# Corrupted CR2 preview images in Library uncorrupt in Develop & PS



## Waldo Pepper (Sep 17, 2010)

I've been using LR since the beginning. All went fine until I imported my first CR2 images from a new SanDisk Extreme III 4GB CF card in LR 2.4. Images were a distorted mess.
Since then I always get a few corrupted images when I import from that 4GB card or indeed from any of my other SanDisk cards (all 2GBs) from either of my cameras, Canon 1Ds II and 5D II (all images are CR2s). The corruption ranges from a solid block of colour (frequently yellow) to purple-ish banding.
In Develop module, the corrupted images uncorrupt. Take them back to Library, and they appear corrupted again.
When corrupted images are imported into PS CS5, initially shown as corrupted, they quickly uncorrupt. Transferring the PSD file back into LR, and the images remain intact (ie uncorrupted).
A colleague has exactly the same version of LR as mine (3.2) and nearly the same laptop: her MacBook Pro is a little younger than mine, with 4 GB RAM (mine has 2GB) and a slightly faster processor. When imported into her LR, everything is fine: no corruption at all.
Any ideas about what is happening?


----------



## Victoria Bampton (Sep 17, 2010)

David, if they're ok in Develop and they're ok when they're exported, then it may just be the preview cache or camera raw cache that are corrupted. I'd first go to preferences and click the purge cache button, and then I'd close LR, find the catalog and just rename the Previews.data file next to the catalog so that it's forced to build a new one. Once you're happy that the new one's building correctly, you can delete the corrupted renamed one.

If that doesn't do the trick, we start suspecting other hardware issues.


----------



## Waldo Pepper (Sep 18, 2010)

Thanks, Victoria. Done as u suggested: purged cache and renamed preview file (added a 1 at end of it).
Imported images from the latest problem cards. On one card (which has about 6' CR2s), images that were corrupted before have imported uncorrupted this time (there may be an exception or two), and images that were uncorrupted on the previous import are now corrupted. If anything, the scale of the corruption seems larger on each image.
On the second card, with only 6 images, ones that were corrupted previously, remain corrupted.
I opened some of the corrupted images in Develop. They were not corrected.
In my original post I was working on my MacBook Pro. This time I'm on my MacBook. It has the same LR3.2 as the Pro, the same RAM (2GB) and a slightly slower processor (2GHz, against the Pro's 2.16). (I can't see what happens in PS because it isn't installed on the Book.)
Going over to the Pro, a colleague suggested last week that LR should be deleted and then reinstalled (to see if gremlins were purged). So I now have an LR 3 Catalog.lrcat and an LR 3-2.lrcat. Should I rename both these or just the latter one?


----------



## Victoria Bampton (Sep 18, 2010)

Hi David

Sounds to me like there's a bigger problem going on if it's happening with the same photos on different computers. Either the photos on the card are already corrupted or more likely, the card reader or cable is damaged. Do you have another reader or cable you can try?


----------



## Waldo Pepper (Sep 22, 2010)

Hello Victoria: have bought a new card reader and, wait for it, things seem much worse.
1. reimported images from my 2Gb card (7 images in total). 2 corrupted; on previous card, I think it was 3. The scale of the corruption looks much worse, with one image 95% corrupted. On 1st attempt at opening them in Develop, no difference. On 2nd attempt, one image was corrected and the image that was 95% corrupted appeared undamaged in the Navigator panel (tho' it wasn't corrected in the main image); back in Library, the panel image reverted to corrupted. The corruption is mainly fuzzy purple-ish lines.
2. reimported images from my 4GB card (77 in total). By the way, this card is 11 months old; the 2GB is 4 yrs. Initially 6 images were shown corrupted; then 3 or 4 more became corrupted. Unlike the 2GB, the corruption is predominantly a block of solid yellow (though there are also some fuzzy purple streaked ones too). The scale of the corruption also seems larger than before. Some of the corrupted images are as before, some seem 'new'; others that were corrupted on previous reader, now appear OK.
First attempt in Develop, none converted; this applied also to images in the Navigator panel: they remained corrupted. Second pass thru Develop: one image corrected itself; another corrected itself in the Navigator panel, but not in the main panel; back in Library, the panel image reverted to its corrupted state.
3. Just imported some Canon large Jpegs (taken on a card different from above two): no problems.
4. Also imported some RAWs from my Panasonic Lumix: out of 6, 3 had corruption, but not like the Canon RAWS. Two had a narrow vertical black band. The third had a horizontal grey band containing information from one of the other images (?!).
Any ideas?


----------



## Victoria Bampton (Sep 22, 2010)

Jpegs are less prone to corruption simply because they're smaller. Corruption is corruption, whatever it looks like.

So, let's get this right... this is all happening on the same computer, and the same card is fine when uploaded to a different computer. In which case it's something to do with that computer. Hardware is the likely suspect - if you've ruled out the card reader, then I'd be looking at hard drive failing, RAM, graphics card, sorry!


----------



## ukbrown (Sep 22, 2010)

One let's rule out the card, cable and data transfer. 

Step by Step, should be no differences in the files any difference post back.

1. Fill the card with files from your hard disk and then do a file compare (in windows pretty easy, fc a b, mac looks like there is a free utility called filemerge). Any old file text whatever. USe the OS to copy the files.

2. Copy the data from the card to another directory using the OS, do another file compare between card and new destination

That pretty much should rule out the card, the cable, the OS.

3. Get some RAW files, put them on the card from your HDD, do a file compare

3. Import the raw files from the CARD (in lightroom) to your HDD, compare the card to the imported ones, compare the imported ones to the originals, and compare the originals to CARD - IGNORE COMPLTEELY WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE IN LIGHTROOM

If all file compares pass I am 1''% sure that there is no file corruption and it should help pinpoint what your problems is,

I love a good detective story !!!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## Waldo Pepper (Sep 23, 2010)

Hello Victoria1. For what it's worth: just bin checking some of those problem CR2s in Preview (ie imported straight on to desktop and opened them there with P, so no LR involvement). Images look fine.
2. I operate 2 Macs, a Pro and a Book, both approximately the same age (4 yrs) with same RAM (2Gb) and roughly same processor. Both have the same LR; the Pro differs from the Book in having PS installed. The info I've just sent u was all connected with the Book. It's hard drive crashed early in July, so is virtually brand new. When I took it into the Apple dealer at time of crash, the Book was connected to Apple's diagnostic centre. Two problems showed up: (1) that the hard drive had failed, as I'd thought and (2) a swelling battery in need of replacement. If there were RAM or other problems, wouldn't they too have also shown up? Excuse me, but I'm not a geek and understand not computers.
3. I'm experiencing all the same problems with the Pro. I'm building up strength to see if the new card reader makes any difference to its performance.
4. Last week all the images were imported into a colleague's Pro (a little younger than mine) into the same version of LR: all were fine. (I think we used her card reader.)
Thanks


----------



## Waldo Pepper (Sep 23, 2010)

Hello Victoria and Mr BrownI thought I'd throw this in. I've just reimported the images back into LR from my desktop. The 7 CR2s from one card (2Gb) are now all uncorrupted; previously 2 were corrupted, 1 by 95%. On the 4GB card, out of 77, 2 are corrupted; previously it was 6. With the Panasonic RAWs, all remain exactly as before: 3 corrupted (including the one that has a band of material from another image).
Bye


----------



## Waldo Pepper (Sep 23, 2010)

Before I retire to my special darkened room to rest with a damp flannel on my face, let me toss in latest results (using the new reader).
1. I reformatted the offending 2Gb card, took some snaps and imported them. On the Pro: out of 25, 5 were corrupted (and wouldn't be fixed in PS). On the Book, 5 corrupted but only 2 the same as on the Pro.
2. Similarly with the 4Gb. On the Pro: out of 33, 11 were corrupted (none fixed in PS). On the Book: 15 corrupted and their corruption extent was much worse than on the Pro.
3. I then used 2 other 2Gb cards. On one there was no corruption on either the Pro or the Book. On the second, the Pro was clear but 1 image was corrupted on the Book.


----------



## Waldo Pepper (Sep 24, 2010)

1. Yesterday I imported into LR Nikon and Ricoh RAWs: none of them corrupted.
2. I've just done a data transfer, as suggested by Mr B: taking a text and graphics file from my Book hdd, copying on to a card (that had supplied corrupted images), taking it over to the Pro, importing and opening there: no problems.


----------



## ukbrown (Sep 24, 2010)

Try all the copying bits, fill the card though and do the file compare, this is the important bit.


----------



## Waldo Pepper (Sep 28, 2010)

1. I've just exported 2Gb's worth of CR2 images from LR back to a card. Looked at images on card: seem fine. Imported them on to desktop: ditto
2. I exported one corrupted (75% shows up as plain white band) LR image to the card. There it looked fine in thumbnail size (ie no corruption). Open it up in Preview and corruption shows, this time a mass of colours. Exported this image to my desktop: ditto, ditto.
Any help?


----------



## ukbrown (Sep 28, 2010)

Don't just believe your eyes, let the computer do the file compare. It may reveal something, you cannot see.


----------



## Waldo Pepper (Sep 29, 2010)

Sorry: how do I make the computer do the file compare?


----------



## ukbrown (Sep 29, 2010)

> 1. Fill the card with files from your hard disk and then do a file compare (in windows pretty easy, fc a b, mac looks like there is a free utility called filemerge). Any old file text whatever. USe the OS to copy the files.


----------



## Brad Snyder (Sep 29, 2010)

UK, I think the point was that, 'fc a b' is a pretty sparse set of instructions.

David, if you're at least slightly familiar with the old DOS window, fc.exe is a text mode program which will do various compare operations between two files. You'd Windows Start Menu &gt; All Programs &gt; Accessories &gt; Command Prompt to open the CLI, (command line interface), use the old CD commands to navigate to the pertinent folder and enter
fc filename1.cr2 filename2.cr2 at the drive/folder/:&gt; prompt


----------



## ukbrown (Sep 29, 2010)

Brad, didn't expand cos I thought he had a mac, glad you could put him right.


----------



## Brad Snyder (Sep 29, 2010)

Oh, shoot, David does have a Mac. I must have been reading my own profile, or yours UK.

David, nevermind. I"ll yield the floor to a Mac user for help with file compares/verifies.


----------



## Waldo Pepper (Sep 30, 2010)

Yes: just to confirm, I'm a Mac user.


----------



## Victoria Bampton (Oct 1, 2010)

My first port of call would be Chronosync - there are probably better options, but it's easy and will show up differences in file size and modified date etc.


----------



## Waldo Pepper (Oct 3, 2010)

I've just deleted an import into LR from last week containing 6 or so very corrupted images. I reimported them from a copy I'd kept on an ext h/drive. No corruption at all.


----------



## Waldo Pepper (Oct 5, 2010)

I've used Araxis Merge to check image files. Copying images from hdd to card: all identical in comparison. Copying images from card to desktop: all identical in comparison.


----------



## ukbrown (Oct 5, 2010)

That seems in my logic to rule out any hardware faults.



> 4. Import the raw files from the CARD (in lightroom) to your HDD, compare the card to the imported ones, compare the imported ones to the originals, and compare the originals to CARD - IGNORE COMPLTEELY WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE IN LIGHTROOM



Still need to import in lightroom and compare the raw files. If they now compare OK are there any viewable corruptions in lightroom ? as these should not exist as the files are proven to be the same as on the card.

If they don't compare OK, lightroom has corrupted them.
If they do compare OK and view OK the problem has gone away.
if they do compare OK and not view properly then something is wrong with light room in the way it is displaying files.


----------



## Victoria Bampton (Oct 5, 2010)

And if the latter, we then want to be ruling out corrupted LR preview cache and corrupted Camera Raw cache.


----------



## Waldo Pepper (Sep 17, 2010)

I've been using LR since the beginning. All went fine until I imported my first CR2 images from a new SanDisk Extreme III 4GB CF card in LR 2.4. Images were a distorted mess.
Since then I always get a few corrupted images when I import from that 4GB card or indeed from any of my other SanDisk cards (all 2GBs) from either of my cameras, Canon 1Ds II and 5D II (all images are CR2s). The corruption ranges from a solid block of colour (frequently yellow) to purple-ish banding.
In Develop module, the corrupted images uncorrupt. Take them back to Library, and they appear corrupted again.
When corrupted images are imported into PS CS5, initially shown as corrupted, they quickly uncorrupt. Transferring the PSD file back into LR, and the images remain intact (ie uncorrupted).
A colleague has exactly the same version of LR as mine (3.2) and nearly the same laptop: her MacBook Pro is a little younger than mine, with 4 GB RAM (mine has 2GB) and a slightly faster processor. When imported into her LR, everything is fine: no corruption at all.
Any ideas about what is happening?


----------



## Waldo Pepper (Oct 7, 2010)

Sorry, but how do I isolate a RAW file that's in LR so that I can use it for comparison against the same one somewhere else?


----------



## ukbrown (Oct 7, 2010)

Not a mac man, sorry. Command line do they have one? 

Once you have imported the files into lightroom they will be in the folder that you specified for the import. These are copes of your file off the card. Use you compare software to point at this directory, you could make it easy and just put it in a temp directory somewhere, and the card images and do the file compare.


----------



## Waldo Pepper (Oct 11, 2010)

Just shot 6' CR2s. Copied the card on to my desktop. Also imported the card into LR: 2 corrupted images.
Compared these two images against the same ones on the desktop and on the card. In both cases, Araxis Merge highlighted a difference (one line of info) between the images in LR and on the card and on the desktop file.
Does this indicate a problem with my LR? (NB I run the same LR on a MacBook as well as on a MacBook Pro: both LRs are corrupting images, tho' not necessarily the same ones.)


----------



## ukbrown (Oct 11, 2010)

Let me get this clear in my own mind.

Copied from Card-&gt;Desktop
LR Import from Card-&gt;Folder where photos are on desktop.

Compares:- both show exactly the same difference???????

Previoulsy you had done a copy from the card to the desktop with no issues, but now we have one

One last compare to try and get to any sane position here. Have you compare the copy on the desktop to the imported LR files. If they are corrupted exactly the same, something really strange is going on. Corruption should be a random event, IMO. Unless the MAC cached the first copy to the desktop and then did not even read from the card on the LR import.

Do you have any other issues, unexplained crashes etc on this machine???

At the moment I have no idea what could be causing the corruption. I thought we were getting somewhere but this latest test puts the issue anywhere on your system.


----------



## Waldo Pepper (Oct 12, 2010)

[size=1'px]*Copied from Card-&gt;Desktop
LR Import from Card-&gt;Folder where photos are on desktop.*[/size][size=1'px](1) copied card images to desktop and ejected card. (2) Then imported card's images into LR. So have images in triplicate: in LR's import folder, on desktop folder and on camera card. Presumably all should be identical, but 2 in LR (corrupted) are different from their twins on desktop and on card.[/size][size=1'px][/size][size=1'px]Images on desktop looked fine. Of 6' imported into LR, 2 were corrupted; both these wouldn't uncorrupt in Develop module.[/size][size=1'px][/size][size=1'px]Compared the 2 corrupted LR images with their twin images on (a) desktop folder and (b) card folder. Both the desktop images and the card images had differences with the 2 in LR (ie Aramix pointed out that they were not identical on one line of data). Did a sample check with a couple of other uncorrupted images in LR: these were 'identical'.[/size][size=1'px][/size][size=1'px]*Previoulsy you had done a copy from the card to the desktop with no issues, but now we have one*
[/size][size=1'px]No, card and desktop images are identical according to Aramix. The 2 corrupted LR images and same 2 images on desktop and on card are not identical.[/size][size=1'px][/size][size=1'px]As mentioned above, I do have a situation where a batch of images that had some corrupted ones on import now show themselves as uncorrupted ... The corruption is certainly a random event: sometimes (tho' rarely) an import will contain no corrupted images. Then the next import will have corrupted ones, with the corruption varying from 95% to about 5%. The corruption is neither card specific (I have 5 Sandisks and corrupted images come from all of them) nor camera specific (I have 2 Canon bodies).[/size][size=1'px][/size][size=1'px]Importing RAWs from a friend's Nikon and Ricoh is fine. Confusingly, importing RAWs from my Lumix has also recently gone strange: on my last import of 6 images, 2 had a vertical black band and 1 had a strip of information from a previous image. Generally speaking, this seems to be connected with Canon RAWs,[/size][font='lucida grande', verdana, sans-serif][/font][font='lucida grande', verdana, sans-serif][size=1'px]*Do you have any other issues, unexplained crashes etc on this machine???*[/size][/font][font='lucida grande', verdana, sans-serif][size=1'px]This machine seems to be behaving normally. I frequently run Apple's Disk Utilities, Applejack and Disk Warrior (from cd) to keep it healthy as possible. It does eat up hard drives tho' (this is the 4th and the machine is only 4 yrs old). The last one failed in July, when the machine was connected up to Apple's diagnostic centre: dead drive confirmed, as well as a dying (swelling) battery; nothing else showed up.[/size][/font][font='lucida grande', verdana, sans-serif][/font][font='lucida grande', verdana, sans-serif][size=1'px]As mentioned way back, the corruption began when I imported my first set of images from a new Sandisk 4GB CF from a Canon 5DII. The images initially showed up as a Jackson Pollack mishmash of colours before settling down. Since then I've had corruption issues; before then LR behaved impeccably. The 4GB card was used with LR 2.4 (I think); upgrading to LR3 didn't solve the issue. (NB I've read about pirate Sandisk cards being on sale, but I've checked all the packaging that came with the card and am confident it's kosher.)[/size][/font][font='lucida grande', verdana, sans-serif][/font][font='lucida grande', verdana, sans-serif][size=1'px]Does that help?[/size][/font][font='lucida grande', verdana, sans-serif][/font][font='lucida grande', verdana, sans-serif][size=1'px]PS Is there any software that can be used to check the health of camera cards?[/size][/font][size=1'px][/size]


----------



## ukbrown (Oct 12, 2010)

Waldo, I know it is tempting but don't rely on your eyes for any of this, use the compare program only.

The way to check your card is to copy files, any files to it, fill it and then compare with the program. Create your self a directory on your hard disk put 4gb of files in there. It makes the comparing part easier. These are now your test files.

Apart from this I can't help much further as you don't have anything consistenlty going wrong. I am thinking that there is something wrong with your mac and LR install.

Sorry, but I think we have exhasuted all avenues.


----------



## Waldo Pepper (Oct 13, 2010)

In the last check, I did both a visual check and a data comparison. 2 images not only looked corrupted in LR, they proved to be unidentical in the data comparison. A spot check of a couple of other images, which looked fine, also revealed that they had identical data. This proved to be consistent in comparisons with the 2 LR images and their twins on the desktop and on the card.
My own thinking now is to do a complete uninstall of LR (using AppZapper et al to make sure no associated files remain onboard) and then reinstall. If this doesn't work, then I'll probably stick with LR, but switch to taking CR2s and jpegs of each image and then only importing jpegs into LR and using it as an organizer. Any images I want to work on: get the CR2s of them and take them into PS. I'm also taking soundings about other s/ware in case I decide to jump ship.
Thanks for your help


----------



## ukbrown (Oct 13, 2010)

Keep your eye on this thread http://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/index.php?topic=113'6.'


----------



## Waldo Pepper (Oct 17, 2010)

Just FYI: removed everything connected with LR and reinstalled 3.2. Just imported two and a half cards of new images. 2 decided to corrupt ...


----------



## Mark Sirota (Oct 18, 2010)

Just to clarify -- these new corrupted images came straight off a card? Using a card reader, or straight from the camera connected via cable? On the same system as the original problem?

At this point, you need to be trying to eliminate variables... What's common about every case? Typical causes are the card reader and cable. Second most common would be bad card(s). Third most common would be bad memory or disk.


----------



## ukbrown (Oct 18, 2010)

Mark, extremely unlikely to be system memory. 

I cannot see any "consistency" in what is going wrong.

Card reader and cable seem to be fine when using the OS to copy files.


----------



## Waldo Pepper (Oct 19, 2010)

The lack of consistency is the main problem. All images are imported via a card reader. I bought a new one a month ago in case this was the problem: no change. To add to the frustration: images are chewed up in LR on both my machines. So if I have OS issues, this has happened, simultaneously, on two machines, admittedly both are the same age, but different models. One of them, the MacBook, had a hdd crash at the start of July. So it has a new hdd, tho' the software came from previous hdd via Time Machine.
One thing does seem to be consistent, tho: the scale of corruption (both in terms of numbers of images affected and the amount on each image) seems to be less when I import into LR from a folder copied on to my desktop than direct from the card.


----------



## Waldo Pepper (Oct 20, 2010)

I've just bought a brand-new Sandisk 4Gb card. Filled it with 243 RAWs.
1. Copied card to my Desktop on my MacBook.
2. Then imported into LR direct from card. 21 corrupted, ranging from tiny to 95%+ of image area; all but 3, had solid blocks of yellow.
3. Deleted all these images (from disk) and emptied LR cache.
4. Imported from the Desktop folder: no corruption.


----------



## Mark Sirota (Oct 20, 2010)

If steps #1 and #2 will repeat, then stop there and compare the files copied to disk in #1 with the files copied to disk in #2.

(When you say "imported direct from card", what does this mean? With a card reader? Same reader used in step 1?)


----------



## Waldo Pepper (Oct 20, 2010)

Imported direct from card=emptied images on CF card straight into LR via card reader. Yes, importing into LR and copying images on to desktop has been thru the same card reader (the new one purchased about 2 weeks ago).
I'll look into the comparison suggestion.
NB Have just returned from the local Apple dealer, who plugged me into Apple California for a diagnostic check. According to Apple, both my machines are healthy (no dead RAM).


----------



## Waldo Pepper (Oct 22, 2010)

1. I've just deleted from disk all the above-mentioned 243 images imported into LR and also copied on to a folder on my desk top. LR's catalogue was untouched. LR itself was also completely empty: no other images in it.
2. Re-imported the 243 via the same card reader into LR: no corruption (previously 21 images corrupted).
3. As before, copied same 243 images, via card reader, on to a desktop folder.
4. Used Araxis Merge to do a file comparison of 2'% of the first 2'' images (ie every 1'th image of first 2'' images).
5. All the files in LR and in the desktop folder were identical.
6. Had the files corrupted, as before, I could have done a comparison between a corrupted one in LR and an uncorrupted one in the desktop folder. But at least this shows that what appears as uncorrupted is uncorrupted.

Today, no corruption; a few days ago, corruption. Nothing has changed: same images, same card, same card reader, same computer, same LR ... Any ideas?


----------

