up your photos and Catalog (at least 4 catalog backups--I have had 2 backups fail, but the 3rd one saved me) on separate disks, and have an off-site backup as well. I also suggest another backup on DVDs. Without backups you should plan on losing everything on your computer every so often. My last disk failure was so complete that data could not be recovered at all--no problem I had my backups.

Catalog not writable

I just returned from a six-week trip with lots of photos. Used my laptop with an external HD on which I had the trip catalog and files. When I connect the HD to the Desktop and open the trip catalog, I get the message that the catalog cannot be used because it is not writable and cannot be opened. Maybe because of incorrect pemissions or that catalog is being used by another application. Checked the permissions, seems OK, not being used by another application.
Any suggestions
Puzzled and frustrated.
Stan

Deleted lock file. Did not help.
Thanks for the suggestion. After two long chats with Adobe, now I can open the catalog, and the folder, but it shows the files in grid (even with flag and tags) but no photo. Adobe suggests I create new catalog and copy the folders to the new catalog. Perhaps I should just move the external hd catalog and folders to my desktop. Any suggestions?

Lightroom catalog not writable ?

I am getting this error message "lightroom cannot use the catlog because it is not writable and cannot be opened." My permissions are set correctly and disc doctor finds no errors. I also have user and admin set correctly.
what else should I check?
I have tried copying the catalog to my desktop, and get the same problem. The catalog currently resides on an external drive that is otherwise fine.

Could it be that your catalogue file is read-only? It shouldn't be.
Hal

The certificate is not valid and cannot be used to verify the identity of this website

Question posted in Stack Overflow too: java - How to solve "The certificate is not valid and cannot be used to verify the identity of this website" error? - St…
The question is, How to solve "The certificate is not valid and cannot be used to verify the identity of this website" error?.
Here are the details:
I have a signed applet that has been working fine, until I updated Java to 8u25 (1.8.0_25-b18). Now, the application shows an alert message "Do you want to continue? The connection to this website is untrusted". There is a note in this message too, "The certificate is not valid and cannot be used to verify the identity of this website".
The applet is loaded without problems. But when the user tries to use a specific function of that application, the warning message is displayed.
I've checked the java console when this happens, and this warning message is displayed right after these lines:
security: Obtain certificate collection in SSL Root CA certificate store
security: Invalid certificate from HTTPS server
network: Cache entry not found [url: https://sub.domain.net:9876, version: null]
The application is downloaded from a different domain, say "https://app.domain.net/ .....", so no jars are downloaded from "https://sub.domain.net:9876 ", but the applet connects to "https://sub.domain.net:9876 " to send/receive data.
The applet is signed correctly, and so far, it meets all the security requirements according to Java. This issue seems to happen when the application tries to connect internally with an HTTPS url like https://sub.domain.net:9876. That sites' SSL certificate is valid, issued by GoDaddy and has not expired.
Again, this started to happen after updating my JRE to 8u25. I've tested adding the offending URL to Java security exception list, with no success.
Here are a few screenshot of this problem:
This is the warning message displayed:

For what it's worth we discovered what the issue was. When we installed the new certificates onto our servers we also discovered that you have to install the certificates of all intermediate servers listed in your certificate. This mean that all URLs listed on your certificate, have to have the intermediate certificate for the certificate authority installed. This also includes all the Alt Names of your domains, even if they do not use the applet.

When I click on "Sign in to Sync" the page "about:accounts" shows error "The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded." How do I fix this so I can use Sync?

When I click on the three-bar icon (top right) and then on "Sign in to Sync" a new tab opens attempting to load "about:accounts" . . . the page that loads is an error . . . "Problem loading page" shows up on the tab and the page displays:
The address isn't valid
The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded.
Web addresses are usually written like http://www.example.com/
Make sure that you're using forward slashes (i.e. /).
Try again
I am running Firefox 30.0 on a Dell XPS-18 and Windows 8.0.
I cannot access "about:accounts" at all. How do I fix this?

The about:accounts page is a valid page in the current Firefox release.
Start Firefox in [[Safe Mode|Safe Mode]] to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.
*Switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance
*Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

Error: The chosen certificate was not exported and cannot be used for SSL

Hello there,
when I try to configure the profilemanager in OS X Server and it comes to choose a certificate i get the following message:
The chosen certificate cannot be used.
The chosen certificate was not exported and cannot be used for SSL.
I chose our Wildcard certificate we received from Thawte.
It is completely imported in the Keychain from the Mac.
(Sorry if any sentence is wrong, I translated it from german to english)
Best regards,
Christoph

Is this a regular web ssl cert or a code signing cert?

I get continously "THE URL IS NOT VALID AND CANNOT BE LOADED" whereve I am, my homepage or sites I have been using always

Since I downloaded the last Firefox version 3.6 15, no matter where I am, I am back in my homepage and I get the message "The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded", usually I can go back to the site I was in and keep doing whatever I was doing, but often it will happen again.
This is happening in both my computer, laptop and desktop, one has windows XP, the other one has windows 7.
Suggestions? It is becoming a nuisance being moved from the tab I am, and kicked back to the homepage tab

Start Firefox in [[Safe Mode]] to check if one of the add-ons is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Tools > Add-ons > Themes).
* Don't make any changes on the Safe mode start window.
See:
* [[Troubleshooting extensions and themes]]

Disk Utility says of USB Drive - "This partition can't be modified" "This disk is not writeable and cannot be partitioned"

Several months ago I bought a 64GB PNY USB memory stick to transpord data quickly.
It seemed to work fine. I could format it as a Mac partition and use it. I hardly ever need
it so I just put it away.
Today I wanted to use it to put a file on and take it to the Kinko's/FedEx to print, and I
find I cannot mount it on any of my computers, iMac, MacMini or MacBookPro.
In Disk Utility virtually everything is greyed out.
Disk Utility says: "This partition can't be modified" "This disk is not writeable and cannot be partitioned"
If I try to mount it, it says "This disk cannot be mounted"
There is no physical read-only switch or setting on the disk that I can see and it is very small.
I has a Mac OS installed on it, so I wonder if that is a problem? I should be able to write over that
or reformat it I would think.

Thanks for these replies.
I've got regular time machine backups and just backed up some of my data by copying some key folders to an external drive. I'm bit paranoid about backup integrity and would ideally like to do another full backup to a different drive using a system other than time machine, in the event that something goes wrong with the time machine backup. Any recommendations on good and affordable backup software to do a backup of my TM backup?
One other question: I seem to encounter problems like this pretty frequently. I'd say once a year or so, my drive fails completely or gets near enough to failing that I have to wipe and restore. (I've never had a TM backup fail to work, though the last go around there were some hiccups which has led to my backup paranoia.) I've had this happen on multiple computers, so I'm becoming pretty convinced that the problem lies somewhere in my data. Is it possible (even likely) that there's something in my data causing this recurring problem? If so, is there anything I might be able to do to try and pinpoint and address this problem? I'd love to go one year without having to wipe/restore my machine!
For a while I thought I just had bad luck. But I think this is like the 4th or 5th time this has happened in the past 4 years and every time, I'm restoring from a backup, so I come back with the same data. It's the one constant since I've had 3 different machines over this same time period.

When we connect to the internet or visit a new web page, a new tab opens and an alert pops up as follows: "The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded"

When we start the internet or navigate to a new page, a new tab opens with the following alert: "The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded." We "x" out of it, but a new tab, with the same alert appears. The problem occurs again when we try to navigate to another web page. A real nuisance. We've scanned the computer but found nothing but Adware cookies.
== This happened ==
Every time Firefox opened
== 5/20/10

Start Firefox in [[Safe Mode]] to check if one of your add-ons is causing your problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Tools > Add-ons > Themes).
See [[Troubleshooting extensions and themes]] and [[Troubleshooting plugins]]
If it does work in Safe-mode then disable all your extensions and then try to find which is causing it by enabling one at a time until the problem reappears.
You can use "Disable all add-ons" on the [[Safe mode]] start window to disable all extensions.
You have to close and restart Firefox after each change via "File > Exit" (Mac: "Firefox > Quit"; Linux: "File > Quit")

The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded. This statement comes up on almost any attempt to log into or click a link to anything at least on 2 tries, then the site comes up. what's up with this?

firefox v 3.6.13 is what I use. If I select something from "read Later" or a link from the home page to another site, I get that message - The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded. in a box that pops us a couple of times, then the site I want.

Please [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=713167 see this.] Installing [https://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=5638 Visual C++ 2005 SP1] or the .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 may help mitigate the issue.

Another "Cannot use catalog... not writable and cannot be opened" issue.

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