# Lightroom cannot use the catalog named "Lightroom3Catalog" because it is not writable



## Ctram527

Hi, I have my lightroom catalog on an external hard drive and tried to open it today when i found this message:

"*Lightroom cannot use the catalog named "Lightroom3Catalog" because it is not writable and cannot be opened*- This could be caused by incorrect permissions or because another lightroom application is using the catalog."

i checked all the permissions on the catalog and the parent folders but nothing seems to be working... I'm using a Mac book btw. I'm desperate for some help. Thank you


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## b_gossweiler

Welcome to the forums, Ctram527 

Do you see a file called "Lightroom 3 Catalog.lrcat.lock" in your catalog directory? If so, delete it and restart LR.

Beat


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## Ctram527

Well. i tried copying the catalog onto my desktop and when i did that "Lightroom 3 Catalog.lrcat.lock" also appeared so i deleted it. However, even when I tried to open it from my desktop it continues to tell me its not writable =/


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## b_gossweiler

Were you ever able to open the same catalog before? What file system is your external drive?

Beat


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## Ctram527

Yes, ive been using the same catalog off of this external drive for a while now.. and I'm not sure but i'm using a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex external drive
Thanks you for the responses btw=]


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## b_gossweiler

Sorry, but besides making sure you have write access the file "Lightroom 3 Catalog.lrcat" and the folder "Lightroom 3 Catalog Previews.ldata", and making sure there is no file "Lightroom 3 Catalog.lrcat.lock" right next to the file "Lightroom 3 Catalog.lrcat", I don't know what else to check on a Mac.

Are you sure you're opening the catalog you think you're opening (by double-clicking the .lrcat file)? I'm sure one of the Mac Gurus will chime in here to give you some further hints.

Beat


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## Ctram527

I'm sure i'll figure something out eventually... Thank you anyway for trying


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## Mark Sirota

Was the external disk originally formatted for Windows?  If it's formatted as NTFS, then the Mac can read from it but it can't write to it.


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## Kiwigeoff

Check with get Info for the folder that the catalog is in and make sure in the General Tab it is not Locked.


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## Ctram527

I checked the "get info" for the catalog and every parent folder and nothing seems to be locked. It is in the format of Windows NTFS and my family does also use this external drive with windows. Yet, it does says"you can read and write" for everything  "Get info"


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## Mark Sirota

But can you actually read and write?  Can you create a new file on that drive using any application other than Lightroom?


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## Ctram527

Yes. Should I try partitioning the drive or something?


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## Mark Sirota

Hmm.  I thought Macs couldn't write to NTFS-formatted disks by default (see this tip from MacWorld).  Guess I was wrong, barking up the wrong tree there.

If this seems to be a Lightroom-only problem and you're really running 3.0 as your profile says, try upgrading to 3.4.1 and see whether that fixes it.


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## Ctram527

I upgraded to 3.4.1 and it still won't work. I'm thinking its a problem with the catalog itself because i have another catalog that is opening in lightroom..


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## Kiwigeoff

Ctram527 said:


> I upgraded to 3.4.1 and it still won't work. I'm thinking its a problem with the catalog itself because i have another catalog that is opening in lightroom..


 
Is the other catalog on the same disk?? Macs can only read NTFS disks and not write AFAIK.
Use Spotlight to search you Mac HD for files with .lrcat and let us know if you find anything.
Get another ext drive and either format it with your Mac to MS-DOS (Fat32) using Disk Tools (in Applications/Utilities) and you can use on both Mac and PC but is apparently a fragile format or better still format for Mac and use with your Mac only!!


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## sizzlingbadger

Mark Sirota said:


> Hmm.  I thought Macs couldn't write to NTFS-formatted disks by default (see this tip from MacWorld).  Guess I was wrong, barking up the wrong tree there.


 
Mark is correct,  OSX cannot write to NTFS. There is a setting that allows permissions to be read/write for a drive but that does not mean that the file system is actually writable by the OS. If you want to share an external drive between Windows and Mac then format it FAT32.


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