Adobe Community: Can missing (deleted) photos be restored from previews?

Dennis Ganz Calculating status...

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Can missing (deleted) photos be restored from previews?

Jul 6, 2012 11:12 AM

Hi - the original files are gone, deleted accidentally.

But my LR3 catalog still has full size previews of all of them.

Is there any way to convert those previews into photo files (dng or jpg would be fine)?

It seems like this should be possible - I can see the images right there on my screen, so they can't be gone for good!

The deleted photos comprise an entire day in Venice, Italy, and had already been sorted into keepers.

Even if I could only get a medium sized jpeg, it'd be better than nothing at all.

Hope someone can help!

2001 Views 24 Replies Latest reply: lestercheung, Jul 20, 2012 6:47 AM

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1. Andrew Rodney,

Jul 6, 2012 11:14 AM in reply to Dennis Ganz

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http://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/kb/extract-previews-lightroom-4.html

As you see, you can get previews which depending on the preferences set are differing sizes.

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2. Rob Cole,

Jul 6, 2012 11:50 AM in reply to Dennis Ganz

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Only use the Adobe script if you don't mind the colors being off (proper ICC profile is not assigned).

This will recover previews and assign the correct ICC Profile:

http://www.robcole.com/Rob/ProductsAndServices/PreviewExporterLrPlugin

Rob

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3. Dennis Ganz,

Jul 6, 2012 12:01 PM in reply to Dennis Ganz

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Thanks to both of you for the quick and helpful replies.
I tried the script, and it only recovered 7 out of 229 selected images.

I tried again and got this error message:
"Failed to extract or write the preview for 229 photos.
This may be because no preview was available or an error occurred while writing the preview to the destination."
I can still display the full size previews for all the images.

I notice some of the images momentarily display the "!" with the 3 lines next to it before the symbol changes to the missing file symbol.
Is that relevent?

Rob, I don't mind if the color profile is wrong, so long as the colors aren't way off - these are just vacation photos, nothing professional.
I will try your plugin, but unfortunately I'm out of time right now - already an hour late to hit the road to Vermont for the weekend, where I'll have no internet.

Thanks again for the quick replies, I'll check back when I get home Sunday night.
-Dennis

edited to add: I'm using LR3 for Mac.

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4. Andrew Rodney,

Jul 6, 2012 12:26 PM in reply to Rob Cole

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Rob Cole wrote:

Only use the Adobe script if you don't mind the colors being off (proper ICC profile is not assigned).
The color isn’t off, it isn’t defined because these are untagged aRGB documents. And if a user had, say aRGB set as the RGB working space in Photoshop or using any application that assumes untagged data is aRGB then everything would be OK as the assumption is correct.

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5. Rob Cole,

Jul 6, 2012 12:22 PM in reply to Dennis Ganz

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Dennis, most but not all previews are AdobeRGB, but they will be interpreted as sRGB after extraction, if no ICC profile is assigned, so not way off, just a little off.

Still, even vacation photos should look good, no?

Anyway, ImageMagick is a pain to install on Mac, but exiftool is a piece of cake. If I were you, on a Mac, I'd try PreviewExporter after installing exiftool. It will at least provide a more informative error message even if it fails.

Dennis Ganz wrote:

I notice some of the images momentarily display the "!" with the 3 lines next to it before the symbol changes to the missing file symbol.
Is that relevent?

Dunno. maybe sombody with more knowledge will say. I can imagine this being normal or indicative of database inconsistency.

R

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6. Andrew Rodney,

Jul 6, 2012 12:26 PM in reply to Dennis Ganz

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Dennis Ganz wrote:
I notice some of the images momentarily display the "!" with the 3 lines next to it before the symbol changes to the missing file symbol.
Is that relevent?
It sounds like the previews missing were never fully built....

Dennis Ganz wrote:
Rob, I don't mind if the color profile is wrong, so long as the colors aren't way off - these are just vacation photos, nothing professional.

Just assign Adobe RGB in Photoshop and you’re set.

If you are on a Mac, you can use Automator to do this as well if you don’t have Photoshop.

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7. Rob Cole,

Jul 6, 2012 12:26 PM in reply to Andrew Rodney

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Andrew Rodney wrote:

The color isn’t off, it isn’t defined because these are untagged sRGB documents.

Most documents are AdobeRGB, and need the profile assigned to be displayed correctly. This is not only my understanding, but my first-hand experience.

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8. Rob Cole,

Jul 6, 2012 12:31 PM in reply to Andrew Rodney

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Andrew Rodney wrote:

It sounds like the previews missing were never fully built....

He said he can see them, so they are built.

Andrew Rodney wrote:

Just assign Adobe RGB in Photoshop and you’re set.

This will be the right thing to do in some cases, and the wrong thing to do in other cases. The trick is figuring out whether it's right or wrong...

PreviewExporter has the requisite logic built in, but you can also use an SQLite3 client to find the requisite info in the database, if you know how.

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9. Andrew Rodney,

Jul 6, 2012 12:29 PM in reply to Rob Cole

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The assumption from LR that all untagged data is sRGB is going to bite Adobe and end users in the butt eventually. Today, it isn’t a bad assumption, tomorrow, when far more people will be dealing with wide gamut displays that produce something far closer to aRGB than sRGB, it is going to be a problem. At some point, we’re going to need a preference or just stop producing untagged data (a better solution).

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10. Rob Cole,

Jul 6, 2012 12:34 PM in reply to Andrew Rodney

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Not sure what you are talking about. Lr handles it perfectly within (or at least that has been my experience), it's only the recovery script that short-changes.

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11. Andrew Rodney,

Jul 6, 2012 12:33 PM in reply to Rob Cole

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Rob Cole wrote:
He said he can see them, so they are built.

He said he’s seeing "!" with the 3 lines next to each which sounds like the necessary preview data isn’t all there. Don’t know. Unless the script is buggy, why did some previews make it?

Dennis, do you see anything different in LR for the images that did successfully export?
Rob Cole wrote:
This will be the right thing to do in some cases, and the wrong thing to do in other cases. The trick is figuring out whether it's right or wrong...
Yup, the issue with untagged RGB mystery meat. At least the OP can assign and compare to the previews or just pick a preferred rendering based on the assignment.

It is really too bad the script can’t do something as simple as embed a 4k matrix profile that describes aRGB.

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12. Andrew Rodney,

Jul 6, 2012 12:35 PM in reply to Rob Cole

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Rob Cole wrote:

Not sure what you are talking about. Lr handles it perfectly within, it's only the recovery script that short-changes.
Agreed. It seems like something quite easy to do. And the web site should be more clear about what one should be doing with the untagged data.

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13. ssprengel,

Jul 6, 2012 12:35 PM in reply to Rob Cole

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I believe the !-three-lines indicator designates a metadata problem which would correct because there is no metadata sidecar data (XMP file or image-embedded data) to compare the LR settings with—you’d get the same thing if you deleted a RAW file’s XMP file or restored a JPG back to the original without any Adobe-embedded data in it and had made LR adjustments previously., but in this case the error then changes to missing-image because that is even more of a problem. I would think you’d see the metadata-problem indicator for any images that had non-default settings in LR, although perhaps there is a display-update delay and the one error is replaced by the other before the display is updated.

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14. Andrew Rodney,

Jul 6, 2012 12:38 PM in reply to ssprengel

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ssprengel wrote:

I believe the !-three-lines indicator designates a metadata problem which would correct because there is no metadata sidecar data (XMP file or image-embedded data) to compare the LR settings with—
True and my bad, I was reading this and thinking about the dreaded ... (three dots) which I believe we see far too often as LR is updating or building a preview. IF that is what is seen, then makes sense why so many didn’t export.

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15. Rob Cole,

Jul 6, 2012 12:42 PM in reply to Andrew Rodney

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Andrew Rodney wrote:

He said he’s seeing "!" with the 3 lines next to each which sounds like the necessary preview data isn’t all there.

the ! + 3 lines is a metadata icon - has nothing to do with preview availability. If you can view in lib module, the preview is there (the database may be wonky, but the preview is there).

Andrew Rodney wrote:

...why did some previews make it?

Dunno. I've had & fixed bugs in PreviewExporter too, and even so, 1 user complained about recovery errors that I was never able to solve. Shist happens...

Andrew Rodney wrote:

Yup, the issue with untagged RGB mystery meat. At least the OP can assign and compare to the previews or just pick a preferred rendering based on the assignment.

Previews are jpeg image data, no metadata. Database has the requisite metadata. They are not untagged, there is no mystery. You just have to have code to deal with the icc profile, and the Adobe script does not have such code.

Andrew Rodney wrote:

It is really too bad the script can’t do something as simple as embed a 4k matrix profile that describes aRGB.
It was a quick n' dirty script. SDK does not have requisite support, so it either needs to be an app, or use external apps - adds considerably to the complexity, and probably would need to be a full-on plugin...

R

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16. Andrew Rodney,

Jul 6, 2012 12:51 PM in reply to Rob Cole

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Rob Cole wrote:
Previews are jpeg image data, no metadata. Database has the requisite metadata. They are not untagged, there is no mystery.
There’s no embedded ICC profile right? So they are untagged. Yes, it is also possible to define this using metadata (eg DCF) but not too many app’s recognize this, it just makes sense to embed a tiny 4K ICC profile into the JPEG. Totally doable no?

You open said JPEGs in say Photoshop, with proper color settings, it is going to pop the missing profile warning right? So how can they not be untagged? Big mystery for anyone but the person who used the script received said data. And considering that the web site for download doesn’t mention that the data is in Adobe RGB (1998), which they should, seems pretty mysterious to me and I’m sure most people using the script.

Don’t know anything about scripts and the like. I do know an AppleScript can do this and has been able for years.

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17. Rob Cole,

Jul 6, 2012 1:06 PM in reply to Andrew Rodney

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If you use the Adobe script it will create untagged files, that is correct.

I'm not aware of any lua script code that can assign an ICC profile, although it may exist somewhere... (such code would be of no value however, unless it was accompanied by the capability to access an SQLite database).

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18. Andrew Rodney,

Jul 6, 2012 1:10 PM in reply to Rob Cole

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Rob Cole wrote:
I'm not aware of any lua script code that can assign an ICC profile, although it may exist somewhere...

At the very least, Adobe should point to some resources that will embed the proper profile. Not easy in terms of simplicity and for free on both platforms. Easy on the Mac with either the supplied AppleScript or Automator Workflow. On Windows, Mac (and Linux), Little CMS which is free can do this.

Of course anyone with Photoshop and presuably Elements can do it.

I’m glad Adobe provided this script, but at the very least, they should maybe update the web page and let users know what to expect and not assume someone is going to automatically ingest the exported previews back into LR which makes the wrong assumption about the color space.

As much as the team hates preferences, I see the day when we’ll need to pick aRGB instead of sRGB unless LR just pops a dialog when it encounters untagged data. Or maybe a badge telling us this is untagged. In fact a badge or some metadata we can search on or make a smart collection based on color space would be oh so nice. As you point out, the data (or lack thereof) is there already, we can’t we search on it and why can’t LR show us this somehow?

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19. Dennis Ganz,

Jul 9, 2012 10:37 AM in reply to Dennis Ganz

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Hey guys - back from my weekend off the grid.
Didn't know my question would spark such debate.

So, is my logical next step Rob's link in the 2nd reply?

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20. Dennis Ganz,

Jul 9, 2012 2:41 PM in reply to Dennis Ganz

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Was too intimidated to try Rob's plug-in, so I just tried an application called File Juicer...

It worked, but it pulled out every preview image in every size from the preview.lrdata file, and there's no decipherable file naming convention that I can discern, so I now have 10,260 to sort through to try to find the 229 I lost.

Actually, haven't digged around enough to confirm that it recovered the ones I lost, but I think it must have.

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21. Rob Cole,

Jul 9, 2012 2:56 PM in reply to Dennis Ganz

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Dennis Ganz wrote:

So, is my logical next step Rob's link in the 2nd reply?

If you just used PreviewExporter in the begninning, you wouldn't be having these problems. (of course, you may be having different ones instead...).

I'm not sure why you are intimidated by it. On Windows, it's plug n' play (install, then select photos, and click 'Recover Previews'). On Mac, you just need to install ExifTool (and/or ImageMagick) first, and point PreviewExporter to it/them. Then, it's same as Windows.

PS - No points lost for asking a question in my book, if it's not playing after plug...

Good luck,
Rob

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22. Dennis Ganz,

Jul 9, 2012 3:04 PM in reply to Rob Cole

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Sorry Rob, there's just a lot to read on that page, and many steps, as opposed to drag, drop, wait, sort, with File Juicer.
And I am using a Mac...

I narrowed the number of files to 2,796 by deleting images below 131KB which I decided is the smallest image worth keeping.

At least some of the images are there, so hopefully all are.
I think I'm going to take my chances and delete even more of the smaller files.

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23. Rob Cole,

Jul 9, 2012 6:20 PM in reply to Dennis Ganz

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Dennis Ganz wrote:

Sorry Rob, there's just a lot to read on that page, and many steps...

No skin off my nose, but it does sound like you are going through way more trouble than you would have had to.

PreviewExporter is first and foremost an export plugin. Preview recovery was an afterthought. But thanks for raising the flag...

One day I may separated it into 2 and optimize the recovery for users only interested in that aspect.

(or, I may not...)

Cheers,
Rob

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24. lestercheung,

Jul 20, 2012 6:47 AM in reply to Andrew Rodney

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I had problem with the extract preview script on the mac - when I run ExtractPreviews.lua from the script menu it brings up my editor instead of running it - I'm sure it's some sort of filetype/application association problem - does anyone know how to fix it?

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