Where is my Lightroom catalog?

Help! I lost a 1TB external hard drive of my photos(my whole collection). When I went to upload my files from my backup drive, I noticed my catalog was empty(all my edits gone). Im not sure what happened, but I tried to look in the "backup" folder that lightroom backs up the catalog to, and that seems empty as well.....Im using Lightroom 5.6 on a mac book pro with the latest operation system. Admittedly im not very computer savvy, so this is frustrating. I have thousands of edits im missing. Even stranger is the 3TB external I use a "time machine" should contain backup files of my lightroom catalog(I think?) but it has a folder of about 100 random edits in it.....Im fearing the worst here......any help would be appreciated......The lightroom catalog was stored on my mac hard disk, not the 1TB hard drive I lost, so Im confused as to why I lost all edits.........

The LR catalog is a file ending in the extension ".lrcat". Perhaps it wasn't stored where you think it was. You could try using Spotlight to search for it, though my own experience is that Spotlight is not reliable for searching the entire drive. I suggest downloading the free EasyFind app from the Mac app store and searching your Macintosh hard drive for ".lrcat" (with the options Only Files, Phrase, Ignore Case, Package Contents, and Invisible Files & Folders).

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Shared Lightroom Catalog???

I use Lightroom exclusively for my photos.   I initially used it with my desktop Mac (PowerPC G5) and then started using it also on my laptop (Macbook Pro). Both computers have all photos on external drives. There is a separate Lightroom catalog on each computer corresponding to each computer with it's individual external drive.   You can imagine my problem now, I'm sure. I have, effectively, TWO Lightroom catalogs, each with unique images, but also I've copied some photos over between them. The problem is growing exponentially.
Here's what I'd LIKE to do.   I'd like to install a shared NAS drive (perhaps an Apple Time Capsule drive) on my central hub in my house (my whole house is wired for Ethernet so that's not a problem), then put all photos on that single hub, thereby using a single Lightroom catalog and with it's images from either computer. If I have to travel somewhere and take some photos with me, I can deal with that because that it is typically the exception, not the rule.
Has anyone tried to do this?   I don't need to nor expect to hit the shared catalog from both computers at the same time. I'll be using one or the other, but not both. But I'd like to bring these two environments together.
I'd love some insight from forum members who've attacked this problem and solved it. I just don't know if Lightroom will allow the catalog to be on a shared drive, thus accessed by either computer.    If it will, then I imagine the work I need to do is:
1)     create a large shared NAS drive.
2)     copy all images to that drive.
3)     pick one of the two Lightroom catalogs and make that the master and somehow point it to the NAS drive.
4)     import the remainder of the photos on the NAS drive to Lightroom.
5)     make sure that both computers reference the Lightroom catalog on the NAS drive.
or maybe not. Maybe there's a better way. I'd like your input.
if this won't work, then has anyone successfully merged two Lightroom catalogs together.   One of my catalogs has about 80,000 images, and the other about 35,000 images.   At least 50% of all images are keyworded and I'd really hate to lose my keywords and collections that I've created.
anyway, insight is welcome. Tell me if I'm nuts too.
Thanks in advance.
Dennis

The closest think to this that will work is to put all the images on a large Firewire 800 drive with the LR catalog on the same drive, possibly in another partition. And alternately plug the drive into one machin or the other.
It is Networked drives where one can't put a Catalog, as John says.
Don

Combine Lightroom catalogs with the same name.

Newbie, be easy on me. This will probably end up being a dumb question, but here goes anyway. I have 2 lightroom catalogs named (Lightroom 2 Catalog.lrcat) What is the easiest way to combine those 2 into 1 catalog (Lightroom 2 Catalog.lrcat). Thank you in advance!
Scott

Hi Scott
I'd open one of the libraries, and rename it "catalogue2" and then open the other one and import the "catalogue2" into the 1st one
alternatively, find where one of the catalogues is and rename is thru explorer or finder, and open that one and then import the other catalogue.
All the import is in File Import
import from catalogue,
from chip from disk etc
Hope that helps
Cheers
Hamish
hamishNIVEN Photography

Lightroom catalog not complete

I'm in a bit of a pickle. Yesterday I installed OSXC yosemite on my iMac 2013. Prior to doing this I opened lightroom and backed up my catalog, which is stored along with all my pictures on an external thunderbolt drive.
I installed yosemite clean, meaning I formatted my hard drive. installed lightroom and told it to open my catalog which is on the external.
the problem is when it opened, it was missing about 6 months of work and files?? it was not up to date??
i right click on the folder and tell it to synchronize. so indeed all files are there but the main issue is all those presets, changes i made to each file are gone.
it means I now have to redo all the work on the original files, cropping, exposure and all that.
is there a way to get it all back?
why did it not pickup exactly where it left off - which is what i expected
any help is very much appreciated as I've lost over 6 months of work
again, files all seem to be intact but the actual work done to the image is gone.

When i open lightroom, prior to installing and updating to yosemite, it would open the catalog stored on the external drive.
the date on that file is 10-17-2014, thus current.
my lightroom catalog is stored on the external drive, same place where all my pictures are.
as for backups, they are identical, same issue.
i dont understand why lightroom when opening my catalog on 10-17 was fine but when i update to yosemite and open exact same catalog its missing 6 months of information, despite the fact date on catalog is 10-17 and is same file on same location on an external drive.
i tried a backup file and same thing.

Lightroom catalog together with network

Hello, i have a home network with Lightroom on my base computer. The Lightroom catalog is also stored here. The pictures are on a central server, connected to the network. This works fine. But: i want to use a second computer in another room with Lightroom installed to see the pictures by using the Lightroom catalog. But this is not possible, because the catalog is not allowed to stay on a network server!!! It should be there so that it can be used within a network (therefore i have one!) Does Adobe or anybody has a solution? Thank you very much

To: Bill
thanks for the tip on substitutiary locomotion for LR using a catalog across a network (obscure kid's movie reference there!). I tried it, and it works. On WinXP, that is.
For everyone viewing this, the process is as follows:
You have an LR catalog on another computer in your local network, that you want to access from your computer.
In Window's Explorer on your computer, "map" the network drive (on the other computer) that holds the folder with the catalog, or perhaps even specifically that folder, to a virtual or single-letter drive on your computer, say "x". (And note, the quotes I place around things are there by me to delineate exactly what you type, do not type them in yourself. Only type what is BETWEEN the quotation marks.)
Then access the command-line (DOS level) editor on your computer through the menu system, "Start | Programs | Accesories | Command Prompt".
Type "cd\c:\"
(The above step may not be needed, but I was taught to make my commands from a main-drive location, not a subfolder. Back to the little routine.)
At the prompt, "c:\ ",
type "subst p: x:\"
where "p" stands for any free local drive letter on your computer, and "x" is the local drive letter you mapped the other computer's LR catalog drive or folder to. NOTE THE CLEAR SPACE BETWEEN P: AND X.
Now, open LR on your computer, tell it you want to open a new catalog, and choose the drive-letter that you typed where I use "p" as the drive to find it on, navigate to the folder that has the ".Ircat" folder on it, select it, click on "open".
If you get a message that it cannot access files across a network, simply click on the drop-down box to the right titled "choose" and select the folder-path on the "p" drive and it will now load.
It takes half the time to do this that it does to read it!
I tested this by exporting a small folder as a catalog, copying that folder to another machine, doing the mapping\substitutiary routine above, and accessing it (only from one computer at a time) sequentially from both computers, changing a couple things each time, without saving back to the XMP either manually or automatically.
After doing several changes I then closed the catalog without saving either manually or automatically to xmp. All changes were there immediately on opening the catalog with the other computer. Virtual copies, exposure changes, ratings, labels, keywords ... all saved from both computers to a local drive on the one computer, and readable and useable from the other computer.
You do need to keep from using both at the same time, like duh, but then, we've managed to use file-sharing across our network here for several years with up to 5 people accessing files without both being on the same file at the same time in ANY program, CS, word processing, whatever.
Of course, anything one EVER does it always at your own risk.
Neil

Lightroom Catalog is Huge

I have 129,980 in my lightroom catalog. The photos go back to January 2000 and are only about 350GB but this previews file is over 116GB. This seems excessive.
Is the alternative to simply take a moment to build previews when I go to a folder? Most of my folders are pretty small.

PictureTakerGuy wrote:
My concern is both wasted space and disk overhead. 120GB seems like a high percentage of overhead for a 350GB collection. Especially when I consider I might never edit many of the photos there.
If you've got a number in mind that's too much, then there's a problem.
Many people don't worry until there's a performance issue, in which case it doesn't sound like there's a problem.
I'm coming from ACDSee world where there was little overhead and blazing fast photo thumbnails created when you went into a directory.
How would I do same in LR. I like LR and I'm not trying to bash it. I just don't feel comfortable with the amount of wasted space where I need to back it up, etc.
You need to understand that these are two very different programs which operate under very different principles. If you want the fastest performance out of Lightroom, then I think you want to have the largest possible previews, and they are left on your hard disk forever and beyond.
When I run WinDirStat it takes forever to even figure out how many files are in that catalog. It takes less time to get the pictures counted than the catalog or preview files.
Time it takes WinDirStat to finish? Hmmm ... I have never seen anyone complain about that before. Seems like you are inventing a problem. Lightroom is designed to produce a lot of preview files.

Error. Lightroom catalog can't open

Hello I keep getting the error: 'The Lightroom catalog named Lightroom 5 catalog cannot be opened because another application already has it opened' when opening Lightroom. There is no other application using it. there is only one file available, no back up as I have been uploading a 5.3TB catalogue over the past 4 days and didn't shut down. the RAW files sit on a separate hard drive to the laptop where the Lightroom catalogue is. I cannot now access that catalogue. I had a crash prior to this happening ... can anyone help out there?

I just wonder whether it was GB not TB!!!!
JimHess wrote:
Good grief! That flew right by me. That is one huge catalog. I wonder if there is a "practical" limit to catalog size.Or I wonder if this is terminology confusion. Catalog size vs. library size.

Saving or Saving As Directly from Photoshop to disk AND into Lightroom catalog?

If I create a file in Photoshop without coming from Lightroom or duplicate a file in Photoshop that I opened from Lightroom, is there a way to save the new file from Photoshop to the desired directory on my local hard drive and simultaneously have it added to my Lightroom catalog? Or do I need to save the file then import the file into the catalog? I'm working with CS6.

W-W, just a slight addendum to your reply. You CAN use "Save As" from within PS after an "Edit In", and even change the file-type AND the destination folder, and the file WILL be returned to LR. The caveat is that the file-type has to be either Tiff or PSD (it doesn't have to be the same as what's set in the External Editing tab of the Preferences), it just can't be a Jpeg, and using a different folder will lose the stacking. In fact you can make multiple "save as" commands, and they'll all appear back in Lightroom provided they are Tiff or PSD (though you'll need to use a different file-name for the second or more derivatives of the same file-type if you want them all in the same folder and thus stacked with the original).
That's on Windows using LR4.3 and CS5....but I think it works that way on other versions as well. One further caveat, however, is that where an ACR mis-match occurs (as in my current setup) when using the Edit-In operation, the option to "Open Anyway" would have to be used to make use of this option....if you use "Render Using Lightroom" the Tiff/PSD is created in Lightroom and subsequent "save as" files are NOT brought back into LR.
Apologies for the complicated post, but thought it important to clarify that "Save As" can work.

Running lightroom catalog on an MS-DOS drive

I need to create a cartalog that both PC and Mac users can access.
I created the catalog (LR 3.4.1) and loaded the pictures on my mac, then copied the entire folder (previews, catalog file, pictures and all) to the MS-DOS drive, but when I open the catalog, though the previews are visible, the catalog is trying to find it on the mac drive.
So I thought I'd try creating a new catalog on the external drive and reimport the pictures in-situ, but when I choose import, the import dialog shows no pictures at all, though I can see the pictures in Finder on the external drive.
Anyone got a solution to this or another way I can have a Lightroom catalog accessible from both Mac and PC?

natcarish wrote:
sorry, 'it' being the catalog. I've got the whole catalog copied to the MS-DOS drive, then double-click on the lrcat file on the external drive, but instead of sourcing the pictures on the MS-DOS drive it looks on my internal OSX drive for the data in the catalog
The external drive has a different naming than on the Mac system, which leads to missing images when you switch to the mac. There are two options to solve this:
On the windows system, move the top-level folder(s) with the originals into the folder on the external drive where the catalog resides (do this using Lightroom!!). This makes them acessible via a relative path from the catalog, which is valid both on Windows and Mac
Do a "Find missing Folder" for the top-level folders when the catalog is open on the Mac, pointing to the folders on the external drive.
But you would have to do this everay time you switch between Windows and Mac and vice-versa.
Beat

Where is the Lightroom database?

I wonder whether it is correct that I have the following folders in my D:/drive:
D:/Adobe
- Lightroom 1.0
- Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
- documentation
D:/ My Pictures
- Lightroom
- Backups
- Lightroom CatalogPreviews.Irdata
- Lightroom Metadata.Irdata
(file) Lightroom Catalog (Ircat file)
I can not locate the original Lightroom Data base. There are data bases in the backups.

Lee,
Thanks for your reaction.
I was confused by the fact that on June 28 this file was called a LRDB and on July 6 a LRCAT, I assume because I updated to LR 1.1.
* However I still wonder where I can locate the "Lightroom Database.lrdb.lock", which is referred to in the TechNote?
I Have LR with 1.1 running on laptop with Windows XP.
Plan to also place L.R. 1.1 on a new desktop with Vista Home Premium.
* Can I install LR 1.1 by using the CD with LR program and thereafter update to 1.1?
In D:/My pictures/Lightroom I have the following sub folders:
Backups
Lightroom Catalog Previews.Irdata.
Lightroom Metadata.Irdata
Lightroom catalog
* Do I just copy: D:/My pictures/Lightroom with its 4 sub folders to D:/ on the new PC?
Thanks in advance for your help!

HELP! Need to restore corrupt file/recover deleted file from LIGHTROOM Catalog

Hi,
I recently edited a wedding I finished and sent to her via WeTransfer. It showed that she opened the file, so I deleted it off of my computer. A few days later she said she couldn't open the file because it was corrupt (at this point I couldn't resend because I had deleted it as stated).
She sent it back to me to see if I could try opening -- but every time I try to open in Lightroom it reads:
Unexpected Error Opening Catalog
The Catalog could not be opened due to an unexpected error.
Can ANYONE help me recover this file?? I've also tried to run a Data Recovery software to retrieve it from the trash, but it won't recognize .lrcat files (it brought up all of the .jpegs, photoshop, .tiff files etc -- but no lightroom catalogs.
I REALLY really really don't want to have to re-edit 1000 photos again.
Thanks so much in advance for any advice xo
LB

City where you were born? wrote:
Thanks Rob --
Just did the scan (mind you I have NO clue what I'm doing), but I dropped it in the SQLite and clicked "expand" and it came up "Idle".
I've attached the two messages I got :
Uh, yeah - it's not an archive and so you don't want to try and expand it as if it was one.
I'm not sure which SQLite app you are using. I think SQLite Spy is Windows-only, but for Mac, maybe:
https://www.sqlitepro.com
Other Mac users may have more recommendations.
Once you get a real SQLite app, then open the .lrcat file with it.
R

Huge Problem When Create New Lightroom Catalog

When I created new Lightroom catalogs, I did not notice that it asks where to save it. So, it saved the catalogs in "Documents". Now it seems I have two copies of the following:
- The Lrcat files appear in Documents and on my external drive in a file labeled LRFILES
- The original raw files downloaded from the camera appears in Documents and my external drive in a file labeled ORIGINALS
I trashed the Lrcat files and the originals in Documents. I was surprised to see that the Lrcat files and original raw files ALSO disappeared (from external storage). Why, how did that happen?
I recovered the Lrcat files and original raw files and loaded them back onto the external storage. They appeared in Documents! Why, how did that happen?
I tried to relink my Lightroom pictures with the Lrcat file on the external drive. I can do it one at a time. It does not locate all the other ones even though they are all in same file, like what usually happens.
Goal is to relink all pictures with the originals on the external drive so I can get rid of the duplicate files under "Documents". How can that be done?

I don't understand why you are creating so many different catalogs. In most instances, Lightroom is much easier to manage when using a single catalog. When you use the import dialog you need to take care to specify the destination folder where you are going to download. It's all controlled in the right-hand panel of the import dialog. Ideally, you should be working with a single catalog, and choosing a destination folder on your external hard drive if that is where you want to store your images.

Lightroom catalog question

hi,
i need advice on the issue i encountered with importing a catalog into LR 2.5 and LR 2.6.
i recently deleted a catalog file from a laptop hard drive. i used laptop on my recent trip and upon return transferred all the photos to my desktop machine where i run LR2.6. i forgot to transfer catalog file from the laptop. later i cleaned up laptop hard drive. when i realised what happened (about 3 months of hard labor of processing pictures) i used a recovery software (iCare Data Recovery) to recover deleted catalog.
catalog file was found and supposedly recovered to hard drive.
however, when i try to open this catalog (file-->open catalog) i get an error message "The Lightroom catalog "catalog name" is corrupt and cannot be used or backed up until it is repaired".
i am given an option to Repair Catalog and upon selecting this option an error message comes up "The Lightroom catalog "catalog name" is corrupt and cannot be repaired at this time".
any thoughts on this issue?
thank you

nop, did not work.
i guess there is one positive consolation out of this disaster - i get to relive the wonderful holiday experience once again, although only in pictures
thank you Victoria

Accessing Lightroom Catalog

I am trying to open a Lightroom catalog that I have on a back up hard drive (I have the original files on the back up too). However, when I try to open I get the message "The Lightoom catalog cannot be used because the parent folder 'name' does not allow files to be created within it."
Has anyone got any suggestions of how I can get access to the images without going back to the machine I used to crete the catalog?
Thanks in anticipation.

I get the message "The Lightoom catalog cannot be used because the parent folder 'name' does not allow files to be created within it."
A possible cause is that you have placed the catalog in a folder where Lightroom does not have write access. So I would check the permissions on this folder.
Has anyone got any suggestions of how I can get access to the images without going back to the machine I used to crete the catalog?
The images themselves are not stored in the Catalog. They are on your hard disk(s) somewhere.

How to reconcile 2 lightroom catalogs in separate locations along with images and metadata?

I split my time between two locations where I need access to all of my images and lightroom catalog... I've been trying to keep everything in sync by transporting new images on hard drives, exporting new updates to a "migration" catalog and then importing that along with the images when I travel back to the other location. This works as long a I don't get lazy, or in a hurry... which I have, of course and now I need to get everything back in order--as best as can be expected.
What would be the best way to do this? I need to migrate changes in both directions... If it was just location A to B, or B to A, then that's not much of a problem. unfortunately, i need to reconcile changes from A to B and B to A...
I learned my lesson, but I still need to resolve this mess.
Any tips appreciated.
Thanks.
kb

Try using the keyer and see if you can pull the blown sky. You should be able to get something acceptable,

Where is my Lightroom catalog?

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