How to find my catalogs and photos after reinstalling my Adobe Lightroom.

[farahk42038123]

I lost my Lightroom application by accident and reinstalled it back again. But how may I find my pictures and catalog?

Would I be able to retrieve them back? I have saved the raw files on my external hard drive but still I want them back on Lr. It is much easier to work on edited pictures.

Thanks a lot.

[dj_paige]

Your pictures and catalog haven't moved. They are still in the same location. If you don't know where that is, use your operating system's search feature to find all files whose name ends with .LRCAT, then double-click on each one found until you find the catalog which shows your photos.

[farahk42038123]

But, I am not sure, because

I've removed part of the original files from master folder to open space in computer. But half of the files are still in same location. I have Lr 5, windows 10.

I really appreciate you.

[JP Hess]

Are the raw files in the same location they were in previously? In the same folder structure? Do you still have the catalog that you had previously? When operating system are you using? What version of Lightroom?

[farahk42038123]

Hi Jim,

I've removed part of the original files from master folder to open space in computer. But half of the files are still in same location. I have Lr 5, windows 10.

I really appreciate you.

Thanks,

farah

[ManiacJoe]

If by "removed" you mean deleted, then those files are gone forever unless you have a backup of them.

Your images are not "in" the Lightroom catalog; they are on the hard drive just like your spreadsheets and documents. The catalog just references the images by path and filename.

[farahk42038123]

I never delete my files, just transfer them from computer to an external hard.

My catalog shows 0 files in it. Maybe I never selected any catalog from the scratch.

But thanks everyone for your comments.

[ManiacJoe]

If your catalog appear to be completely empty, you probably just opened a new/empty catalog instead of your old full catalog.

From the "file" menu, check your "open recent" list.

[farahk42038123]

Actually, I tried that before, but nothing found. I wonder, I might have never put my pictures in any catalog. I don't know how to send them to a catalog. I thought it will be done automatically when I import the files and get a back up.

[JP Hess]

The catalog is the only file that Lightroom opens. When you import images the images are added to a database which is the catalog. But that doesn't mean that the images are actually moved or added to anything. The images are simply referenced in the catalog so that Lightroom knows when they are and can store the work that you do to your images. So if you delete or move your images outside of Lightroom then the catalog becomes completely confused. Is this what you have done?

[farahk42038123]

Not really.

I just reinstalled my Lr. Would it matter if I install an updated version of Lr?

I will import my files to the Lr again, it is not a big deal.

Thanks a lot for all of your replies.

[Per Berntsen · Accepted solution]

Before you re-import all your files, follow the advice given by dj_paige and do a search for .lrcat files on your computer.

Double-click them one at a time to open them. This could save you a lot of work.

If you have installed a newer version of LR than the catalogs were created in, a copy of the catalog will be upgraded and opened.

[farahk42038123]

Sure, I've done that already, however, no clue of my catalog.

But thanks for the tips.

I really appreciate all of you for helping me.

With regards,

FK

[farahk42038123]

I am quite excited to let you know that, right now I launched my Lr. 5, and all of a sudden I was able to get back all of my files!

It is quite strange, because earlier I had tried to open my files several times, but failed. Right now, I have everything back that I could imagine. This is the happiest moment of my life!

Thanks to all of you for continuous support. Lr is the best application for photographers.

Best regards,

FK