Help please with cleared book in Lightroom 5

[Mike Buckley]

I accidentally cleared an unsaved book in Lightroom 5. I have everything backed up using external backup software and have restored everything in the following directories:

Appdata/Local/Adobe/Lightroom
My Pictures/Lightroom/Lightroom 5 Catalog Previews.lrdata
My Pictures/Lightroom/Lightroom 5 Catalog Smart Previews.lrdata

The book that I accidentally cleared is still not available. What else do I have to do to restore that book?

[PhotomanJohn]

Mike - Do you still have the actual image files? They are separate from the files that you have mentioned restoring.

John

[Mike Buckley]

The images are stored in the Collection that I used to create the book. It's the book containing those images that I created in the Book module that is gone.

I have the printed book, so I'll be able to recreate the electronic file of it if that's the only solution. However, I thought I would be able to simply restore all of my Lightroom files and thus the book.

[PhotomanJohn]

Mike - Sorry, I wasn't paying enough attention to what you said. If you didn't click the Create Saved Book button, then unfortunately I think it is gone.

John

[Mike Buckley]

If you didn't click the Create Saved Book button, then unfortunately I think it is gone.

It doesn't make sense to me that the book is gone. I created it months ago and it was always there each time that I loaded Lightroom. (It was only today that I accidentally cleared it.) So, the application was finding it somewhere on my hard drive every time I loaded it. All data files on my hard drive are backed up on two external drives, so whatever Lightroom was finding would still be on my external backup drives.

[Carl in Louisiana]

Mike I am not much on the tec stuff, but does your computer do the restore points if so can you do a restore to before you accidentally cleared the book. Maybe it would work just don't know for sure.

[Mike Buckley]

That's an idea, Carl. The one time I tried using "restore points" a couple years ago it didn't work at all. I'll take a look at it.

[Mike Buckley]

Restore points are apparently used to restore system settings, not data files. My issue has to do with a data file.

[Bobobird]

Not necessarily. Give it a try anyway.

The other option you can try is a recovery program on your 3 drives, if you can remember the names or partial names they should not be difficult to find - provided you have not written anything to the backup drives.

[Mike Buckley]

The other option you can try is a recovery program on your 3 drives, if you can remember the names or partial names they should not be difficult to find - provided you have not written anything to the backup drives.

I don't have any issue with my two backup drives. The problem is that I don't know the name of the file Lightroom uses to store the information or where it is stored. I thought I restored all Lightroom data files from my backup drive but doing so didn't restore the book.

[Bobobird]

I have LR installed but is seldom used. Will look and see where things are stored later today (have to run a few errands) and let you know

[Mike Buckley]

The Microsoft information provided in the Control Panel stuff explicitly indicates that the only way to restore data files is to restore from a previously created system image. I never created a system image, so using Restore Points isn't an option.

Don't spend any time on this, Bobo. I have a PDF of the book, so I'll be able to copy and paste the text. I don't think recreating the file will take much time and I'll be able to do it while keeping an eye on other things going on that keep me tied to my computer.

[Mike Buckley]

I solved the problem. This Lightroom 5 document explains where all of the files are located. The catalog file is stored in the one place that I had not restored from my backup drive. Now that it's restored, the book is now returned to my system.

I have also saved the book as a "created" book and backed up the new catalog file, which contains that book. It will be backed up to my second, offsite backup drive this weekend, as usual.

Thanks to everyone for offering the help!

[Carl in Louisiana]

That's great news Mike, it's like having Christmas twice in one year. lol I just hope I can remember this if it ever happens to me.