# Lightroom does not open to latest backup



## DotP (Jan 18, 2020)

Yesterday I finally upgraded to Mac OS Mojave (not willing to go to Catalina yet) and Lightroom Classic 9.1. I believe I took all the steps to have LR open to the latest backup when I click in the dock on the Lr icon. 

Note: I was in the finishing stages of publishing a book in mid-2019, and learned I needed to go into my Lightroom backups and open the latest backup to be sure I had the one with the latest saved changes. Pressing the app in the dock did not take me there. So with these upgrades yesterday, I did three things:

1. When the upgrade catalog window came up, I chose my latest backup. The new name of my catalog is now attached to my 2020-1-15 backup. 
2. I went to LR preferences, and chose the lrcat catalog that then displayed as follows:





3. I went into my applications folder and deleted old versions of Lightroom, and dragged Adobe Lightroom Classic into the dock.

Now I still have to go to my backups folder and click on the latest backup to open the correct file.  I did an experiment and added the world TEST to the first page of my book, and saved. Why doesn't clicking on the icon in the dock open my last saved catalog?

I think Victoria helped me with a similar situation a few years back. Thanks in advance for help.


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Jan 18, 2020)

I am puzzled why you would need to go to any backups at all. Backups are to replace your current catalog is there is a problem with that catalog. If you don’t have a problem, you don’t need to open a backup catalog.


----------



## DotP (Jan 19, 2020)

Johan Elzenga said:


> I am puzzled why you would need to go to any backups at all. Backups are to replace your current catalog is there is a problem with that catalog. If you don’t have a problem, you don’t need to open a backup catalog.



Yes, it’s puzzling. If I just open Lightroom, it’s not to the latest saved version of the book.


----------



## Califdan (Jan 19, 2020)

Once LR opens (presumably using the backup catalog), go to the File menu and select Open Catalog.   in the  Finder window that pops up, navigate to your Pictures folder and then inside of that the Lightroom Folder.  Look for a file ending in ".lrcat" that is not in the backups folder and that looks like the latest one.  Sometimes (but not always) you can use the modified date/time but it's probably the one with the most "-2"'s in the name.  If that one also happens to have a date/time stamp consistent with your last use of the version that has all your book updates that's a good bet to be the correct one.  Anyway, select it.  

If that catalog was created using an older version of LR it will let you know and ask permission to upgrade the catalog for your current version of LR.  Let it do so.  The new catalog will have the same name as the old one but with another "-2" added to the end.   This one should have your latest saved book info.  

Now go back to the preferences panel and change it to always open this new one (whatever it is called).


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Jan 19, 2020)

DotP said:


> When the upgrade catalog window came up, I chose my latest backup. The new name of my catalog is now attached to my 2020-1-15 backup


This is already puzzling for two reasons. First, why did you choose the latest backup? Why not your current catalog as you should have? The second thing is that normally you should not even be able to choose the latest backup like that, because backups are zipped, so they can’t be opened in Lightroom unless you unzip them first... This sounds to me like it wasn’t the latest backup at all (which explains that the book was not up to date).


----------



## DotP (Jan 22, 2020)

Thank you! I had the catalog in the wrong place. I moved it so it's not in the backup catalog. Now LR opens to the last saved version. What I hadn't understood was:

(*quoting Califdan):  If that catalog was created using an older version of LR it will let you know and ask permission to upgrade the catalog for your current version of LR.  Let it do so.  The new catalog will have the same name as the old one but with another "-2" added to the end.   This one should have your latest saved book info.*

I have changed the preferences panel. Can I rename the current catalog?  It has a lot of 2s: Lightroom Catalog-2 2 2-2 2.lrcat.

*Another question about catalogs.* I'm about to start a new book project. I'll need access to many of the developed photos in my library. When does one start a new catalog? I am not a professional photographer with a million photos and clients, or anything like that. I'm using Lightroom because it is a great organizational tool for photos and makes fantastic books.  Blurb does a great job printing the books.


----------



## DotP (Jan 22, 2020)

Johan Elzenga said:


> This is already puzzling for two reasons. First, why did you choose the latest backup? Why not your current catalog as you should have? The second thing is that normally you should not even be able to choose the latest backup like that, because backups are zipped, so they can’t be opened in Lightroom unless you unzip them first... This sounds to me like it wasn’t the latest backup at all (which explains that the book was not up to date).


Actually I was choosing them and unzipping them every time I had to open LR. Problem now solved! Thank you for your help!


----------



## prbimages (Jan 22, 2020)

DotP said:


> When does one start a new catalog?


Never. There are very few reasons to have more than one catalog. Why do you think you want to start a new one?


----------



## prbimages (Jan 22, 2020)

DotP said:


> Can I rename the current catalog?


Sure. Check out How do I find and move or rename my catalog?


----------



## riwa (Feb 3, 2020)

In attempting to upgrade to the latest version of LR Classic, I searched but no longer have the Upgrade Destination as indicated in the screenshot. When I click Choose a Different Catalog, I select the current catalog  I’ve been using (under version 8.4.1) that has a different name and location. But clicking Open returns me to this same Upgrade dialog box. I then proceeded to upgrade to version 9.0, which under “Other versions” drop down, shows is now installed. But clicking Open also just returns me to the Upgrade dialog box. I hesitate to click Upgrade with an incorrect Upgrade Destination as shown. How do I change the Upgrade Destination to reflect the current location of the catalog and/or what are recommended next steps to just open up LR? Thanks in advance for any assistance.


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Feb 3, 2020)

The screenshot shows that Lightroom opens a catalog named '*Lightroom_Classic_CC_catalog*', and this catalog is located in a folder called '*Lightroom Classic CC_backup*'. This probably happens because that catalog is 'hardwired' in the Lightroom preferences, so each time you launch Lightroom, it again tries to open this catalog rather than the upgraded one. In the Lightroom preferences, make sure you set the catalog to open to 'Most Recent Catalog', so it will open the upgraded copy the next time. Another question is of course why your current catalog is located in a folder that is clearly called 'backup'...


----------



## riwa (Feb 4, 2020)

Johan Elzenga said:


> The screenshot shows that Lightroom opens a catalog named '*Lightroom_Classic_CC_catalog*', and this catalog is located in a folder called '*Lightroom Classic CC_backup*'. This probably happens because that catalog is 'hardwired' in the Lightroom preferences, so each time you launch Lightroom, it again tries to open this catalog rather than the upgraded one. In the Lightroom preferences, make sure you set the catalog to open to 'Most Recent Catalog', so it will open the upgraded copy the next time. Another question is of course why your current catalog is located in a folder that is clearly called 'backup'...
> 
> View attachment 13908


Thanks for your reply.  As is shown in the Upgrade Destination box, I no longer have the file named Lightroom Classic CC catalog-2.lrcat, so I'm reluctant to click on the Upgrade button. Selecting the current Lightroom Classic CC catalog.lrcat that I wish to upgrade only returns me back to the Upgrade Destination box. It seems I cannot open LR in order to access the preferences. As one option, if I select Create a new catalog, will it be possible to merge the existing catalog into the new one?


----------



## clee01l (Feb 4, 2020)

riwa said:


> Thanks for your reply.  As is shown in the Upgrade Destination box, I no longer have the file named Lightroom Classic CC catalog-2.lrcat, so I'm reluctant to click on the Upgrade button. Selecting the current Lightroom Classic CC catalog.lrcat that I wish to upgrade only returns me back to the Upgrade Destination box. It seems I cannot open LR in order to access the preferences. As one option, if I select Create a new catalog, will it be possible to merge the existing catalog into the new one?


Quickly reading the previous posts.  it appears that you have sometime in the past opened a backup catalog file by mistake.   Sometime in LR6, Adobe started zipping backups to save space and prevent this accidental mistake.   What yo need to do now is find all of your recent catalogs and look at them one by one to see which one holds all of your recent data and earlier inventory.    If you open these catalog with v9.1, and there catalog file has not beed updated by v9.1, go ahead and choose the upgrade option  Lightroom Classic v9.1 will read the old version catalog and update it to the new 9.1 structure and write everything out as a new catalog copy in the same folder as the catalog file that you chose to open.   Once you have determined that it is the best and most recent copy of your data, you should move it outside of the backup folder path and make sure that LR only opens this your new master catalog file 

You have nothing to worry about doing an upgrade.  These can be discarded if it turns out not to be your new Master  And the old version of your catalog becomes a backup in it's original format and can be kept or deleted at your leisure.


----------



## riwa (Feb 4, 2020)

Thank you for the info. I went ahead and selected the Upgrade button which did upgrade the most current catalog, and all appears fine.  The newly updated catalog is now labeled with the old name,  Lightroom Classic CC catalog-2.lrcat  which is perplexing to me, but I'll leave it at that.  Originally, I created a folder named LR Classic CC_backup  that contain folders labeled Backups (which contain a few older zipped lrcats), Lightroom Settings, and now the updated LR Classic CC catalog-2.lrcat, along with the Helper, Preview, Sync, etc. files.  This folder I created lives at the finder level alongside folders labeled Applications, Library, System, and Users.  Should this Backup folder exist in a better/different location?


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Feb 4, 2020)

Yes! That folder can be anywhere you like, but *not at the root of your disk*. It* must be somewhere inside you home folder* (or on an external disk), because otherwise you will get permission problems. Lightroom usually does not have permissions to write to root folders.


----------



## riwa (Feb 5, 2020)

OK -  thanks for your help!


----------

