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. <br />
''A troubleshooting mode, which disables most Add-ons.'' <br />
''(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. <br />
''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. <br />
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.''

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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.)
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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.

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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.

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

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