# Catalog not being recognised as a valid catalog



## AlinNZ (Apr 29, 2009)

I opened Lightroom today to find message "The LR calalog" cannot be opened because it is not valid. Can anyone suggest how I can fix this?

Thanks
Alistair


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## sizzlingbadger (Apr 29, 2009)

It sounds like it may have been corrupted. Check LR is actually trying to open the correct catalogue file. You can go to the catalogue and double click to open in it LR. If this doesn't help then restore a backup of your catalogue.


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## AlinNZ (Apr 29, 2009)

Thanks - yes it wouldn't open. Is there any way of recovering the edited files that wouldn't have made the last backup?


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## Kiwigeoff (Apr 29, 2009)

Welcome aboard, now can you provide some more info on what you were doing, i.e. did you close LR properly.
Also how large is your catalog? Most things are recoverable but it may take some investigation and hence time.


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## AlinNZ (Apr 29, 2009)

Thanks Geoff.
Now I am more mystified because looking at  the .Ircat file it was last modified 26/4 but is ' bytes. I don't know how I could have blown it away as I thought the computer shut down normally. Last back-up was 6 weeks previous so I guess that is where I neeed to start.


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## Kiwigeoff (Apr 30, 2009)

Alistair,
 is there anything in the "open recent" menu??
Seems weird to me. Is the b/u catalog large?? You could email them to me. geoffwalkernzatgmaildotcom


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## kwonbomi (Aug 28, 2009)

Hi,

I have the same problem with Alistair. When I try to open LR, I get a popup box saying,

_The Lightroom catalog named "Lightroom Catalog" cannot be opened because it is not valid. Would you like to select a different catalog?

The catalog is not recognized as a vaild catalog.
The catalog can be found at C:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom Catalog.lrcat._

With two buttons on the bottom of the box, "Choose a Different Catalog" and "Exit"

When I try to select a catalog manually by browsing, it gives me the same popup box. I can't even run LR at all. I already tried reinstalling the program and have restarted my laptop several times. Ircat file of mine is also ' bytes. Last time I used LR was about a week ago and it worked just fine. And LR was closed properly.

HELP!!! (and thanks in advance)


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## sizzlingbadger (Aug 28, 2009)

kwonbomi, are you really using LR 1.3 ? If so then I would suggest you download the latest version of LR one 1.4.1 (I think) from the Adobe website. As for ' byte lrcat file I'm not sure there is much you can do but go to a backup.


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