# Corrupt Catalog with no backup



## mcdunstan (Nov 29, 2014)

Good afternoon,

My business partner and I share various external hard drives and yesterday before I could shut down a LR catalog, she unplugged it and now when I try to open the LR catalog, it says it's corrupt and cannot open the file.  I don't have a backup.   

I've searched online and came across this site.  Is there anyone out there that has any insight on how I could get my catalog back?  

I use LR 5.7, PC, Windows 7.  

Thank you,
Melissa


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## Replytoken (Nov 29, 2014)

Welcome to the forum.  Sorry to hear about your catalog problem.  Is there a catalog.lrcat.lock file in your directory?  If so, try moving the file to the trash and see if the program will now open the catalog.  I suspect your problem may be a bit more challenging, but let's rule this out as it is simple.  If it does not work, restore the file from the trash can.

Good luck,

--Ken


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## mcdunstan (Nov 29, 2014)

Thank you Ken, this is a great forum, thank you for being so welcoming.  I don't see a lock file in the directory.  Thank you for suggesting that though, I appreciate any help I can get right now


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## Jim Wilde (Nov 29, 2014)

A long shot....create a new catalog then try importing the problem catalog. Let me know if that works, but if not Victoria has a contact at Adobe who can often repair corrupted catalogs. I'll ping her and ask her to drop by to give you the contact details for sending the catalog.


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## mcdunstan (Nov 29, 2014)

Jim,

I tried that too with no luck.  I'd love that contact from Adobe if Victoria could pass that along.  Thank you!


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## Jim Wilde (Nov 30, 2014)

I've asked Victoria to drop by with her email address for sending catalogs to.

Edit: though Victoria tells me you've already hooked up and the catalog is already en route to her Adobe contact. So fingers crossed.

In the meantime, how about a quiet (or maybe not so quiet, lol) word with your business partner to the effect that she should never, ever, under any circumstances, pull the plug on an external drive until she has successfully ejected it using the dedicated OS eject utility?


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## vdotmatrix (Dec 2, 2014)

Well I have landed here with nearly the same problem except I back up regularly. My LR crashed in GRID view and when I signed out and tried to back up in fear of something really wrong, when I started LR again 1. it said the catalog was corrupt. so I used the last backup but none of the images appear as if the images will not render. So if anyone has any ideas it would be great...Also I have lost 1 week of edits  so if I can somehow restore this Lrcat file it would be great....which of course I can't find in that folder all of a sudden.





Jim Wilde said:


> A long shot....create a new catalog then try importing the problem catalog. Let me know if that works, but if not Victoria has a contact at Adobe who can often repair corrupted catalogs. I'll ping her and ask her to drop by to give you the contact details for sending the catalog.


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## dmmckay (Dec 27, 2014)

Hi Jim,

I'm in a very similar situation as mcdunstan, except that I formatted my fiancés hard drive and am the one responsible for writing over her .lrcat file.  (I thought there were backups.)  Needless to say, I feel incredibly bad and I'm desperately trying to get her hours of work back.  I was able to run a recovery program Disk Drill, and recovered the file.  It now appears to be quite corrupt, and I've been working on ways to open it over the last few days, but to no avail.  I truly believe my last option is to have an expert look over the file and see if it's actually possible to salvage.  If  there's a way to send this .lrcat file on to Victoria, I would be forever grateful. 

Thank you!
David


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## Victoria Bampton (Dec 27, 2014)

Hi David. Yes, feel free. Zip it up, use www.wetransfer.com to send it to [email protected] and I'll forward it to my magician at Adobe. They're closed for a couple of weeks, so there will be a bit of a delay unless I can get it working.  To be honest, I'm not too hopeful because of the file recovery software, but it's worth a shot.


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## Robert Gallucci (Oct 27, 2016)

Hi Victoria - Do you still have that connection to the Adobe magician? I'm in a desperate situation with my master catalog.


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## Victoria Bampton (Oct 27, 2016)

Hi Robert, yes, follow the instructions above to send it on over.


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## Lindy C (Mar 1, 2017)

Hi Victoria, My computer went blue screen and now my catalog  is corrupt and won't repair, I unfortunately didn't have a back up yet after 7 solid hours of work :(
I tried all of the above. No .lock file and won't import the catalog in from a new one. Any other ideas?
Is it possible to also get your Adobe magician to have a look at it?


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## Victoria Bampton (Mar 2, 2017)

Hi Lindy. Yes, no problem, follow the instructions above.


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## Hoggy (Mar 3, 2017)

I'm sure the ones here will do so from now on, but also tell anyone else you know..  To backup, backup, backup!

As far as LR catalog backups go, I have LR set to backup at *EVERY* single exit - and will periodically make a point to exit after any amount of work I would rather not lose, just so it can backup. In addition, these backups are put directly into a [free] Google Drive folder to sync up to the cloud - and as well, periodically backed up with Cobian Backup to another local drive (actually, an old low-speed _NTFS-formatted_ (for better resiliency) 16GB SD card that's always left in the built-in card slot).  However, If no changes were done, I'll select 'skip for now' in the dialog.

To make this easier, I've installed a script to restart LR automatically.  I've also found that frequent restarts can help significantly with the speed of LR, to boot.  The script and instructions can be found here: Even Lightroom Needs a Power Nap Every Now and Then


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## MeanJoePhoto (Apr 9, 2018)

Victoria I need some HELP! I hope this is still an active thread... 
I'm running LR5 and have a bad catalog file and I have no clue on how to recover without a backup. I've been reading about random fixes and nothing is working.

Any insight and guidance is appreciated. 
Peace


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## Victoria Bampton (Apr 9, 2018)

Send it on over and we'll give it a shot Joe. And make some backups!!


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## MeanJoePhoto (Apr 9, 2018)

Thanks so much.  I'm backing up every catalog I have everytime i close from here on out. 

Same instructions as the previous messages ? 
Zip it up, use www.wetransfer.com to send it to [email protected]


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## Victoria Bampton (Apr 9, 2018)

Got it... but I'm afraid that looks dead as a dodo.


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## MeanJoePhoto (Apr 9, 2018)

Thanks for the help and crazy quick response. 
Any other tips or tricks... other that reimport 40k images ?


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## Victoria Bampton (Apr 9, 2018)

That's as good as it gets I'm afraid. Maybe hunt through your external drives and see if you can find older backups. Something might be better than nothing.


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## MeanJoePhoto (Apr 9, 2018)

Cool. Thanks again. 

Peace


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## heidinty (May 21, 2018)

Hi Victoria, 

I have the same problem with my LR but I do not have any backup. Please help me out. 

Best, 
Heidi


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## heidinty (May 21, 2018)

heidinty said:


> Hi Victoria,
> 
> I have the same problem with my LR but I do not have any backup. Please help me out.
> 
> ...



I sent my file to [email protected]. Please check if you guys got it.


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## Victoria Bampton (May 23, 2018)

heidinty said:


> I sent my file to [email protected]. Please check if you guys got it.


Hi Heidi. Got it, and I've forwarded it on to an engineer at Adobe. I'll let you know when I hear back.


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## torrieri (Sep 15, 2018)

Hi Victoria!

I was wondering if I too could send you my lightroom catalog?  I recently had an external hard drive crash, but I was able to recover all the files through a data recovery service. Unfortunately, I’m still not able to open my lightroom catalog and I get the message that it is corrupt and the built-in repair does not work. I’ve tried multiple things but nothing seems to be working. Could you help me out?

Thanks!


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## mcdunstan (Nov 29, 2014)

Good afternoon,

My business partner and I share various external hard drives and yesterday before I could shut down a LR catalog, she unplugged it and now when I try to open the LR catalog, it says it's corrupt and cannot open the file.  I don't have a backup.   

I've searched online and came across this site.  Is there anyone out there that has any insight on how I could get my catalog back?  

I use LR 5.7, PC, Windows 7.  

Thank you,
Melissa


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 15, 2018)

Yeah, that's fine torrieri, but just to set expectations, catalogs from drive recovery software are usually mangled beyond repair.


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## TonyD315 (Sep 24, 2018)

Victoria, 
Hi, I stumbled across this thread while desperately searching for how to repair a corrupted catalog for Lightroom 5, are you still able to try and help?  If so what exactly do I need to do?  I'm not sure what file to zip and email to you.  Please, any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 25, 2018)

You'll need to find your catalog Tony. By default it'd be in your Pictures folder. It'll have a .lrcat extension. That's the file I need you to upload.


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## rpatershuk (Jan 31, 2019)

Hi Victoria, I just sent an email to "uploads" a rather large 5.7 catalog file after archiving (with instructions). Seems my backups were corrupt and I'm about to lose a large number of edits. Hope you can help!


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## Victoria Bampton (Feb 4, 2019)

rpatershuk said:


> Hi Victoria, I just sent an email to "uploads" a rather large 5.7 catalog file after archiving (with instructions). Seems my backups were corrupt and I'm about to lose a large number of edits. Hope you can help!


Emailed back, the 7zip is corrupted so no joy so far.


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## CharlieintheTree (Feb 19, 2019)

Hi Victoria, I just followed the directions about uploading the corrupt LR catalog to see if you or your Magician can help. Over 10 years of using LR, first time I have encountered this. I stopped doing backups a couple of years ago. Horrible choice! I'm using Lightroom Classic CC if that matters. Thanks so much for your help!


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## Victoria Bampton (Feb 19, 2019)

Hi Charlie. Got it, and forwarded it to the magician. Fair warning however, it didn't look promising as I couldn't open it in a database editor. I do hope you're still backing everything else up. Really no backups anywhere?!


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## CharlieintheTree (Feb 19, 2019)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Hi Charlie. Got it, and forwarded it to the magician. Fair warning however, it didn't look promising as I couldn't open it in a database editor. I do hope you're still backing everything else up. Really no backups anywhere?!


Wow thank you for the quick response. I actually was able to fix it! I created and edited SQL from the catalog file after watching a tutorial I Googled and luckily got it working again.

And I just created a new backup! I start a new catalog each year and my last backup was in 2016. I'm horrible, I know. I'm a changed man after tonight's freak out. Thanks again for the prompt response. You are awesome!


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## Victoria Bampton (Feb 19, 2019)

Oh that's great news, well done!


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## roggeror (Feb 24, 2019)

Hi Victoria, 

I am hoping it is OK to ask you to have your magician friend at Adobe look at my corrupt catalog with hopes of repair.  my son is a photography student and has spent countless hours editing in lightroom classic cc and we didn't back up the catalog (shame on us) and it is all of a sudden corrupt, and it would mean the world to us if you could help.  All of his assignments and portfolio for college are in this catalog.  With hope you can assist, I have followed the instructions you posted and it is on its way to you.  We are so thankful for your assistance!!!!  

Thank You!! 
Ray


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## roggeror (Feb 24, 2019)

Hi Victoria, I thionk i may have fixed it.  I followed the instructions at this site: Recover A Corrupted Unrepairable Lightroom 3 Catalog With SQLite | More Photography Tips | Photography Blog, Camera Gear Reviews & Photography Tips  by Ness BUT since i recieved so many errors it rsulted in a 0kb .lrcat file.  BUT it found this site: Recovering corrupt Lightroom catalogs  WHICH suggested t edit the .SQL text file and replace the 
"ROLLBACK; — due to errors" with the line: COMMIT TRANSACTION;  I then reran step two from first site and it worked....happiness!!!!  sharing in case others want to try.


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## LRList001 (Feb 24, 2019)

roggeror said:


> Hi Victoria, I thionk i may have fixed it.  I followed the instructions at this site: Recover A Corrupted Unrepairable Lightroom 3 Catalog With SQLite | More Photography Tips | Photography Blog, Camera Gear Reviews & Photography Tips  by Ness BUT since i recieved so many errors it rsulted in a 0kb .lrcat file.  BUT it found this site: Recovering corrupt Lightroom catalogs  WHICH suggested t edit the .SQL text file and replace the
> "ROLLBACK; — due to errors" with the line: COMMIT TRANSACTION;  I then reran step two from first site and it worked....happiness!!!!  sharing in case others want to try.



Next:  Do a full 'Optimize catalogue'.  Indeed, I would be minded to create a new catalogue and migrate everything to the new one (though there are downsides to doing this too).  Once corrupted, a database becomes suspect. Just because it passes the checks that LR can do, does not 100% mean it has all your correct data in the right places, it means that the rules LR applies to check the data are passed, no more.
For something as critical as a student dissertation, consider keeping the parallel XMP (sidecar) files somewhere else too (as well as the source files).


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## lindajane.vd.berg (May 11, 2019)

Hi Victoria, can I please send you my corrupt catalog too? I tried everything mentioned here but nothing helped :(


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## Victoria Bampton (May 13, 2019)

Yep, no problem Linda, got it.


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## lisakesteleyn (Sep 22, 2019)

Hello,
I am a girl from Belgium who is hopelessly looking for someone who can help me with the restoration of my Lightroom catalog.
I have been searching the internet for hours on how to solve the problem, but nothing helps.
Can anyone help me here? My catalog just fell out the day before yesterday and I can't open it anymore. There is a message that an unforeseen error has occurred... I have lost hours of work. Someone who can help me further? Please?
Thanks a lot!


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 23, 2019)

Hi Lisa, welcome to the forum! Happy to give it a try. Zip it up, use www.wetransfer.com to send it to [email protected] and I'll forward it to my magician at Adobe to see if it can be recovered. I'm guessing you don't have any backups?


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## patrick_2 (Nov 5, 2019)

Hi Victoria - no idea if this thread is still active, or if I can still beg for help? But I'm in a pickle! I have a catalog that has all of a sudden decided its not writeable. I followed all the tips to fix permissions and what not, and now it says its corrupt. There is no lock file (that I can see anyway), and I cannot even access the security settings of the file as they are blocked. Other catalogs are working just fine...

Any suggestions? Thank you in advance!


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## Victoria Bampton (Nov 5, 2019)

Sure, send me the catalog and we’ll take a look. It might be a few days as my usual contact is at the Adobe Max conference


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## patrick_2 (Nov 5, 2019)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Sure, send me the catalog and we’ll take a look. It might be a few days as my usual contact is at the Adobe Max conference


Scratch that, it won't even let me attached the file to upload as it says its corrupt. Have you seen this before?


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## alangrahamtaylor (Nov 28, 2019)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Sure, send me the catalog and we’ll take a look. It might be a few days as my usual contact is at the Adobe Max conference



Hi Victoria, 

I, as many others on here, have a corrupt catalog. I don’t have my Lightroom backed up and have tried everything. Would it be possible to follow the above steps and send it to you to forward to you Adobe contact?
I would be really appreciative if you could help as I am desperate!!
Thank you so much in advance.
Alan


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## Paul McFarlane (Nov 28, 2019)

alangrahamtaylor said:


> Hi Victoria,
> 
> I, as many others on here, have a corrupt catalog. I don’t have my Lightroom backed up and have tried everything. Would it be possible to follow the above steps and send it to you to forward to you Adobe contact?
> I would be really appreciative if you could help as I am desperate!!
> ...



Hi Alan

Zip it up, use www.wetransfer.com to send it to [email protected] and we'll get our contact to take a look. Specify the Lightroom version when you send to us please. Please note as it's the Thanksgiving holiday, there will be a delay.

General to all - please make sure you're backing up your catalog, ones that can't be repaired mean you lose so much work!!!

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/why-should-i-let-lightroom-run-its-own-backups/
https://www.lightroomqueen.com/backup-lightroom-files/


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## alangrahamtaylor (Nov 28, 2019)

Paul McFarlane said:


> Hi Alan
> 
> Zip it up, use www.wetransfer.com to send it to [email protected] and we'll get our contact to take a look. Specify the Lightroom version when you send to us please. Please note as it's the Thanksgiving holiday, there will be a delay.
> 
> ...


 
Hi Paul, 

Happy Thanksgiving! It is Version 5. I have sent it over via wetransfer. I really do appreciate your help! I certainly won’t be making the mistake of not backing it up again.
Thank you again in advance. 
Alan


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## Paul McFarlane (Nov 28, 2019)

Hi Alan

We did receive the transfer but unfortunately...it contained the Lightroom program, not the catalog. So, look for the file with the extension .lrcat and send please (zip that, not the previews or other files, and send onto us)


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## alangrahamtaylor (Nov 28, 2019)

Paul McFarlane said:


> Hi Alan
> 
> We did receive the transfer but unfortunately...it contained the Lightroom program, not the catalog. So, look for the file with the extension .lrcat and send please (zip that, not the previews or other files, and send onto us)


 
Paul,

Apologies. I will do that right now.

Thanks again,
Alan


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## Paul McFarlane (Nov 28, 2019)

Received, leave it with us (but as mentioned bear in mind with Thanksgiving people are on vacation!)


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## mcdunstan (Nov 29, 2014)

Good afternoon,

My business partner and I share various external hard drives and yesterday before I could shut down a LR catalog, she unplugged it and now when I try to open the LR catalog, it says it's corrupt and cannot open the file.  I don't have a backup.   

I've searched online and came across this site.  Is there anyone out there that has any insight on how I could get my catalog back?  

I use LR 5.7, PC, Windows 7.  

Thank you,
Melissa


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## alangrahamtaylor (Nov 28, 2019)

Paul McFarlane said:


> Received, leave it with us (but as mentioned bear in mind with Thanksgiving people are on vacation!)



Absolutely. Completely understand! Have a great Thanksgiving Paul.


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## paulmitchell121177 (Sep 17, 2021)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Hi David. Yes, feel free. Zip it up, use www.wetransfer.com to send it to [email protected] and I'll forward it to my magician at Adobe. They're closed for a couple of weeks, so there will be a bit of a delay unless I can get it working.  To be honest, I'm not too hopeful because of the file recovery software, but it's worth a shot.


Hi Victoria,

This is a very old thread. Hopefully you're still active. I have a corrupt Lightroom catalogue and I'm hoping you might be able to help me with it. I am one of the stupid people who hasn't been backing it up too. 

Any help gratefully accepted.

Thank you

Paul


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## Paul McFarlane (Sep 17, 2021)

Hi Paul

Send it through, we'll look. Also specify the version of Lightroom it's come from.


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## paulmitchell121177 (Sep 17, 2021)

Hi Paul,

That's amazing thank you. I'm running Lightroom Classic Version 10.4

Thanks so much

Paul


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## Paul McFarlane (Sep 17, 2021)

We'll take a look, Paul, and come back to you.


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## Paul McFarlane (Sep 17, 2021)

What makes you think it's corrupt, Paul? Opens fine here? What error messages are you getting?


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## paulmitchell121177 (Sep 17, 2021)

Paul McFarlane said:


> What makes you think it's corrupt, Paul? Opens fine here? What error messages are you getting?


That's very strange. Every time I open it it crashes and says Lightroom has encountered a problem. Then it goes through the repair bit and says that it can't be repaired. Very strange indeed.


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## paulmitchell121177 (Sep 17, 2021)

I'm thinking I've maybe sent you the wrong one. Can you try this please?


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## Paul McFarlane (Sep 17, 2021)

We will take a look. But as requested before, please _do not_ attach catalogs to Forum posts - details to send to us are in a previous post.


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## paulmitchell121177 (Sep 17, 2021)

Hi Paul,

Me again. My friend managed to help me fix the issue using this: Recovering corrupt Lightroom catalogs

Thanks again for looking into it for me.  I will religiously back up form now on. Have a great weekend

Paul


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## Paul McFarlane (Sep 17, 2021)

We'll delete the catalog we got fixed for you then.

Be sure to regularly do backups, not all catalogs can be fixed.


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