Lightroom CS 5.5 Catalog Won't Open - So much work lost.

My Most important Lightroom CS5.5 Catalog won't open. I have a Mac. I guess it didn't shut down properly. I called support and was not allowed to speak with technical support. I have hundreds of hours of work which are lost if I cannot open it. The error says: "Unexpected error opening catalog. The catalog could not be opened due to an unexpected error."
Please help. I don't know what to do.

I am at work on Windows right now, not on my mac at home ... but you should have a whole bunch of backup catalogs in your Lightroom folder. I can't give you the exact location, but they are there ... in fact, in your screen shot there is the backup folder right there.
Start with the most recent backup and try to open, and go backward from there until you find one that opens up.
(Assuming of course you backup your catalog. I have LR setup to ask me once a day).
If you have time machine set up, go back and grab a recent catalog.

Similar Messages

My Most important Lightroom CS5.5 Catalog won't open

My Most important Lightroom CS5.5 Catalog won't open. I guess it didn't shut down properly. I called support and was not allowed to speak with technical support. I have hundreds of hours of work which are lost if I cannot open it. The error says: "Unexpected error opening catalog. The catalog could not be opened due to an unexpected error." Please help. Please.

Hal
I am getting the same error.
I am new to LightRoom but already have some "important" photos edited and catalog in LR. I do not have a catalog with a .lock extension but rather an "unexpected error" as above. I tried your suggestion but was unable to open any of the three backup catalog files I have. (I did rename the existing .lrcat before I copied a new lrcat file to the default directory.
I would appreciate any other suggestions you might have. I can not even open LR with this error. How do I create a new catalog? The button "Create a New Catalog" take me to a folder but does not seem to create necessary file.

Lightroom 5 Catalog Won't Open - PLEASE HELP

Hi,
So, my most important lightrooom catalog won't open and I don't know what to do. Screenshot below. I guess it didn't shut down before I ejected my hard drive.

Look in the backups folder, there should be several folders that are dated, look in the latest date and open that catalog, depending how much time was between the last back up and your last work, will determine how much work you lost.
What I recommend (hind site here) is once you get your catalog open is save a catalog first in a location easy to get to, normally where your old corrupted catalog was. then select all images then save. (ctrl/cmd-s) This will write the metadata to your files on the drive or side car files(depending how you set it up and if they are raw or jpg. ) Then you will have this for a backup, as you will know that all edits you have done are in the metadata, therefore you can create a new catalog and import all files to get back to where you were.
That said, use this method as a last case scenario, normally using a back up catalog would be good enough. However, if something happened to that main folder, like corrupted segments on the drive, you would have your images to fall back on, or at least those you can access.
But if your backing up to an external drive, you should be alright anyway.
I tend to go over board with backing up since I had a drive that crash a few years ago.

LR2 Catalog won't open

I just installed LR2 on a PC running Vista (32-bit w/ SP1). Install went ok, and I was able to xfer my old catalog from LR1.41. The catalog opened and I could see my photos. Then Vista shutdown unexpectedly. (Probably something I was running in the BG -- I don't think it was a LR thing). Now, the new LR2 catalog that was created from my old catalog won't open. I get the following message:
"Lightroom cannot use the catalog 'All Photos -- Save2' 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."
I'm not sure what to do here. I looked at the proerties for the catalog file and it is not read only or hidden. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks
Mike Whalen

Yes, there is a .lock on the extension of the lrcat file. Since I am new to vista I don't know how to remove the lock.
I can't seem to open the old catalog file either (with LR2) it is also seems to be locked. I'm not sure why they are locked or howe to remove it, but this seems to be my problem. Does anyone know how to remove a file lock in Vista?

Lightroom Catalog won't open

I was importing into LR3 for the first time and while I was filling out info (renaming files), my MAC started to pinwheel. Finally I was forced to "force quit". Now when I try to relaunch LR from my alias or the HD it gives me this message;
"LIghtroom cannot use the catalog because it is not writeable and cannot be opened".
What happened? What do I do?
Thanks :-(

First search for a file ending in .lock. It should be next to your LR catalog. When you find it, delete it. Most likely all will be well again. If not, come back and we can continue to help you. The ".lock" file is created when your catalog is open to keep another user from using the catalog at the same time, which could corrupt it. When LR closes normally the .lock file is automatically deleted. If LR locks up or the computer crashes, the .lock file is often left behind and keeps LR from reopening that catalog. Delete only the .lock file.
John
John G. Blair Studio
Occidental, California

My cataloge won't open, says it is corrupt and repair won't work and I can't access anything.

Don't know what happened. Closed Lightroom after working on photos and now it won't open again. I get a pop up saying the cataloge is corrupt and when I try to repair, it won't work. The AdobeTech note comes up as an error page. I desperately need to open it as all of my recent vacation photos are on it and only half finished. Supposed to be showing them at a party this weekend.
Please can anyone help?

pefreakingout wrote:
Got backup to open
Good to hear!
pefreakingout wrote:
Still have to redo a lot of work.
If you save (xmp) metadata as you go, then you never have to redo editing work when falling to backup catalog (just sayin'..).
PS - all develop settings and almost all metadata will be in xmp if saved, but not everything from catalog is contained in xmp (and not everything in Lightroom is contained in your catalog!).
Cheers,
Rob

My Reminder app won't open. It worked for a few days but later on it doesnt work anymore! tried rebooting my and updated it but it still wont open. When I try opening it, it crashes. What do I doooo? Please help me.

My Reminder app won't open In ipad mini 2. It worked for a few days but later on it didn't work anymore! tried rebooting and updating it but it still wont open. When I try opening it, it crashes. What do I doooo? Please help me.

Try to force quit the app
Double tap the home button. When you see the app previews on the screen scroll sideways if needed to get the preview in question on the screen. Flick that preview up and off the screen to close the app. Single tap the home button or home screen preview to exit the mode.

Suddenly today some entries on my pc icloud calendar can't be accessed/edited - they just won't open. Some work, others don't. (All OK if l try to do it on iphone/ipad) All worked fine till today

I find today when I open my icloud calendar on my PC that I cannot access/edit some of the entries - some are fine, others just won't open. If I click on them, they open a 'new entry' box, but will not give me access to the original entry.
If I go to my iphone or ipad, I can access them all fine.
I have uninstalled and reinstalled icloud on my PC, but still the same thing happens.
Is anyone else experiencing similar problems?

All I can suggest is that you open that file on the MBA and save it as a new file, then see if you can open the new one on the iMac.

Mail Won't Open (but menus work and email still being received)

Hi there,
I am a leopard (10.5.1) user on a mac book pro 17. No major problems since install until the other day when mail refuses to open up (from dock or via applications). I can access all the menus, see the mail count in the dock and even open a new mail from the menu bar from there but just can't see what my inbox is doing as it won't open up in a screen. It bounces but just won't open up.
Email is clearly working as its receiving and i can see these if i access via library files.
Has any one heard of this problem? Have checked the forum and can't see the exact problem there. Do i need to re-install mail? If so, how?
Many thanks,
Ben

thanks very much pascal - appreciate the help.
i think i'll have to do a custom install from disk. is there anything i need to do/be aware of with the mail folder before i do the install? should i leave it in homefolder/library (once i've backed it up that is)?
will the new mail app just `talk` to the old mail folder once installed?
just want to avoid any probs and getting myself into further tangles once i do this.
thanks very much,
ben

Lightroom 5 catalog won't open

I'm trying to open a lightroom catalog from my harddrive from my mac book pro. Lightroom says it's open but it will not show up, when I right click on the application it says it is not responding. When the harddrive is not pulled in lightroom will open. What is wrong with this catalog that it will not respond and open?

It is on an external drive?? Try copying it to the desktop and doulble clicking it to open.

Lightroom 4 is blank and won't open catalog

Hello, I am a new in this comunnity. I have been using Lightroom 4 for the past year on my Mac but I did not use it for the past month. Yesterday when I tried to open it again, it opens but it is blank, no thumbnails or anything.It does not allow me to change modules. and when I go to "open catalog" and click on the folder my lightroom just quickly blicks but it continues to be blank. I read some forums on here and I deleted the .lock folder that was underneath my catalog in the finder, but nothing changed.
I did not find this problem that I am descibing in any forum, any help would be greatly appreciated. I am not very tech savvy, I wasn't even the one that installed lightroom on my computer so please bare with me
thank you in advance

Have you tried to Reset the iPod -
Toggle the HOLD switch, make sure you don't see any red at the switch.
Press Menu and Center button for about 10 secs till the Apple logo comes ON, then select your prefered language.
If you are on Mac, then the problem is not iPod resource hogging by the Antivirus.
Yours is most probably hardware due to a dying iPod Hardisk or Battery.
Battery
On standalone, (not using the iPod docking station) how long does the battrey last? Should be 36 hours on full charge, when new, but if it has been on the Docking station for 2 years, the battery would be at its max recharge cycle, and would last a few hours only or less.
Hardisk
Here is a link on doing disk diagnostic posted by tt2.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2362776?start=0&tstart=0
For hardware issues like battery or hardisk, the community can't help you, so you got to bring it in to Apple or 3rd Party vendor for hardware replacement.
Have a nice day!

Down loaded lightroom 5 and installed but won't open right. On opening Message "an error occurred when attempting to change modules"

Have a Mac Book Air with Lightroom 4 Full Download aboard. Just got an iMac. Wanted to load Lightroom 4 on iMac. Took the Adobe download file off the Mac Air and tried to load it on the iMac. It was successfull but on opening the message "an error occurred when attempting to change modules" appeared. I removed Lightroom 4 and went to Adobe orders and re-downloaded my original order to the iMac. Same effect. Bought full Lightroom 5 hoping to fix but the same message appeared. What's up! Any help?

Error changing modules | Lightroom

CS6 beta won't open anymore. Worked great for 3 days. Did it expire already?

I installed this week (PC, Windows 7), and had no trouble. But now when I try to open it, whether from Bridge (which still works fine) or through applications menu, or any other way, it hangs on the opening screen and won't let me click "continue trial," although all the other buttons work (e.g., enter serial number, click through to forums, etc.). Anyone else having this problem?

I assume you downloaded from http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/photoshopcs6/ and correctly selected TRY when installing rather than entering a serial number.
It would be hepful if you could answer these questions:
Did you enter your Adobe ID or skip that part? (must be done within 7 days with system online)
Did you get a message when trying to run the program today?
What did it say?
Did you alter the clock or the date?
Thanks,
Pattie

Mail bounces a few times but won't open, other apps work.

OK, I searched the forums and can't find an answer related to this for mail (found it for itunes, safari, etc). I am sure this is a mundane thing but to my computer simple mind, I am stuck.
My husband ran a Safari update. Since then the mail icon bounces but will not open. All other apps work. I trashed (and emptied) all the Safari stuff. I ran disk utlities repair. I inserted the startup disk, holding key "c" and did a hard drive repair and I got nothing.
How do I get my mail back on track??? Anyone???
Thanks in advance.

You have doe the Disk "Repair", which is the first (and harder) part. The second part is the "Repair Permissions". It is much easier because it can be done "live" in the running system.
Quit all other Applications and run Disk Utility.
Select your Hard drive and check the SMART Drive status in the bottom margin for "Verified"
Click on ( Repair permisions)
wait while lots of wacky message scroll by. These can safely be ignored unless they appear in RED.
Quit Disk Utility
try to start Mail again.

SAFARI WON'T OPEN [ but firefox works fine ]

not sure what could be causing this...i tried what some other posts on the same issue suggested, ie opened safari in an another account [ it opened ] also tried getting rid of possible corrupted cookies ... no help at all ,,, does anybody have any ideas? could this be some problem with a software update i did [ i am wondering if downloading updates that are really for the new macs will screw up the older macs like mine ]
g4 power mac Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Since the problem doesn't appear to be associated with iTunes, you'll probably get quicker responses if you ask in the Safari forum.

Lightroom CS 5.5 Catalog Won't Open - So much work lost.

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for