# Recover Catalogue from Time Machine backup



## Robin Page (Sep 11, 2020)

I have Time machine running on my i27Mac.  A couple of evenings ago I shut down Lightroom but did not back it up, as the last was only a day or so back.  I then left the computer to have its well earned sleep.  Next morning when LR opened it opened an old catalogue.  I then set about trying to find the current but could not.  I would like to go back to Time Machine for the time when I was about to shut down and find the catalogue and restore LR at that point, not my entire computer.  How do I do this please?


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## Paul McFarlane (Sep 11, 2020)

Hi Robin

Open Finder, then look at the Time Machine backups (which are listed by date).
Find the date you want, then 'Macintosh HD - Data' > Users > Robin > ...(to the path of your catalog)
It doesn't sound right that the current catalog disappeared, like it had been deleted.


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## Robin Page (Sep 11, 2020)

Thanks for prompt reply Paul .  It certainly does not sound right that the catalogue disappeared and, as you know, to delete it would take positive steps, not just closing and ejecting/turning off my external RAID drive which LR will not allow until LR has shut down.  I'll now do what you suggest.  Whilst I am quite alarmed I do have a very recent Carbon Copy backup, and the Time Machine, and have all images downloaded confirmed on the RAID mirror drive but with a catalogue of 120,000 images it is raising my blood pressure.  I'll be back at some stage, smiling I hope.  Robin


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## Robin Page (Sep 11, 2020)

Where to from here please Paul?  I am a bit reluctant to go playing around with permissions in the middle of a Time Machine backup file.  Besides I am unfamiliar with that other than using info in Finder. R
R


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## Robin Page (Sep 11, 2020)

Paul, I found a near enough LR backup on my working drive so do not need to get the slightly later Time Machine version.  Must look ahead though and make sure I know how to recover in the future.  Thanks for your help.
Robin


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## Johan Elzenga (Sep 11, 2020)

Robin,
You cannot open a Lightroom catalog directly from a Time Machine backup, because Lightroom has no permissions to access a backup volume. What you need to do is *restore* your catalog with a backup. That means you must copy the backup catalog from the backup volume and place it in your current catalog folder. The best way to do this is *not* by using the Finder, but by using Time Machine. Time Machine has a very sophisticated way of storing backups and it knows best how to deal with them. Use Time Machine to restore deleted files or older files


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## Robin Page (Sep 11, 2020)

Thank you Johan,  I'll note all this in case there is a next time.  I have created a new Catalogue from the old and tidied up my backup procedure.
Appreciate your help.  Robin


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## clee01l (Sep 11, 2020)

You need to open TimeMachine and navigate to the Lightroom folder there. Find the date of the backup that you want and your catalog file and restore from TimeMachine. You cannot navigate into the backup folder using Finder since these files are compressed versions by TimeMachine when created. 


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## Robin Page (Sep 11, 2020)

Thanks Clee01.  Got it.
R


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## Johan Elzenga (Sep 11, 2020)

clee01l said:


> You need to open TimeMachine and navigate to the Lightroom folder there. Find the date of the backup that you want and your catalog file and restore from TimeMachine. You cannot navigate into the backup folder using Finder since these files are compressed versions by TimeMachine when created.


AFAIK, Time Machine backups are not compressed, they _can_ be encrypted however. That depends on the settings. You can definitely use the Finder to copy something from a Time Machine backup to your main disk (I have done that many times), but it's much better to use Time Machine to do that. The reason why you cannot open a backup catalog directly is not because the backup catalog is compressed, but because Lightroom does not have write permissions to a Time Machine backup volume. That is also what the error dialog says.


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## clee01l (Sep 11, 2020)

Johan Elzenga said:


> AFAIK, Time Machine backups are not compressed, they _can_ be encrypted however. That depends on the settings. You can definitely use the Finder to copy something from a Time Machine backup to your main disk (I have done that many times), but it's much better to use Time Machine to do that. The reason why you cannot open a backup catalog directly is not because the backup catalog is compressed, but because Lightroom does not have write permissions to a Time Machine backup volume. That is also what the error dialog says.



Time machine only backs up incremental changes and a TimeMachine Restore is required to reassemble all of the pieces into a complete file. 


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## Johan Elzenga (Sep 11, 2020)

clee01l said:


> Time machine only backs up incremental changes and a TimeMachine Restore is required to reassemble all of the pieces into a complete file.


Sorry, but that is simply not true. Yes, Time Machine backs up incrementally, but the backups are in Finder format. I've copied files from a Time Machine backup using the Finder plenty of times, so I know this for a fact. I do agree that it's best to use Time Machine to recover files, but it is not absolutely necessary.

Update: I just tried this with a Lightroom catalog that was backed up by Time Machine and Lightroom opens the catalog just fine after I copied it in the Finder to my internal hard disk.


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