How do I find my library that I moved to an external drive?

[mikef31220803]

I moved my library to an external drive. All seemed to be connecting ok till I deleted the data from my computer's internal drive.

I think I deleted the catalogue by mistake.

All my files are on the external drive,but I cant access it through lightroom

[kglad]

[moved from Downloading, Installing, Setting Up to Lightroom Classic CC — The desktop-focused app]

[Ian Lyons · Accepted solution]

When you write that you moved your 'library' to an external drive do mean the 'photos' or the 'catalog and previews' (i.e. files with lrcat and lrdata extensions)?

If the former, and you haven't got a backup of the catalog, then you'll need to create a new catalog and reimport your photos. If the later then a copy of your catalog will be stored on your external drive. Hopefully, this is the case as you can simply double to the file with the lrcat extension to get back to where things went wrong for you.

Going forward, I would recommend that you establish a robust backup strategy for your catalogs and photos. Adobe provide the tools for backing up you catalog within the application, and this video from Julianne Kost (Adobe) shows various methods of backing up your photos Lightroom 5: Backup Strategies from Julieanne Kost - YouTube

[Just Shoot Me]

If you did copy your catalog to the external drive open the File Manager for the OS you are using and go to that external drive. Find the catalog file and double click on it.

In LR open the preferences and go to the General tab, the Default Catalog section and in the When Starting up use this catalog: drop down select "Other" then browse to the external drive and to the catalog you copied over and select it then OK.

If LR is showing your images are missing then you will need to reconnect them using the instructions found on this site.

http://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-photos-missing-fix/