LR Catalog disappeared?

[JulieM]

I logged in to LR today and no photos appear at all in Libary view. They are all still on my hard drive. Is there an easy way to get them back? And why did this happen? This has not happened in the 8 months I've been using the program...

[bayhli]

Hi Julie, scary when you open LR and don't find any pictures.

Did you try telling LR what catalogue to open? Top Menu - File> Open Catalogue and then choose the catalogue file you see still present on your harddrive.

My encounters with missing images only involves relinking the thumbnails to the catalogue images. I'm not sure what it means that your thumbnails are no longer there - I thought these were stored separately. How you rectify this may depend on how you have set-up your catalogue files too so I wouldn't fool around too much unknowingly.

I'd look around on the Adobe LR site to see if there is any help there - if there's a forum that would be a great place to ask knowledgeable people

Keep us posted....

[Chuck S.]

Julie, on the lower left side of the Library screen is a Folders dropdown. Is that empty as well? Similar question for the Metadata browser...? If either has listings, click on one of the choices and see if your library pops back into view.

[bayhli]

Julie..another thing to check is Edit> preferences.

In the General tab there is a spot where you enter the default catalogue for LR to always open with. That should show the path to your catalogue.

We save our backups in case we need to restore LR but I've never done that and would want to be well-versed before putting that one into motion.

Good question Chuck - if that's still intact it will just be a matter of relinking the thumbnails to the catalogue images.

[Chuck S.]

Pat, beyond that, it's possible to click on a choice in the dropdown that no longer has any pictures in it. In my case, I have a few photos that reside on a portable hard drive that's not always active. In that case, the listing in the dropdown is in red, and the main window is empty (i.e., no thumbnails).

[JulieM]

Chuck and Pat, I'm sorry that it took me so long to acknowledge your replies. Somehow I missed the responses...

The catalog is rebuilding itself as I write. I did as Chuck suggested and clicked on something in the folders dropdown and it started chugging away. I still wonder why this happened!

I had downloaded and imported a whole bunch of presets the evening before this event and they are missing too. I'll have to go back and put them all back it. What a bother!

I really do appreciate both your replies. Thank you so much...

[bayhli]

Happy to hear that Julie. That Chuck is plenty wise with this program!