Folders are gone!

[upioneer]

After updating Lightroom Classic to version 7.4, all of my folders are gone. It appears the catalog has gone corrupt or something of the sort, so I open a backup. The backup shows my folders as expected, but if I close and reopen Lightroom they are gone again. Also, while the folders are missing, adding any folders or subfolders does not appear under the Folders view. I have already tried uninstalling and reinstalling Lightroom Classic and WIndows 10 is fully updated.

Please advise?

[JohanElzenga]

Did you replace the corrupted catalog by a backup copy? It sounds like Lightroom opened the corrupted catalog again.

[upioneer]

I am opening the backup extracted from a zip file that I create weekly. Even creating a new catalog and importing from the original or backup had the same experience. Anytime I close and open LR the folders are gone. From point I am unable to add any folders.

[JohanElzenga]

Can you show a screenshot of the Help - System Info menu? Don’t post the whole contents, I just need to see the first few lines.

[Just Shoot Me]

LR has a section in the Preferences to open a Specific catalog by default. If it is not set to " Load Most Recent " then it will automatically try to open whatever catalog the Path is set to.

[dj_paige]

Adding to what Just Shoot Me​ has said, if that is the proper answer, then go to File->Open Recent and select each of the other catalogs there to open them, and see if you can find the one which has the folders/photos you want. Even if that was not the proper answer, File->Open Recent may solve the problem.

[JohanElzenga]

Yes, like I said, it does sound like the original (corrupted?) catalog is opened after a restart. That is why I asked whether the catalog was replaced by the backup, but it seems it was not. The preference setting could then be the reason why Lightroom keeps reverting to the old catalog.

Of course the question remains why the original catalog got corrupted in the first place. Lightroom’s catalog system is quite robust. Catalog corruption is not something that ‘just happens’, also not after an update. That is why I do like to see that screenshot.

[upioneer]

All,

Thanks for the input. I have been using Lightroom since standalone version 3, prior to CC integration and have managed catalogs across network and cloud resources. I am familiar with catalog management, however, what I am seeing today is unique and there seems to be other like cases in google searches.

[JohanElzenga]

Thanks. I needed this to make sure you are not the victim of a bug that allowed perpetual license holders to upgrade to Lr Classic. Your version is fine.

[JohanElzenga]

upioneer  wrote

All,

Thanks for the input. I have been using Lightroom since standalone version 3, prior to CC integration and have managed catalogs across network and cloud resources. I am familiar with catalog management, however, what I am seeing today is unique and there seems to be other like cases in google searches.

I would be interested to see some of that. Corrupted catalogs do indeed occur. But opening a backup that is fine, and then losing it again after a restart, sounds an awful lot like reversion to the old corrupted catalog. You have not yet confirmed or denied that preference setting. And I have never heard of another problem that causes this.

[Just Shoot Me]

upioneer  wrote

After updating Lightroom Classic to version 7.4, all of my folders are gone. It appears the catalog has gone corrupt or something of the sort, so I open a backup. The backup shows my folders as expected, but if I close and reopen Lightroom they are gone again. Also, while the folders are missing, adding any folders or subfolders does not appear under the Folders view. I have already tried uninstalling and reinstalling Lightroom Classic and WIndows 10 is fully updated.

Please advise?

In the bold and underlined part of your original post how are you Adding folders or subfolders.

I have been using LR since version one. Have carried over the same catalog, although changing the name of it to reflect the version of LR the updated catalog goes with, since I first installed LR V 1. This has been on at least 4 different notebook computers and 3 desktop computers running either Win XP or Windows 7 and for a few years Mac OS X. To go along with that my images and catalog files have been on at least 2 maybe 3 different hard drives and or SSD's on each of those systems. I have never had a corrupted catalog file, never lost any folders and IIRC I have never had any real problems with LR in the 11+ years I've used it.

Corrupted files are caused by faulty hardware. faulty and or failing hard drives or faulty RAM. Things like this can also be caused by malware or viruses.

I would start by checking all of your hardware and scan for rogue software.

[dj_paige]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Just+Shoot+Me  wrote

upioneer   wrote

After updating Lightroom Classic to version 7.4, all of my folders are gone. It appears the catalog has gone corrupt or something of the sort, so I open a backup. The backup shows my folders as expected, but if I close and reopen Lightroom they are gone again. Also, while the folders are missing, adding any folders or subfolders does not appear under the Folders view. I have already tried uninstalling and reinstalling Lightroom Classic and WIndows 10 is fully updated.

Please advise?

In the bold and underlined part of your original post how are you Adding folders or subfolders.

I have been using LR since version one. Have carried over the same catalog, although changing the name of it to reflect the version of LR the updated catalog goes with, since I first installed LR V 1. This has been on at least 4 different notebook computers and 3 desktop computers running either Win XP or Windows 7 and for a few years Mac OS X. To go along with that my images and catalog files have been on at least 2 maybe 3 different hard drives and or SSD's on each of those systems. I have never had a corrupted catalog file, never lost any folders and IIRC I have never had any real problems with LR in the 11+ years I've used it.

Corrupted files are caused by faulty hardware. faulty and or failing hard drives or faulty RAM. Things like this can also be caused by malware or viruses.

I would start by checking all of your hardware and scan for rogue software.

I think your earlier comment is more likely the answer, and the user needs to also look under File->Open Recent to find the catalog desired ought to be the first step.