Lightroom 4

[debbies31888888]

I was using lightroom 4 and and error message came up and my lightroom froze. I had to close it and when I clicked to reopen it asked if I wanted to open the default lightroom (not positive it said that as I simply clicked yes). When it opened it is completely empty, as though I have just installed it.

I would love some help to get everything back in.

thanks,

Deb

[JP Hess]

It would seem that Lightroom has created a new catalog. Using your folder browser, open the folder that contains your Lightroom catalog and see if there are two files with the extension .lrcat. If there are,  try double-clicking on the one that has the oldest date and see if it will open. The other possibility is that there is a lock file with the extension .lock. If there is  then you need to delete that file before you can open your original catalog.

[debbies31888888]

I did find the lock and deleted it, but the next time I went back, it was there again.

[dj_paige]

Did you perform this task as stated by JimHess: "see if there are two files with the extension .lrcat. If there are,  try double-clicking on the one that has the oldest date"?

[debbies31888888]

thank dj_paige. There was only 1. And I couldn't find any back up files, as I'm not sure I did back it up. You can be sure I will this time.

[dj_paige]

Please use your operating system's search feature to search for all files whose name ends with .LRCAT

Double-click on each one found to open this file in Lightroom until you find the catalog file with your photos.

[debbies31888888]

I did find lrcat files, when I click on the last one before my crash, it asks for my serial number for lightroom 5, which I have purchased but never installed.

[debbies31888888]

My computer seems to think I need to run lightroom 5. Should I install it, or is that just causing one more problem?

[JP Hess]

There is no reason why Lightroom 4 would be asking for a Lightroom 5 serial number. Lightroom 4 is totally unaware of Lightroom 5. Are you sure you haven't installed Lightroom 5?

[debbies31888888]

[debbies31888888]

I pretty much gave up so I went ahead and clicked on the latest lrcat and downloaded lr5 Like it asked me to. Once it was downloaded then everything up to that date came back!  Very weird. Learned a lot from you all so thank you very much for all your help as I wouldnt have known to find lrcat   

[ManiacJoe]

The .lock file exists whenever the catalog is being used. It is removed when LR gracefully exists like it is supposed to.

Looking at the "recent" list in LR's "file" menu, were you able to see if a new empty catalog had been created?

[debbies31888888]

yes, there is a new file there.

[debbies31888888]

Thank you Jim Hess. No luck as there is only 1 lightroom cat. Appreciate the help.   At least I haven't lost photos, only the organization of them.