# lrcat-wal files



## stephen6333 (Dec 17, 2020)

I have been using Lightroom in nearly all of its iterations for many years and have recently moved the location of the photographs to an external SSD drive. The previous location of the files was on my iMac Fusion Drive.

Before moving the files, I regularly got copies of files named "SGL_DEFAULT-v10 [conflicted 2].lrcat-wal" and, over period of time, there would be further files added with identical names except that the [conflicted 2] would be changed to a sequential number.

I have searched in many places for a resolution to this problem, without any real success and wondered whether anyone on this forum could help? Can the files be deleted (although, I would like to find out where the problem with the catalogue lies)? Can the file be opened in order to perhaps read where the conflict lies?

In short is there a sensible resolution to this error?

With thanks in anticipation.

Stephen


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## clee01l (Dec 17, 2020)

The "write ahead log (*.wal)  is a file that Lightroom uses to speed up processing. It stores database instruction for a while until the OS can act to add these instructions to the database.    If you exit Lightroom using the {quit} menu item, Lightroom will tidy up and finish updating the catalog file. Once these "wal" instructions have updated the database (catalog file), Lightroom will deleted the "wal" file.  When Lightroom does not get to close properly, these files get left behind and accumulate.   Lightroom names subsequent file with the "Conflicted" name to show that there was already a "wal" file with that name in the Lightroom Folder.   
You can delete these files as Lightroom will never do this as a part of unfinished housekeeping.


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## stephen6333 (Dec 17, 2020)

clee01l, many thanks for you reply, which is much appreciated.

I always exit from Lightroom Classic by using the quit menu item, which is always followed on by the repairing, compressing and backup routine. I’ll delete the wal files, as suggested.

If the file reappears, even though LC was correctly closed, will that indicate another problem with the catalogue? To my knowledge, I can access all files without difficulty (although, I have only randomly tried this as there are several thousand files in the system).

Once again, many thanks for your help.

Stephen


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## clee01l (Dec 17, 2020)

stephen6333 said:


> If the file reappears, even though LC was correctly closed, will that indicate another problem with the catalogue?


The "lrcat-wal" file will always appear when the catalog is open along with the ltcat.lock file.  It will not get deleted if the computer is shutdown before Lightroom completes its housekeeping tasks.


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## stephen6333 (Dec 17, 2020)

Once again, I am most grateful for your help.

Stephen


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## McPhil (Aug 7, 2021)

Lightroom Version: Lightroom Classic latest version 
Mac OSX Catalina
I’ve been having a related problem in that Lightroom Classic would not zip my ”lrcat“ file and would also include the ”lrcat-wal“ file in the backup. Just the other day I tried backing up the catalog but before doing so I ejected all external hard drives, including the TimeMachine drive,  connected to my MacBook Pro. The resulting catalog backup was zipped correctly and didn’t include the “lrcat-wal“ file. This may have been plain luck, so I’ll try this method several times to see if works consistently.


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## PhilBurton (Aug 7, 2021)

As Cletus has said in post #2 in this thread, wal gets deleted once Lightroom can exit normally.  Thus there is no need to back up that file.  

If you are doing your own backup, and that backup occurs while Lightroom is active, then indeed the "wal" file will be backed up.


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