Catalogs missing

[mugge]

I organize my photos in catalogs which I then also export to an external drive. Lately when I open lightroom all my catalogs are missing - the photos are still there though.

Sometimes when the computer has been idle for some time and I have to log on again, the catalogs have gone.

I have solved the problem by backing up catalogs each time I exit lightroom. Very strange! I wonder if anyone has had problems with lightroom lately.

[mugge]

I have not solved the problem at all. The catalogs are missing even though I have backed them up

[pschlute]

If you go to edit/catalog settings, it will show the path where the catalog files are stored. On my windows computer this is the default C drive.

My photos are stored on a different computer drive. LR is quite happy to have the catalog and photos on different drives.

Possibly what is happening to you is that the path for the catalog is specified as the external drive. if your computer goes to sleep then the external drive is no longer seen by the computer, and therefore LR.

[mugge]

If you go to edit/catalog settings, it will show the path where the catalog files are stored. On my windows computer this is the default C drive.

My photos are stored on a different computer drive. LR is quite happy to have the catalog and photos on different drives.

Possibly what is happening to you is that the path for the catalog is specified as the external drive. if your computer goes to sleep then the external drive is no longer seen by the computer, and therefore LR.

Peter my default is also C drive. I have just checked lightroom and all my catalogs are intact - for now.

The mystery deepens

[DanK]

Backups are not relevant. LR will not look for them or use them unless you do a restore.

As Peter said, you can find where LR is looking by looking for the active catalog under edit-catalog settings (the "general" tab). If they are not in that location--check with a file manager--then you have to find them and re-point LR to them. Any active catalog (not a backup) should have a name something like Lightroom Catalog v10-v11.lrcat. The ".lrcat" extension is unique to Lightroom, so you should be able to locate them by searching for that extension.

Once you find them, open LR and go the "open catalog" under the file menu. Then navigate to wherever the catalog you want is located.

Then check under edit preferences general that you have "when starting up use this catalog" set to "load most recent catalog". The LR will go to that location and open the same catalog the next time you open LR.

[mugge]

I have just sent a photo from lightroom to photoshop for some additional processing. Coming back into lightroom all my catalogs went missing. This is happening quite often. I can get the catalogs back easily enough. I really don't know what is happening here.

Can anyone suggest what can cause this to happen?

[pschlute]

Coming back into lightroom all my catalogs went missing. This is happening quite often. I can get the catalogs back easily enough.

Can you define "missing". Are the files in the correct path I referred to in post 3 above ? Or is it just that LR cannot "see" them?

If you go to : File/Open Catalogue and select the correct folder can you see the .lrcat files ?

[rpcrowe]

I stopped using Lightroom because I was always having this problem. I returned to Photoshop and have never misplaced or lost an image. Except once, when my camera date was wrong, I couldn't find the images I had downloaded because they were filed under the incorrect date.

[pschlute]

I stopped using Lightroom because I was always having this problem.

I use LR to catalogue my images and edit in both Silkypix and Photoshop.

Never once had a problem with LR failing to use the catalogue.

[mugge]

Lightroom cannot see the pictures in the catalogs. last night I logged off and the catalogs, names and all, were there but no pictures. I opened up this morning and all the catalogs and pictures were there???

I must point out that I organize my pictures as catalogs i.e holiday 20th of June 2022 and so forth. I also copy those catalogs unto a hard drive.

[pschlute]

I must point out that I organize my pictures as catalogs i.e holiday 20th of June 2022 and so forth. I also copy those catalogs unto a hard drive.

So how many catalogues have you got ? Perhaps it is a memory issue with your computer/LR.

I use one catalogue. I separate my images by using "Collections"

ps. LR gets updated regularly. Including the catalogs. If you have multiple .lrcat files perhaps this is the issue.

BTW the catalog does not contain any image files. The best way to think about it is the catalog behaves like a computer's registry.

[ST1]

Lightroom cannot see the pictures in the catalogs. last night I logged off and the catalogs, names and all, were there but no pictures. I opened up this morning and all the catalogs and pictures were there???

I must point out that I organize my pictures as catalogs i.e holiday 20th of June 2022 and so forth. I also copy those catalogs unto a hard drive.

Hi Ole,

I believe that there may be some confusion here ^ to me the above describes how you are creating folders on your hard drive, not a Lightroom catalog!

Having said that if you use Lightroom to import your images from your camera/card reader into a "folder" e.g named holiday 20th June 2022; then Lightroom will on import create that folder in its "Catalog".

For clarity the next time you experience the issue could you take a screen grab of the Lightroom "Library Module" to show the left side of the screen i.e. the Folder panel.

Screen grab below for clarity of what I need to see to understand your issue :-

[mugge]

So how many catalogues have you got ? Perhaps it is a memory issue with your computer/LR.

I use one catalogue. I separate my images by using "Collections"

ps. LR gets updated regularly. Including the catalogs. If you have multiple .lrcat files perhaps this is the issue.

BTW the catalog does not contain any image files. The best way to think about it is the catalog behaves like a computer's registry.

My mistake I also use "collection" and I export them as "catalogs" to an external drive as an insurance. The pictures in the collections keep disappearing for some reason.

[pschlute]

Ok, so lets say you export a Collection (eg Holiday 2022) as a catalog to your external drive. Then next time you open LR and want to open that Catalog (Holiday 2022), are you saying that you cannot navigate to the .lrcat file on your external drive ?

[mugge]

Problem solved. The backup location has been changed (not by me) to a very long location which included the word "temp.'

At one moment I watched my pictures vanish from my collections.

Why did the new version of lightroom do this?

[pschlute]

Why did the new version of lightroom do this?

I imagine it was following an update when your external drive was not visible.

Glad you got it sorted.