# Can I still save my edits?!



## chase.knight11 (Jun 28, 2021)

I dug myself into a hole and desperately need help. I have missing photos, and unfortunately no cloud backup. I store all my photo work in Lightroom on an external hard drive.
I use Lightroom cc, and it all started when Lightroom said it couldn’t open due to a corrupt catalog. From there, I read a tip to change the “Lightroom Library.lrlibrary” file name. So I did that, then I went from 62000 photos in Lightroom to 400. I then had a tech company help me, their solution was to delete that library file and then reopen Lightroom. When I did that, it only imported the 14000 photos that I did have a cloud backup of. Then they told me I needed to find the files and start reimporting them. We found them on my external hard drive, even the edited ones, but when I import them, it doesn’t show the slider adjustments, so I stopped the import at 22000. Im afraid to go any further in fear of causing more damage. What do I need to do?


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## Paul McFarlane (Jun 28, 2021)

Hi and welcome!

First step is an audit - check how many photos are actually in the Adobe Cloud. See this blog to help:

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/synced-to-cloud/
Also, confirm the Lightroom version (there isn't a CC now):

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/which-lightroom-version-am-i-using/
It's good you have a local backup of the originals.


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## chase.knight11 (Jun 28, 2021)

There are about 14000 of the 62000 stores in the cloud. And then I reimported an addition 8000 before I realized that was the wrong thing to do. 
I am using Lightroom version 4.2 MAS x64


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## chase.knight11 (Jul 9, 2021)

Is there anything I can do? Or should I just reimport everything


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## johnbeardy (Jul 9, 2021)

In a web browser, go to Lightroom Web and under All Photos, what number is shown in Deleted? Don't do anything other than see what is there, but I hope it might be sufficient to undelete them. For now proceed slowly and don't thrash around making things worse or yourself more anxious - there's plenty of LR knowledge here.

You appear not to understand what was happening when you followed that '_tip to change the “Lightroom Library.lrlibrary” file name_'. This was not as dangerous as you may imagine - it simply deleted the local record of what is in Adobe's cloud. It's as if you just got a new computer and installed Cloudy Lightroom. The first time you open a new installation of Cloudy, it will start getting data about what you have previously uploaded to the cloud, and I would have expected it to go to 400, then x,000 and so on up to the number in the cloud.


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## chase.knight11 (Jul 17, 2021)

Hey John, thank you for your response. I did what you said, and unfortunately the deleted tab is only showing 3 photos. “All Photos” is showing 15,423. Then it also says there were sync issues with 32,725 of them


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## chase.knight11 (Jul 20, 2021)

What should I do next?


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## tspear (Jul 20, 2021)

chase.knight11 said:


> What should I do next?


The 32k sync issues mean those images or changes never made it to Adobe cloud.
Based on all photos being a much lower number I believe that the image itself never made it.

FYI, on the top right of Lightroom Desktop there is a little cloud. It has a blue smudge on it when it is syncing. You can also click on it and view a filter to see what has not synced yet.

In terms of recovery, I am not the best. We need one of the others to come along and explain what can be done.

Good luck,

Tim

Sent from my HD1907 using Tapatalk


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## chase.knight11 (Jul 20, 2021)

Yeah, unfortunately I always tried syncing it, but I love in the mountains and never had good enough internet to complete the cloud backup. Moving forward, who might be the best person to talk to about this issue. Because I’m almost to the point of just reimporting everything


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## tspear (Jul 21, 2021)

If you are always in the mountains and sync never completes, and need to redo all work, consider Classic instead. This will allow you too actually backup your work since it operates locally.

In terms of resolving your current situation; I am not going to be much help.

Tim

Sent from my HD1907 using Tapatalk


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