Missing Adjustments - where can I find them?

[wfpeters@cox.net]

My camera files database became corrupt due to a drive failure.  I have re-constructed the folder set and all the images, approximately 30,000 images.  Many of the original images had adjustments.  After reconstruction I opened the appropriate catalog and re-synced all the folders. However ALL of the adjustments are missing.  Is there any way to re-link the adjustments to the original files?  Note: The re-constructed image folders are now on Drive H and no longer on Drive G. I suspect maybe this makes a difference.  HELP!

[Just Shoot Me]

You should of used the Find missing images (Photos) or the Update Folder Location systems inside LR.

Your best bet now it to first close LR. Second use Disk Management to change the letter on that drive back to G.

Then, depending on version of LR you are using, open a backup copy of your catalog (It should be more than one week old as that is the default time between LR catalog back ups).

If all this works post back with results.

To find out how to change the drive letter do a Google search for Change drive letter in Windows ​Version #.

[wfpeters@cox.net]

I think the basic answer is that all adjustments are referenced to files by location and if one moves the files the location is no longer valid.  The catalog is fairly easy to change to point to a different drive, however the adjustments are not.

Unfortunately it is not so easy to just change the letter of H Drive back to G because G is actually mostly a "Google Drive." Google Drive gets totally messed up if one mucks with its organization or location.

It may be easier if there is space in the G partition to move the image database back to G but make sure it is not inside of "Google Drive." Then I could delete H and add the space to G which will them be a 1TB partition with enough space.  G and H are the same physical drive.

I am working with the current version of CC and LR is up to date.

Thanks for the info.  I will update this message after I make the changes.

[Just Shoot Me]

No that is incorrect. If you move files outside of LR that you have edited then In LR you update the location of them the Edit remain.

Your problem started with the different drive letter and then you Synced the folder (Not sure how you did that with the folder showing as Missing. Maybe you Re-imported them as opposed to Synchronize Folder) instead of Updating the location.

If your images were on the drive lettered with G and that drive crashed and you replaced it how did another drive get the letter G and become the Google Drive drive? Sorry but it sound like something else is going on that you are not tell us.

In any event changing drive letters is Extremely easy once you know how to do it. The drive that is now lettered with G you change that to something else, like Z, then change the image drive letter to G and then again change the original G drive to H.

[wfpeters@cox.net]

Not sure what I didn't cover but here is a re-statement:

My main PC was running Windows 10 Pro Preview build 14986 if I remember correctly. It has three hard drives all partitioned into logical drives. Drive 0: C, J; Drive 1: E, F; Drive 2:  G

Camera Files (about 20,000) and Google Drive, about 30,000 files, not all pictures.

Something started deteriorating. Google drive would stop working, Edge started acting weirdly.  I uninstalled Google Drive and re-installed it again but I noticed that files were disappearing from my computer and the cloud database and the sync process stopped frequently..

Eventually I realized that Drive 2 was deteriorating and eventually a chkdsk failed completely.

At this point I decided to go to the current public release of Windows 10 and drop the Pro Previews. I also replaced Drive 2 with a 1 TB drive partitioned into G and H.  I tried to re-construct Google Drive from the cloud but found that there was no completely valid copy of the database on any server or computer.  They had all been corrupted.  I probably could have asked Microsoft to restore a backup but didn't think of that soon enough.  Turns out both Microsoft and Google can do that under certain conditions.

Luckily I had a nearly complete backup of Google Drive and all my camera files backed up on external hard drives.

I then deleted all copies of Google drive, reconstructed that database on my main computer and re-installed it.  It took a few days but it is now working on Drive G.

I then re-constructed my Camera Files database on Drive H.  The total size of those two databases is about 400 GB.

I then proceeded to fire up LR but of course the files had been moved *outside of LR.*  However, by selecting the top level folder and pointing it to itself on H drive, most all of the files re-synced with lightroom very quickly.   NOW THE PROBLEM! Adjustments did not sync.

Today, after asking the question and reading the answer, I moved the Camera Files folder back to Drive G, re-named the catalog files to point to G again and re-synced the lightroom Library again.  No problems there except the adjustments did not link even though the everything is back in the same locations as they were when all this started.

So my initial question remains: is there another way to sync the adjustment data?

[dj_paige]

Did you import the photos into Lightroom during this "re-construction"?

[wfpeters@cox.net]

Most of the catalog matched the actual files and I only re-synced the folders because they were moved outside of LR.  After that was complete there were still folders that were grayed out and files were actually missing from those folders. I found copies of those files, repopulated the folders and synced the folders.  In some cases I had to re-import the files.  The catalog appears to match the file database now. - all 31891 images.  Still there is no adjustment data showing.

Next step is to see if I can find a backup of the catalog database from a time prior to when the system started to fall apart. The re-constructed library should match an earlier catalog maybe to 90% or so.  I will save the current catalog just in case.  If this doesn't work I'll just have to accept the fact that I have lost all adjustment data.

[wfpeters@cox.net · Accepted solution]

I am also thinking that now is a good time to re-think my total library configuration.  This database contains camera images dating back to 2002.  Since I keep almost all of the original files, I need to break the library down into archive groups and a current working library.

That, of course, I will do within LR and hopefully all of the catalog components will stick with the appropriate library images.

[dj_paige]

I am also thinking that now is a good time to re-think my total library configuration.  This database contains camera images dating back to 2002.  Since I keep almost all of the original files, I need to break the library down into archive groups and a current working library.

I think this is a very bad idea, and unrelated to the problems you are having. Breaking the library down also means breaking down any organization that you have applied to the photos, and the ability to search for photos in this new broken down organization will not carry over across whatever "breaks" you create.

[wfpeters@cox.net]

Sorry, I just now saw your last post.  Yes, I know you are right when it comes to pictures that relate to each other, etc. However in my case, this entire database consists of original camera files and the organization by camera, by year.  None of the pictures are related by subject or project or anything of the sort. Between the raw images and the processed images, I'm less still under a half terabyte so I'm not in a hurry!

I do have other LR Libraries that are project related or category related and that is definitely a different can of worms.

Thanks for the comment, however.  I will give it due consideration.

[dj_paige]

I found copies of those files, repopulated the folders and synced the folders.  In some cases I had to re-import the files.

The photos that you re-imported may not have the edits. Are you saying that other photos, that were not re-imported, are also missing edits?

[wfpeters@cox.net]

!The library I am working with is all files imported directly from Camera SD cards.  There are lots of those files that were cropped and corrected before they were exported.  The library does not have post edited files in it but the files in the library should have the edit data linked to them.  I can see the edit data in the catalog database in the folder named [Camera Files on G Previews.lrdata] but, of course, it is all mostly unreadable.  Even the file name is encoded so that it can't be read as ASCII text.  Somehow the linking index between the edit data and the files it applies to has been lost or "unlinked" if you will.   Some of the data is actually readable like the cropping information for example:@ !

B",

croppedHeight = 2432,

croppedWidth = 3648,

digest = "46e0a188a3f637676f25db569a11268b",

fileTimeStamp = 329701244,

formatVersion = 3,

levels = {

  {

   height = 53,

   width = 80,

  },

  {

   height = 106,

   width = 160,

  },

},

I'm sure the file name is imbedded in there somewhere but even if it is, it is of no use in this form.  All of the edit information needs to be linked back to the file to which it applies.  That is the link that is missing here.

But wait!!  I went to an image in the "Develop" mode and cropped it and adjusted exposure and saved it and the changes show up.  Then I noticed the settings on a picture a few frames away showed settings.  I searched around and find that settings are popping up all over the place. It looks like the answer now is to let it all alone and allow it to do its thing and maybe all the settings will re-link themselves eventually.  That seems to be working!  I'll follow up in a day or so!

I just edited image 378 but then I noticed that settings popped up on image 380 also. I checked around and sure enough, other images are showing their settings.

[wfpeters@cox.net]

After I initially re-constructed the image database, there were no indications of settings showing anywhere.  Most of the image files were copied directly to Drive G from a backup drive.  Copied, not imported.  I ended up with a directory of camera files that essentially matched the destroyed set about 90% or better.  There were very few actual file imports used to rebuild the image folders. Once the image folder was re-built, I re-synced each folder and in most cases the indicator in the folder view turned from gray to white indicating the folder had been linked. in a very few cases, LR indicated there were images to be imported. I suspect those were cases where some files were actually not in the original folder set and I added them when re-constructing the folders.