Hove i lost all my developments?

[erikskon]

Hi,

I recently had to take a clean install of my computer and thus took a backup of my picture folder. I knew that I should think of how i also maintained the different developments that i have done in my RAW files, but a friend told me that that was saved in the pictures folder. I assumed that it was that easy. After a clean install of windos 10 the computer is up and running again and I install LR6 (I had LR5 before) and I import the pictures folder, but no development can be found. What can i do?

[F. McLion]

Developments - actually all of your work in Lightroom - is stored in the Catalog.

Only if you have set the option to additionally store to XMP sidecar files, and only then, developments and stuff is stored to the picture folder.

You need to get the catalog from your old PC - search for an *.lrcat file.

[erikskon]

Ok, I just found the "Lightroom 5 Catalog.lrcat" file and double clicked it and after LR6 started again it seems like everything is ok. Didn't loose 5 years of developing pictures after all... It had to do some upgrading since i went from LR5 to LR6, but everything seems ok.

So where do I control exactly where LR6 saves it ".lrcat" file?

I don't know what XMP sidecar files does, where should I read up on what that option offers? Something i should consider?

[F. McLion · Accepted solution]

Lightroom saves all your work and developments in the catalog. Presets and Templates are saved to special folders.

What goes where: Preference file and other file locations | Lightroom CC and 6

Read about XMP here: Metadata basics and actions in Lightroom