# Catalogue gone



## Shar (Apr 30, 2020)

I just went to edit a photo and it says 0 photos in Lightroom.  What could have happened.  I am fairly new here but I have used an old version of LR6.12 for years.  This scares me.  When I go to post a screen shot it says it is too big.  How do I make it smaller please.


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## Replytoken (Apr 30, 2020)

A couple of quick questions to rule  out the obvious and to see if there is a backup plan.  First, did you happen to open a new catalog by accident?  And, do you have backups of the catalog in question?

--Ken


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## Shar (Apr 30, 2020)

Replytoken said:


> A couple of quick questions to rule  out the obvious and to see if there is a backup plan.  First, did you happen to open a new catalog by accident?  And, do you have backups of the catalog in question?
> 
> --Ken


Thanks Ken. I don’t think I opened a new catalog by accident.  I do not know if I have backups.  I will look tomorrow as I am awfully tired tonight am going to try to forget and get some sleep


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## Paul McFarlane (Apr 30, 2020)

Screenshot may help:

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/help/createscreenshot/


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## clee01l (Apr 30, 2020)

Shar said:


> Thanks Ken. I don’t think I opened a new catalog by accident.  I do not know if I have backups.  I will look tomorrow as I am awfully tired tonight am going to try to forget and get some sleep


In Lightroom on the Menu, go to  {File}{Open Recent...}   One of the catalogs in the list will be the one that has all of your images.


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## Roelof Moorlag (Apr 30, 2020)

If you can not find it you could do a search in finder. Search at 'lrcat'


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## Shar (Apr 30, 2020)

clee01l said:


> In Lightroom on the Menu, go to  {File}{Open Recent...}   One of the catalogs in the list will be the one that has all of your images.





Roelof Moorlag said:


> If you can not find it you could do a search in finder. Search at 'lrcat'




It is not under recent


Roelof Moorlag said:


> If you can not find it you could do a search in finder. Search at 'lrcat'





Roelof Moorlag said:


> If you can not find it you could do a search in finder. Search at 'lrcat'





clee01l said:


> In Lightroom on the Menu, go to  {File}{Open Recent...}   One of the catalogs in the list will be the one that has all of your images.





clee01l said:


> In Lightroom on the Menu, go to  {File}{Open Recent...}   One of the catalogs in the list will be the one that has all of your images.





Roelof Moorlag said:


> If you can not find it you could do a search in finder. Search at 'lrcat'





Replytoken said:


> A couple of quick questions to rule  out the obvious and to see if there is a backup plan.  First, did you happen to open a new catalog by accident?  And, do you have backups of the catalog in question?
> 
> --Ken





Shar said:


> Thanks Ken. I don’t think I opened a new catalog by accident.  I do not know if I have backups.  I will look tomorrow as I am awfully tired tonight am going to try to forget and get some sleep





Shar said:


> I just went to edit a photo and it says 0 photos in Lightroom.  What could have happened.  I am fairly new here but I have used an old version of LR6.12 for years.  This scares me.  When I go to post a screen shot it says it is too big.  How do I make it smaller please.


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## Shar (Apr 30, 2020)

Ok I found my open catalogue and found my irc at file.  When I click on it takes me to a page that says, click the import button to begin.  When I click that my photos come back but there are no collections and I cannot get into the develop module.  Would it be better if I uninstalled and reinstalled.  Would my catalogue come back?  In all the years I have been using Lightroom I have never had this problem.  I need to get to my pictures to edit them.  Thank you.
Also what is the source that I use at the top.


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## Shar (May 1, 2020)

Shar said:


> Ok I found my open catalogue and found my irc at file.  When I click on it takes me to a page that says, click the import button to begin.  When I click that my photos come back but there are no collections and I cannot get into the develop module.  Would it be better if I uninstalled and reinstalled.  Would my catalogue come back?  In all the years I have been using Lightroom I have never had this problem.  I need to get to my pictures to edit them.  Thank you.
> Also what is the source that I use at the top.View attachment 14449


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## Shar (May 1, 2020)

Ok my images loaded but now says it is Building Standard previews and it is at about 2500 out of 20500.  I do not understand this.  It will take all night.  Sorry if I am not asking these questions in the right place.  I am very concerned as I have some images I have to get at and edit.  Thanks anyone.


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## Roelof Moorlag (May 1, 2020)

Shar said:


> Ok my images loaded but now says it is Building Standard previews and it is at about 2500 out of 20500. I do not understand this.


You made a new catalog and imported a part of your images again. I think this is not what you want. You did not find your original catalog (the lrcat file) but simply started a new one. This explains the page you described and the notifications that followed.

If you can not find the original lrcat file, why not restore a recent backup of it? I think that is the most easy way to get up-and-running agian.


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## Shar (May 1, 2020)

How do I do that please?  I have not been using LR for several months.  Was trying on1 but did not like as much so subscribed to LR.  My cat was in LR6 and when I downloaded LRClassic the cat came in. Now the cat is gone from 6 and it tells me it is being used by another programme.  I do not know what to do.  thanks for replying


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## Replytoken (May 1, 2020)

If you had both LR6 and Classic installed at the same time and wanted Classic to open an old LR6 file, it would do so by creating a copy of the old file with an appended name (usually adding "-2").  This means that you should still have the old LR6 version of the file that can be opened by LR6.  And you should have the new version of the file which can only be opened by Classic.  That new file is not backward compatible and cannot be read by LR6.

I would again do a search of the drive(s) that contain your catalog(s) to identify all of them.  All catalogs, primary or backup, Classic or LR6 should end with an lrcat extension, so run a search by that extension and then take inventory to see what catalogs you actually have.  Then you could attempt to sort them out if that is needed.

--Ken


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## Shar (May 1, 2020)

Thank you Ken for taking the time.  I have spent more than 12 hours on this.  Here is a screen shot of what I have now got.  These pictures are here but in develop I cannot get into my collections or show any presets.  Am I going crazy?  I am 78 and do not handle stress very well these days.  Every time I try to enclose a screenshot it says it is too big.  How do I correct that please


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## Roelof Moorlag (May 1, 2020)

Shar said:


> Every time I try to enclose a screenshot it says it is too big. How do I correct that please


Do you have Dropbox, OneDrive or another cloudservice? When you do it's possible to put the screenshot there and share the link to it here.


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## clee01l (May 1, 2020)

Shar said:


> Every time I try to enclose a screenshot it says it is too big.  How do I correct that please


Open the screen shot in the Previews app.  On the tools menu choose Resize.  Adjust the long edge to 2048 pixels or less and make sure it is proportional so there is no distortion.  Export it as a JPEG and if need be reduce the quality until it is small enough to meed the attachment requirements


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## Shar (May 1, 2020)

Thank you but honestly I have never had this happen before in all the places I have sent a screenshot.  I do not know how to open in previews app. or at least I can open it but cannot get the screenshot into it..   I think I have had it and am just going to cancel my Lightroom subscription and find another editor.  I have got the images. back in my library but when I get to develop it says File cannot be found.  For something that was working fine two days ago this is a mystery.  Thanks for trying to help.


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## Replytoken (May 2, 2020)

Shar said:


> I am 78 and do not handle stress very well these days.


Right now Shari, most of the world is under stress and a lot of us are not handling it very well.  I would suggest leaving this alone for a day or so.  I am assuming it is not life or death, and continuing to frustrate yourself is not going to help you get to where you need to be.

After a break,  try to take another screen shot.  Is there a setting that allows you to either compress or control the quality of the image (I am using Windows so I am not familiar with what programs you have available on your Mac)?  If you can get a screen shot with a file size that is not too big, then post it.  If not can you follow Roelof's suggestion of putting online somewhere with a link to it that you can place in a post?

If we can see what you have, we can probably offer more specific advice.

Regardless of whether you choose to stay with LR or not, the main thing you want to make sure of is that you can see all the image files outside of LR and that you have them backed up somewhere.  If that is not the case, then you need to address that before trying to tackle any LR catalog issues.

--Ken


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## clee01l (May 2, 2020)

Shar said:


> do not know how to open in previews app. or at least I can open it but cannot get the screenshot into it.. I think I have had it and am just going to cancel my Lightroom subscription and find another editor. I have got the images. back in my library but when I get to develop it says File cannot be found. For something that was working fine two days ago this is a mystery.


You can take a screen shot from the Previews app.  From the Previews app menu {File}{Take Screenshot}{From Selection}.
The problem with high-resolution mo it ors (like a 24"iMac), the size in pixels for the screen shot is large than the forum permits. You need to downsize the image to meet the size limits. 
You will not find another non destructive editor that is any less complex. They all have learning curves. Even the Apple Photos app. Apple has dumbed down the Photos app to the point that your choices are limited as to what can be dome yo enhance your images in Photos and fancy printing is out of the question. With your Z6 you have one of the most advanced cameras available. It needs an app like Lightroom Classic, or On1 PhotoRAW, or CaptureOne Pro to produce the photo with the excellence it deserves. 

Age is just a number,  I am 73.  If I can figure this out,  so can you.  Lightroom is a place to go to get away from all of the other stresses in the world today.  You are home and you are safe.  True off the TV because there is nothing new and the media only want to keep you in fear and glued to the TV to keep their ad revenue high.


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## Shar (May 2, 2020)

Thank you Ken and Clee for taking the time to respond and suggest.  I was on this all day yesterday from 6 am.  I was with Adobe remote for an hour And half in the afternoon and he could not find my catalog or the problem. He worked on finding missing images which I know how to do but not for 35,000.  When we called it quits because he did not seem to understand the problem I then went to find an image in my pictures folder from finder to use in ON1 and there were NO images in my picture folders.  I again contacted Adobe and was on remote for over two hours with the same result. Now I have NO images and from them doing what they did All photographs has shrunk from 35,000 to13,000.  I do have an Iomega Backup but I cannot figure out how to restore.  I had resigned myself to starting from scratch and building a new catalog but am now horrified that I cannot get any images.  I tried to get to an image saved in an export folder to send out for a canvas and nothing comes up.  Paying for subscription from Canada for me was a big deal and now I am regretting that decision.  Everything was great for 2 weeks.  I may call the Geek Squad which is costly and annoying because I do not understand how I woke up one morning to no photos in LR.  Clee you are right.  I have gone through two cancers and editing and playing with photos has been my salvation. in fact during my recovery was when I found my interest in Ps and LR in 2005.   Getting the Nikon Z6 was huge and now this.  I make cards and take orders and to think I have none of my images is Sad.  Ken, you are right, I will try to take a break, although hard to think of anything else  thank you both for your kind comments and understanding.


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## Replytoken (May 2, 2020)

Shari, welcome to the club!  I'm a three timer here, and I know that if we both made it through those ordeals more than once, that this issue can also be solved.  Right now, leave the whole LR issue alone.  When you are ready to work on this, consider the following:

Do you have a backup beyond the Iomega, perhaps on a hard drive?
Do you/did you ever use an external hard drive to store the images or other files?  If so, then you should look at that drive to see if some/any images are located there?
Do you still have copies of any of the images on the memory cards?  If so, do not format those cards! 
Are your files/folders on your computer reasonably organized and are you comfortable with browsing through them with the Finder?  Look around to see if you can see the actual image files.  Are they raw files and/or jpeg files?  Try to search your machine by the file extension, .nef (for Nikon) or .jpg and see what the search returns.  Yes, there could be a large number of files, but try to see if any of them are the images and where they are located.
Remember, since LR is just a catalog of where your images are located, unless you specifically told it to delete the files (and you have received a warning before you were allowed to do so, the files were not deleted by LR
Finally, a solution to your screen shot issue would be to set your camera to a lower resolution jpeg file and take a picture of your screen.  Try shooting at 1/60th of a second (I believe that is the shutter speed for monitors in North America).  Then post the image.

--Ken


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## Shar (May 2, 2020)

Thanks Ken.  I am back at it.  I have done a smaller screen shot and it seemed to work.  When I go into my pictures this is what comes up.  This is what was left from the Adobe Remote guy.  There are no images in my folders.  I tried searching for .nef files and what came up was on1 and then clicking on the image, nothing came up.  Unfortunately when I got my new Nikon Z6 I had to get an XQD card and only have the one as it was expensive.  I used an external drive about 10 years ago so have those photos but they are not the ones I need or want for my cards and canvases.  I am leaving the LR issue.  If I can just find my pictures that were in the folders  I could find as needed and import into Lightroom.  Let's see if you get this screen shot.


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## Replytoken (May 2, 2020)

Hi Shari,

First, the screen shots are fine.  In looking at the first one, it is telling me that there are over 25 thousand files under that folder and they they are accounting for almost 1TB of space.  This is good news!

And, if you used the XQD card and have not overwritten it, it will also have all of your Z6 files.  This could be good news as well.  Now, here is where I need @clee01l since he is a Mac user.  I am wondering if your OS has the required drivers to allow you to see those images in the Finder if you clicked on the Pictures folder or any subfolders inside of it.  Even if you cannot see the image preview, you should be able to see the files listed.  What is showing if you click on the Pictures folder in the Finder or on the desktop.  What does it show?

--Ken


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## Shar (May 2, 2020)

This is what is shows and when I click on anything there is just a blank space.   Here is a copy of my computer stats.  I do not understand what that Adobe tech could have done to lose all those images because I did not touch anything.


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## Replytoken (May 2, 2020)

So when you click on any of those folders below, they do not open and show you files in them?

--Ken


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## Shar (Apr 30, 2020)

I just went to edit a photo and it says 0 photos in Lightroom.  What could have happened.  I am fairly new here but I have used an old version of LR6.12 for years.  This scares me.  When I go to post a screen shot it says it is too big.  How do I make it smaller please.


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## Shar (May 2, 2020)

Replytoken said:


> So when you click on any of those folders below, they do not open and show you files in them?
> 
> --Ken


No just a blank space.


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## Shar (May 2, 2020)

This is how my Lightroom screen came up but I can't get into develop


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## Johan Elzenga (May 2, 2020)

Shar said:


> This is how my Lightroom screen came up but I can't get into develop


That is because both screenshots show the import dialog, not the libray module.


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## Shar (May 2, 2020)

So this is how my Library can up.


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## Shar (May 3, 2020)

Here is photoshop.  No images in my computer.  With all that is going on in the world this should seem minor .. but it really affects my work.


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## Johan Elzenga (May 3, 2020)

All these images are 'missing', meaning that Lightroom can't find them because they were moved to a different (parent) folder, or that (parent) folder was renamed. Photoshop can have the same problem if you use 'Open recent' and pick a file that was moved. The Lightroom metadata panel shows that the currently selected image in the screenshot should be in the folder '2020-04-30'. It's quite possible that this entire folder is 'missing', but the screenshot does not show that part of the folder panel.

In any case the solution is simple, but needs some methodical work. You need to find out where that image (or preferably its folder) is, and then 'reconnect' Lightroom to it. By itself that is an easy procedure (Lightroom thinks my photos are missing—how do I fix it? | The Lightroom Queen), but you do need to find out where the images are.


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## Shar (May 3, 2020)

Thank you. When I go into my pictures in Finder the folders show up but there is nothing in them.  I have tried to search for missing images before and after hitting locate a blank page comes up. I spent all day yesterday reading and watching for solutions.  I am baffled.  Thanks for replying.  I will go and try again.


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## Shar (May 3, 2020)

Shar said:


> Thank you. When I go into my pictures in Finder the folders show up but there is nothing in them.  I have tried to search for missing images before and after hitting locate a blank page comes up. I spent all day yesterday reading and watching for solutions.  I am baffled.  Thanks for replying.  I will go and try again.


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## Shar (May 3, 2020)

I have just read the article. I am on my iPad but will go have a try soon. I notice they say not to sync and that is what Adobe remote tried to do.  It was when he was doing the remote that the files disappeared from my folders and then they could not find them either.


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## Shar (May 3, 2020)

Here is where I am.  Can someone please tell me the next step.  From this it looks like I might get my original photos but not the edits.  I can reedit if necessary but what is the next .. should I set as download creation for creative cloud?   
thanks anyone


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## Johan Elzenga (May 3, 2020)

Shar said:


> Here is where I am.  Can someone please tell me the next step.  From this it looks like I might get my original photos but not the edits.  I can reedit if necessary but what is the next .. should I set as download creation for creative cloud?
> thanks anyone


I'm sorry, but I do not understand what you are trying to achieve. Your original photos are not online in the Creative Cloud, so how is setting the download location to this folder (or any other folder) going to help you to get back your original images in your opinion?


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## Shar (May 3, 2020)

Thanks.  I do not understand either.  I am just trying everything,  My focus now is to get my pictures back into there folders on my HD.  I have found this path for one of my pictures but if I go to finder and get to the pictures folders they are empty.  Do you think I should call the Geek Squad tomorrow?  It will be expensive but I do not know what else to do.  Adobe remote help lost the pictures and could not seem to get them back.


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## Replytoken (May 4, 2020)

Shar said:


> Thanks.  I do not understand either.  I am just trying everything,  My focus now is to get my pictures back into there folders on my HD.  I have found this path for one of my pictures but if I go to finder and get to the pictures folders they are empty.  Do you think I should call the Geek Squad tomorrow?  It will be expensive but I do not know what else to do.  Adobe remote help lost the pictures and could not seem to get them back.


This screenshot seems to shoe that 5 image files are in this folder.  I am not following you when you say they are not there in the Finder.  Can you elaborate?

--Ken


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## Shar (May 4, 2020)

Yes hard to explain.  In my finder/Shari/pictures .. when I go into a folder there are no images.  I am too tired now but tomorrow I will try to explain.  my Pictures all disappeared after that Adobe remote person spent a couple of hours trying to find the catalogue or fix the problem.


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## Johan Elzenga (May 4, 2020)

Shar said:


> Yes hard to explain.  In my finder/Shari/pictures .. when I go into a folder there are no images.  I am too tired now but tomorrow I will try to explain.  my Pictures all disappeared after that Adobe remote person spent a couple of hours trying to find the catalogue or fix the problem.


Your screenshot shows that these pictures did not disappear. They are right there in the '2020-01-27' folder, which is located in a 'Lightroom' parent folder that is located in your Pictures folder. What you need to do is find one of these pictures in the Lightroom catalog, and check what folder hierarchy Lightroom thinks it should be.

An earlier screenshot gives you a very big hint. Lightroom thinks that you have a hierarchy as follows: '*Pictures > 2007 > 2007-03-31*'. It's a bit messy, with some subfolders in the wrong hierarchy, but basically that is what it is: '*Pictures > Year > Date*'. That is different from what this latest screenshot of the Finder shows, which is *Pictures > Lightroom > Date*. That is the problem and that can be fixed by using 'Find Missing Folder'. Unfortunately, you will probably have to do this on the dated folders, so one by one...


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## Shar (May 4, 2020)

That is my problem Johan..  I found some like this late yesterday however when I go into my pictures folder in Mac finder they are empty.  When I try to bring  up an image in Photoshop or on1  that picture is not available.  When I follow the path I can find some through using missing photos when it says “the file you are looking for is associated with another file in the catalogue.  When I try to open they come up in Topaz?!

when I find some of these images  and try to open in develop it will say “could not be used because the original file could not be found..would you like to locate it ..and when I click locate the folder in finder comes as a blank page.

i am  going to try one more shot with Adobe Remote as they made all the changes remotely and said he could not find the catalogue but in trying he  misplaced all my images.  They have to be somewhere but I cannot get to them through Finder as picture folders are empty.  I am on my iPad now but will start with this again shortly.

i had someone come in and set up the hierarchy for me years ago when I had LR 2 and have never had a problem until now Switching from 6.12 to subscribing to classic.

thanks for taking the time to comment .. this seems to be a big mess..totally out of the blue.
Shari


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## Johan Elzenga (May 4, 2020)

Somehow we are not speaking the same language it seems. I don’t understand why you keep saying that the folders in the Finder are ‘empty’ and then post a screenshot that shows they are not.


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## Shar (May 4, 2020)

Johan Elzenga said:


> Somehow we are not speaking the same language it seems. I don’t understand why you keep saying that the folders in the Finder are ‘empty’ and then post a screenshot that shows they are not.


This is what happens.  When I click on the folders to get the images  nothing is in the folders.  I would like them back in that position.


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## Roelof Moorlag (May 4, 2020)

Shar said:


> This is what happens. When I click on the folders to get the images nothing is in the folders. I would like them back in that position.


This screenshot only shows folders but in #37 you showed us a screenshot of one of those folders opened. There were photos visable. How about all these other folders?


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## Shar (May 4, 2020)

Nothing is in any of the folders. The only way I can get to some images is to go through locate missing photos and that takes forever assuming it comes up.  When I get a message ..the file is associated with another file in the catalogue .. is there any way to find that original file?


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## Johan Elzenga (May 4, 2020)

Shar said:


> This is what happens.  When I click on the folders to get the images  nothing is in the folders.  I would like them back in that position.


This screenshot shows nothing. It shows a bunch of folders, not what is in those folders.



Shar said:


> When I get a message ..the file is associated with another file in the catalogue .. is there any way to find that original file?


That message means that you are trying to reconnect the missing image in Lightroom to the wrong image on disk. The selected image on disk is already in Lightroom,  but it it is a different image, not the one you are trying to reconnect.

It seems that you are trying to reconnect individual *images* (by clicking on the exclamation mark) rather than missing *folders*. You can only get this error when you reconnect images, not when you reconnect folders and the latter is what you should do.


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## Shar (May 4, 2020)

I am totally mixed up. Now they have a senior technician from Adobe .. another hour.  He thinks his assistant could have put my files in Iomega but can only find up to 2011 and says I will have to reinstall one by one  take me back to last Wednesday when everything was fine


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## Shar (May 4, 2020)

Just got off with Adobe.  They are going to have someone contact me in 48 hours.  He admits that their operator made a mistake but that does not help me.  I can not get into my photos from on1 or Photoshop either.  anyway. I know people are dealing with much worse problems all over the world right now so I will take a walk and get some more images  and hope they download from my camera and I can edit.  Thanks for all your help and understanding.


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