Re: I've Lost my Catalog!

I'm hoping someone may be able to help .... I have been backing up all my files (documents/music/photos) onto my new external hard-drive. I moved the Lightroom Back-up folder (which took ages!) and subsequently discovered (to my horror) my entire catalog now completely empty! I recently took pics of a friends wedding which I had edited but hadn't got round to exporting and burning to disc and I've lost them all! I have moved the folder back to my C drive and tried it in Pictures, Program Files, Adobe Lightroom etc but no pics in my catalog when I open Lightroom. I've evidently broken the link but not sure where the folder should be. Can anyone advise please?! Many thanks

Hi .... thank you for your kind assistance. Fortunately, before finding your last reply, i did actually find the catalog (massive relief!) However, each image now says "offline or missing". This has happened before, and I knew exactly where the imported images were as they were the only ones left on my D drive so I linked to them but it didn't work. Copied DNG's to C Drive but still no joy. Tried 'synchronising' and annoyingly imported the whole lot again .... minus all my editing of course! I know I've just lost the file path for the original edited ones and really don't want to have to edit all over again (though they're due back from their homeymoon today!) Would you be able to suggest how to re-link or quickly copy the editing I've already done to the re-imported unedited ones?! Thanks for your help

Similar Messages

"Lost" my Catalog after last update!

I have PSE9+PRE9 and I was using Organizer's Catalog! After the last update from Adobe I just "lost" all items in my Catalog! Any advice? Using Mac OS X 10.6.7.

Ok, I kind of solved it myself: used a backup of the "My Catalog" folder using Time Machine.

I have lost my catalog

I have been moving pictures to a new computer. I planned to put my catalogs in C:/ data/pse/catalogs/ But they didn't get there. I have two catalogs that I want one of which is open, I can't find the the largest one.I have been adding things to it all day,then switched to the other catalog and can not get back to the other,
I sure could use some help.

Hi,
THe location of current catalog used by PSE is listed in 'Help->System Info' under 'current catalog'. By default it is -
'C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\<name of catalog>'.
If you want to find out the location of any catalog then open that catalog from-
1. select 'File->Catalog'. A dialog box will open containing all catalogs created ever.
2. Select the catalog whose location you want to determine and click on 'Open'.
Now follow the steps given initially.
let me know if you face any other problem.

Lost my catalog - avoid starting all over editing?

Hi
I have canged mac, and I didn't backup my overall catalog file with all my pictures edited over time.
I have all the pictures, but if I import them in a new catalog, I'm back to zero. 10.000 pictures I have to edit all over again. ':-(
Is there another way?
Please help!!! I'm desperate!!!!

Hi 99jon
I only have the pictures on an NAS. The old Mac is sold and reinstalled. So there is nothing left from the default basic.Ircat.
But if I understand you correctly, there will be some metadata on the pictures?
If I take the new catalog where I have imported all the pictures, go to the folder root and I mark all (cmd+A) and save metadata to files (cmd+S), it takes 2 seconds for over 12.000 files. That's too faste I guess.
I have tried to take a specific folder with 100 pictures and do tahe same. Same result.
Also all my taggings are gone.
Does this sounds like I have no metadata?
Note: All pictures are in RAW.
Thanx for your time!! Michael

Lost some catalogs when I went from LR3 Beta to Full. Pls hlp!

Hi! I finally hunkered down and purchased LR3. I've been working off the last beta since its release, and I was curious if theres a way to import all my files so I dont lose any of the changes I've made to the files? I have yet to install LR3 full, was waiting til I got an answer. Thanks!
edit
Damnit Im pissed! I just went ahead and impulsively installed LR3 and my files were not carried over from the beta. To add insult to injury, it appears the beta magically "disappeared", so I cant finish editing my almost-completed shots even in the beta! WTF!? BTW if it matters, Im on win7 64bit

LR 3 final release will not overwrite the Beta it will install in its own folder.
You need to supply some more info about what you have done so far.

How do I get a clean start for catalog to start all over again?

Running PSE5 on Win XP w/SP3
I have not been able to get any information about how to recover a catalog from files that have been copied as a backup, so it looks like I'm forced to start all over again. There are about 17000 images in the C: drive. The images all seem to be OK. A few days ago there was a properly operating catalog file (and all the others) there, too.
Since then, I have tried to learn how to make the former catalog file operative, but no luck. Since then, I have read that just uninstalling and reinstalling PSE5 will do nothing to give me a clean start - that is, all the old (now problematical) catalog file trouble will still be there.
To start all over again seems like such a waste of time, since I have copies of all the catalog files as they were properly operating in March, but it seems that something important is missing and none of this stuff is useful in any way. I'm not the PSE5 user, so I didn't know about the external catalog backup that can be done from within PSE5 - so the possibility to use that technique does not exist. All I have is a straight copy of everything in the Documents and Settings.. ...Application Data\Adobe folder. I've tried replacing the whole Adobe folder with the backup files, starting PSE5 and looking at the catalog, but that didn't work either. I just get the same old empty catalog.
So, the 'start all over' option seems like the only way out. Anyone who has lost the catalog knows how much work is in the catalog, so any help with either making the old catalog file work through reconstruction somehow, or starting all over again, will be very helpful. Someday, I'd like to learn how this happened. Until then I'll be backing up the catalog file from within PSE5 to an external location... Everytime there's a new entry in the catalog information. That method seems simple enough that even I could do it.
Thanks,
Al
(K3PXR)

I tried to open the resident 'My Catalog.psa' file. PSE5 dutifully did that and the catalog information, such as tags and other information that would normally be present when looking at the Organizer is blank, as if nothing has ever been entered in the catalog.
The 'My Catalog.psa' file is about 600K (according to windows explorer) and resides in the 'Catalogs' folder. Also there are:
My Catalog-2.psa about 3252K
My Catalog-2.psa about 5380K
In the folder: 'Catalog Folders' were the folders:
My Catalog
My Catalog-1
In the folder My Catalog are the files:
backupCt.dat 1K
collstatus.dat 1K
tagstatus.dat 1K
thumb.5.cache 10K
In the folder My Catalog-1 is the file:
tn.4.cache 32394 K
Above I say 'In the folder, Catalog Folders, were the folders My Catalog and My Catalog-1' because last night when shutting down, I didn't know what was in those folders. I was too tired to check.
I did copy everything that was in the Adobe folder and all associated sub folders, including the folders above, to an SD flash card before I started to do anything else. Becasue of this, I should be able to get back to the way it was before I started to do anything, then I opened the catalog file My Catalog-1.psa. It said that it was made from an earlier version, asked to convert it and contained the 2002 to 2004 catalog information. To the best of my knowledge, those photos were never entered in PSE5, and probably were from an earlier version of PS Album.
So, where is the information that was once in the PSE5 catalog? Which files should contain that information? Why can't the files simply be copied from the backup copies back on to the C:\ drive in the proper folders and then upon starting PSE5 see at least the catalog that was present when the copies of the files in the folders above were made? What dumb mistakes could have been made to overwrite the information in the catalog and make the catalog appear empty? If I don't learn this, I'll not be able to prevent it from happening again.
I'm not on the machine with the trouble at the moment, and since it is not my machine, I sometimes have trouble getting to it during normal waking hours. I don't know the exact clicks and keystrokes that got the catalog from its normal function to appearing and functioning as if it is empty..
What exactly are the symptoms of "PSE5 doesn't like..."? The catalog appears and functions as if it is empty - as if nothing ever has been or ever was entered into it. PSE5 Organizer is operating normally as far as I can tell. I cannot seem to locate the former catalog information and it has not loaded the former catalog file information. A new test catalog was made and it opens and shows the thumbnails of its four images. I hope that the test catalog I made didn't overwrite anything that would prevent going back to the original catalog information. The copies of the files can be restored as they were a few months ago, though, because there is a copy of them on an SD card.
Thanks,
Al
(K3PXR)

How do I retrieve "my catalog"?

My computer has just been updated with Windows 7 and had a new hard disc installed. All the data including all my pictures have been re-installed in their original locations but my Organizer has lost "my catalog". How do I get back?

The catalog is on your old disk. Is it still installed on your computer as a second drive, or is it simply removed ?
Also, which Windows version was installed in the old computer : XP or Vista ?
You have first to access your old drive : for instance installing it in any computer as a second drive, or putting it in an external USB drive casing.
Then you'll have to search for the location of the folder containing the database. The database is by default in an hidden folder, so you'll have to set Windows explorer to show hidden files. Then do a search for 'catalog.pse7db'. Copy the whole folder containing that file somewhere on your new computer.
The problem now is generally that the 'My pictures' default folder is in a different path in Windows 7. That means that all the paths saved in the catolog do not correspond exactly with the ones of the copy in the new computer.
To open the copy of the catalog in your new computer, double click on the catalog.pse7db. If the paths are identical in the new computer, all is well. Otherwise all files will be considered disconnected. One solution would be to move the files in exactly the same folder structure than in the older Windows verson.

Need help with LR5 catalog which refuses to make workable copies

LR catalog refuses to make workable copies.
error message: Catalog cannot be opened due to unexpected error
Is there any way around that? It was working fine then I moved several folders from the main drive to the external HD and saved again. I have had trouble with this drive over the winter though. the main catalog still opens so far but I am worried that I have no back-up working catalog considering I lost a catalog earlier in he winter when it was residing on the external HD.
I have not made backups as such because I would always copy the catalog to the backup HDs but now those cannot be opened...

Might be time to retire that external drive and buy a new one.
By default LR makes a weekly backup of the catalog you have opened. In the Backup dialog window you can specify where those backups are located. I suggest you place them all on a Known Working internal drive and then Back Up those Backups files to a New external drive.

Catalog is not showing

I have some how lost my catalog. It shows nothing when I click on Media, Places, People etc... I think I may have disconnected from the catalog file, but in the manage catalogs, it does not allow me to reconnect when I click the catalog. I have attached a couple screen shots.
This is where I see no pictures
THis is when I go into manage catalogs
THis is when I click on the catalog, but then I chose catalogs accesible by all user, showed my catalog I clicked and now i have this mess below! And it does not show any catalogs now except the my catalog you see current which is nothing.

Hi,
As a double check on Michel's thought, go to the View menu, select Media Types and ensure that they are all checked (it toggles the view on/off).
Also, on the View menu, select Hidden Files and ensure that Show All Files is checked.
In the status line at the bottom of the Organizer window, does it show any counts of items?
You could try repairing and optimizing the catalog.
    Load the organizer
    From the File menu, select Manage Catalogs - that should open the Catalog Manager.
    Select you current catalog and click on the Repair button
    When that has finished, click on the Optimize button
    When that is done, click on the Cancel button to close the Catalog Manager.
Good luck
Brian

Elements 10 catalog backup problem

I Am running Elements version 10. Recently it lost my Catalog, which I run on an external hard drive. I reloaded all of the images, around 10,000 but I am now unable to backup the catalog. The error message I get are "waldodata\imagelist_idx\fwdfile" and "breezedata\breeze-2256.xml". I have run the Repair routine in Catalog manager but the problem persists. Any suggestions?
latics Brian

Breeze is used for the face recognition. For each file that has been examined for faces you will get a "breeze-[number].xml" file. What this means is there is something wrong with the face recognition for a specific image in your catalog. You can delete this file, which will remove the ability to check this file for faces.
Waldodata is the information used for image similarity searches (similar color or shape search).
You mention that your catalog was lost previously. Did you create a new catalog and place it in the same folder? The items mentioned above are support files for the catalog and if you lost the catalog, these files may have also been damaged at that time. If you created a new folder in the same place, it is probably using the same support files and this could be the source of the issue. You could try moving the items mentioned before trying the backup and see if that helps resolve things.

Elements 10 catalog problem

Somehow I have ended up with four copies of every picture in my only catalog. The duplicate finding feature so you can stack or delete will not work anymore. Is there anything I can do to fix this?
Thank you, you have all been very helpful in the past!

Breeze is used for the face recognition. For each file that has been examined for faces you will get a "breeze-[number].xml" file. What this means is there is something wrong with the face recognition for a specific image in your catalog. You can delete this file, which will remove the ability to check this file for faces.
Waldodata is the information used for image similarity searches (similar color or shape search).
You mention that your catalog was lost previously. Did you create a new catalog and place it in the same folder? The items mentioned above are support files for the catalog and if you lost the catalog, these files may have also been damaged at that time. If you created a new folder in the same place, it is probably using the same support files and this could be the source of the issue. You could try moving the items mentioned before trying the backup and see if that helps resolve things.

Recovery after loosing a catalog

I am a kind of new to RMAN and have a couple of questions:
1. How often does the controlfile get synced to the catalog?
2. Can you still use the controlfile to recover the database if you lost the catalog?

See note 748257.1 on MOS.
Partial extract below:
Control_file_record_keep_time specifies the minimum amount of RMAN metadata guarranteed to be retained in the controlfile; the default is 7 days. In practice the rate at which records age out of the controlfile depends on how long it takes for a recyclable section to fill up which may well be more than 7 days. It is important to note that control_file_record_keep_time and recovery window are NOT the same; the former governs when records can be overwritten in the controlfile, primarily to prevent unlimited controlfile growth whilst the latter is concerned with retention of RMAN metadata according to business requirements (see Bug 6448254: RAISE WARNING IF RECOVERY WINDOW IS > CONTROL_FILE_RECORD_KEEP_TIME IN NOCAT MODE). If a catalog is used and RMAN is run daily or at a frequency LESS than control_file_record_keep_time days, RMAN metadata will never be lost as implicit catalog resyncs ensure data is regularly propogated into the catalog.

PSE 8 - Archive on external hard drive including captions and tags

I started my above discussion some time ago with Mark and due to the lateness in my responding the case appears to have been closed. However I am hoping that someone can comment on my intended course of action, see below, based on his suggestions?
Just recapping having successfully migrated my Photoshop Album 2 catalog including captions across to PSE 8 and now my objective is to move my entire PSE 8 catalog to an external hard drive leaving only thumbnail view to remain. Obviously I am anxious to avoid any catastrophe and therefore would appreciate comment on the correctness of the steps involved. I have arrived at these by simply modifying Mark's original steps. Please correct where necessary.
1) Connect my external hard drive where I want to copy the files too. Make sure I can 'see' it in Explorer
2) Open Photoshop Elements 8; click the Organize button on the Welcome screen
3) Displayed in my welcome screen is my entire catalog with each album matching in title and file (photo) content to the folder title and file (photo) content in the folder location displayed to the left of screen.
4) Go to the File menu, and select 'Write Keyboard Tag and Propertise Info to Photo'. In my case most but not all files (photos only) will have tag and caption data. Rather than attempting to select the files that I wish to embed tag and caption metadata does Organiser have a global 'search and embed instruction' so that when it gets a 'match' on .jpg number it will embed automatically?
5) After completion, I go to the File menu, and select 'Copy/Move to Removable Disk...' click the MOVE button to move the files from their current location to my nominated external hard drive.
6) Click the Next button, and select the external drive in order to copy the files to the drive.
Can you confirm?
* On completion of the above steps my external hard drive will allow access to full resolution versions of the file from Photoshop Elements including any existing caption or tag data organised identically to my PSE 8 catalog (only one catalog)?
* Am I correct in assuming that also all original photos from my laptop will be removed and if not can be deleted given their existence on my external hard drive?
* Is the data which now resides on the external hard drive capable of being read on any other PC which may not have Elements software?
Neil

I have 2 laptops an aging Dell and new HP. I have successfully followed your
instruction and deleted 1 & 2 below on both.
The Dell PSE 8 now has:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\PSE 8 (240Mb)
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Elements Organizer 8.0 (502Mb)
C:\Program Files\Adobe\PhotoshopElements_8_WWEFDJ.EXE (1.17Gb)
C:\Program Files\Adobe\ PhotoshopElements_8_WWEFDJ.7Z (1.06Gb)
Giving a total of 2,972Gb
The HP PSE 8 has:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\PSE 8 (240Mb)
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Elements Organizer 8.0 (502Mb)
C:\Program Files\Adobe\PhotoshopElements_8_WWEFDJ.EXE (1.17Gb)
C:\Program Files\Adobe\ PhotoshopElements_8_WWEFDJ.7Z (1.06Gb)
But a total of 3,894 and I am unable to identify where the additional 1Gb
resides. In Documents & Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Elements
Organizer is 120Mb. I have attempted to delete this but lost the catalog in
the process so had to restore from the Recycle bin and it now appears to
have reconnected correctly. Frankly I can live with these large file sizes
but would like an opinion on their potential adverse impact at sometime in
the future.
I am not sure whether I need to start a new thread for "Are there any known
bugs in PSE 8 surrounding the burning of discs" I have attempted to burn
onto a new CD-RW my slideshow. The process of burning appeared to work but
the written to CD does not play on the DVD. I have also saved the slideshow
as a PDF. I can't recall exactly how but in selecting an incorrect option I
no longer have visibility of projects in 'Folder View'. The projects are a
single slideshow and PDF copy of the same. How do I regain visibility?
Neil

How can I open a .buc file with PSE6 from previous PSE6 back up?

Hi! I am trying to restore a back up catalog from an external hard drive onto our new PC (PSE6-Windows 7) as our laptop (PSE6-Windows XP) crashed. I reinstalled PSE6 onto our new PC but somehow the Organizer nor the Editor recognise the .buc file it created! The first back up I ever made was a complete back up, then I always backed up incrementally on the external hard drive. I can see a .buc and a .tly file on the ext. hard drive through Windows Explorer 7 (new PC). I cannot see the .buc file through Windows Explorer XP (old PC)... but that is probably not important...
I succesfully restored what seem to be my last back up through the File/Restore back up.../ from external hard drive/ original location/... on both PC. However, the categories do not appear, only the photos from my last incremental back up were restored. 1) Don't understand why it says that I need 30 discs to restore files when I always performed incremental back up on ext. hard drive under the same location (.tly). Should I have changed the file name at each incremental back up? 2) I read on forum to copy and rename the .buc file as a .psa. file on the c:/ drive. I tried that through Windows Explorer AND through the Organizer but no success. Exactly how/where can I do that? I have all the photos saved as B000... on the ext. hard drive, I just want the catalog back as I don't fancy starting all over again, I have over 3000 photos categorised in that .buc file! Thanks for your help!

Hi Barb_O,
Many thanks for trying to help!
Hmmm.. it seems that I only have the last incremental back up then as I always saved under backup.tly... not a good news but not surprised!
1 -- Do you have any other backups (taken with different software than PSE) of your photo files ?
Yes, I have the photos backed up either separately on Windows alone on ext. hard drive and/or through PSE as B000... on hard drive and CDs.
2 -- Does the hard drive from your XP laptop still work ?
Well, when it was last on the laptop, we could see the desktop but we could not do anything else than look at the desktop! A message used to come up saying a failure was imminent with the hard drive, urging us to do a back up (but we could not as everything was frozen). Then, I went into DOS (?) did something (?) and the message would not appear anymore but still the whole thing was frozen. Still have the drive, might take it to a computer shop to recover the data, if possible.
3 -- Suggest that you post the folder names and folder structure of all the folders on that external hard drive.
There are 4,524 item on that ext. hard drive so would be too long a list! I have folders for Word docs, music, etc but I have not structured the back up stuff at all so I open the ext. hard drive and I see PSE photo files from B0000000 to B0004798 including jpeg, .CR2 and .xmp files. Then there is one backup.tly and one catalog.buc and 17 video files.
4 -- Also, how many .buc files are there on that external hard drive and what are the dates that each .buc file was written.
The only .buc file was created 30/10/09 (when I actually started to make back up copies following a mysterious wholeAdobe catalog disapearance, I spent hours re-building the catalog of my then 2,500 photos!) and last modified 11/03/10. Same date for the only .tly file. Reading the back up command instructions for incremental back up, I assumed that each time I made a new back it was not overwriting it but only adding on to it!... I have lost my catalog (again), haven't I? I think I will start a good old hard copy album!!!
5 -- You say that the Categories do not appear. What about the Tags - do you see all of your Tags ? There are no tags and no albums, only 213 photos. Any way I could at least restore the tagging/albums of these photos?
Any hope to recover the original catalog on the failed hard drive? I hope so now!
Many thanks again!

Transfer from Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 on Windows XP to Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 on the Mac.

I want to transfer from Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 on Windows XP to Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 on the Mac. My problem is I have lost my catalog and Windows XP. I need help.
I have installed the newest Mac version of Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 (PSE 12 Mac) and it seems to work fine but I have not been able to access my old (XP, PSE6) catalog file.
I am working on a MacBook Air running OSX version 10.9.2. I have been using Parallels Desktop 9 Switch-to-Mac-Edition™ to run Windows virtual machines. I had been working for over a year running Photoshop Elements 6 on Windows XP virtual machine. The XP operating system was updated to 2/28/14.
When I installed Windows 8, the Parallels program initially offered me a choice of virtual machines, Window XP or Windows 8. I could use the XP version to work with Photoshop Elements 6 as before and thought I could be leisurely about transferring my Photoshop operations to the Mac side.
However, without my knowingly doing anything to dispose of Windows XP, I have “lost” Windows XP. Perhaps it occurred when I updated to Windows 8.1. At any rate, now I have access only to Windows 8.1.
To compound the problem the Time Machine backup program for the Mac was not backing up the XP virtual machine files as I had thought. I have since corrected the settings but I do not have a copy of Windows XP nor of the Adobe Photoshop Elements catalog which I used in the past.
Moreover, I do not have a workable Windows XP disk; the only one I could find is from Dell and it does not load on my MacBook Air. I see Windows XP disks offered by Amazon for about $30 and have thought about buying a copy to help see if I could accomplish the transfer of the catalog file to my Mac. I would use XP only to accomplish this transfer.
I am not completely confident that reinstalling Windows XP would actually enable me to do the transfer and I can foresee potential big problems. Therefore, before taking that step I thought that I would check with you to see if there is a way to find the catalog file and perhaps to modify it so that I could work in the Mac Environment.
I have used Elements to improve and organize over a thousand travel and family photos taken with a pocket size digital camera. Being a nonprofessional, I have edited mainly by cropping and using Quick Fix but have many hours invested. Yes, I still have the originals and probably could have redone much of that work with the time I have invested in trying to find the missing XP and catalog.
I have found two large HDS files (Windows XP.hdd and Windows XP (2).hdd) that were created 7/15/12. I suspect they may be important but am not sure what they are. I read that HDS files are commonly Windows media digital rights management files, DRMs. HDS files may also be used by hierarchical data systems. Do the names suggest anything about Photoshop?
Can you help me find the catalog and transfer it for use with the Mac Adobe Photoshop Elements 12?

See this link:
http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/kb/backup-restore-move-catalog-photoshop.html

Re: I've Lost my Catalog!

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