# The catalog does not appear to be a valid Lightroom catalog.



## bskyum (Dec 10, 2017)

Operating System: High Sierra
Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info): LR 7.01 trial

Hello dear experts. Im stuck for 2 full days because LR 7 can't open/import my 5.3 GIG LR 6 catalog, because of unknown error.
After my 5K iMac came back from repair with new 3tb fusion drive, Adope would not let me download LR 6, that I already paid for. so I installed LR 7.01 instead as trial and copied the backup LR 6 LRcat into my Pictures folder together with a 32gig preview LRdata folder and a zip file. Since lots of problems are reported with LR 7, could that be why, or is it the catalog?. I am on the road for the winter and have only that catalog with me. 2,5 month work lost if no cure. Thank you in advance and best regards from Denmark.


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## Victoria Bampton (Dec 12, 2017)

Hi byskyum

You can still download LR6, as long as you have your serial number. Here's the download links you need: Download Photoshop Lightroom

Even if you end up carrying on with LR Classic, I'd first to check the catalog opens ok in LR6, just to rule out a non-Classic problem.


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## bskyum (Dec 12, 2017)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Hi byskyum
> 
> You can still download LR6, as long as you have your serial number. Here's the download links you need: Download Photoshop Lightroom
> 
> Even if you end up carrying on with LR Classic, I'd first to check the catalog opens ok in LR6, just to rule out a non-Classic problem.



Thank you very much.
This download worked, but I got the message: this is a valid code, but no valid product is found on this computer
- and I am asked to enter purchase code for LR 5. After entering code, I can only move forward with trial version. Next Lr ask me which catalog to update or open. After chosing I get the same old unexpected error message. So I presume its catalog currupt. Is it lost then?


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## Victoria Bampton (Dec 12, 2017)

It means you bought an upgrade to LR6, so it wants the LR6 serial AND the LR5 one. 

The fact it’s also saying there’s an error does make me think it’s corrupt. No back up you can restore? If not, zip up the catalog (just the lrcat bit) and use www.wetransfer.com to send it to me at [email protected] and I’ll pass it to an engineer to see if he can rescue it.


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## bskyum (Dec 14, 2017)

Victoria Bampton said:


> It means you bought an upgrade to LR6, so it wants the LR6 serial AND the LR5 one.
> 
> The fact it’s also saying there’s an error does make me think it’s corrupt. No back up you can restore? If not, zip up the catalog (just the lrcat bit) and use www.wetransfer.com to send it to me at [email protected] and I’ll pass it to an engineer to see if he can rescue it.



Wow - thanks! Im gratefull for this kind offer. 
The Apple shop has in the mean time using various data rescue software found some older catalogs on the broken fusion drive. But they also wont open.
Then I found this on internet:

Note:

On Mac, Lightroom Classic CC/Lightroom 6.1 doesn't zip catalogs larger than 4 GB. This is because the default Mac OS unzip utility is unable to handle archives larger than 4GB and reports such zipped catalogs as "corrupted".

Mine is 5.3 gig.
What do you mean with ZIP UP THE CATALOG? (Language barrier). How do I do thatnot?

I did not upgrade, but downloaded the full version. One more LR mystery.

Made a new catalog on the now brand new Imac 5k, to get on with other work, but LR classic crashes repeatedly when importing photos. The LR concept is way to complicated, make us constantly loose our work and drives us nutz. The very idea of having our images on Mars and the work on them on Venus and our selves in the real world of Earth is wrong - except maybe for the guru genius like you. But we do not all have such resources. 

Its also aggrevating that LR stops working as soon as we leave the computer. Even when setting energy saving mode on Mac to not go to sleep, I never managed to have LR finish a job overnight, such as converting to Dng, make previews or load presets or changes to the end of grid.
I hope you will pas this on to Adope, because it will count if it comes from You.

Thank you in advance. Best regards Brian.


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## Victoria Bampton (Dec 14, 2017)

You'd right-click on the catalog in Finder and choose Compress Lightroom Catalog.lrcat (or whatever the name of your catalog is).

There was an update to Lightroom Classic a day or so ago to 7.1, so if you haven't already installed, it's time to do so.


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