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Hi, i made a stupid mistake while in editing in lightroom. I decided my best course of action was to open time machine on my Mac and restore my catalog from earlier in the day prior to the editing mistakes i made. now that the catalog has been restored, i can't open it. I get the annoying, can not open due to an unexpected error.
I have no locked files. how can i correct this?
thanks
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If you can't open your catalog it doesn't sound like it's been restored at all. Go to the spotlight in the upper right corner and search on .lrcat upload a screen capture of the search results shown in the finder window.
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ok, heres the screen shot. i do think the files were in fact restored from the time machine backup. one of the files even contains the raw files and they are there. its just the catalog that will not open
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Where is this folder located? Is it on your local drive or a network drive? Please click on Show all in Finder and send that screen shot.
Did you delete the catalog you were working on before you decided to restore a backup version from TM? Where is that catalog?
How did you restore the catalog? Was it zipped?
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sorry i hope this screen shot is big enough. the folder is located on my iMac hard drive in my user picture folder. i restored the folder with the .lcat, previews, journal and raw files from my time machine airport time capsule. i chose a restore point from earlier in the day when life was good. i did not delete the old folder (files) prior to the restoration. instead, time machine asked to replace or keep both. i chose 'keep both' then when i saw the restored catalog wouldn't open, i deleted the folder with the files that i wanted to be replace. i emptied my trash and tried again to open the catalog with the same results- unexpected error can not open.
last night i made a mock test catalog. deleted it this morning and restored it from time machine and it opens fine. so is the problem that i didn't delete the catalog i wanted to replace?
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Are you able to move forward at this point? Still not clear what prompted the restore activity and where you are at currently. Also what is the file size of this catalog - I can't see that in your screen shot.
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no, i can't move forward. i still can't open the catalog. basically what happened is i had a over a hundred files selected, and made dozens of edits to them when i should have only had ONE file selected. instead of stepping back dozens of times, i thought if i just went to time machine and selected a restore point from earlier in the day i could 'rewind' my catalog to the place in time prior to my multiple selection mistake. does anyone have any idea why this catalog doesn't open?
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A couple of things... there is a history panel that allows you to step back in large increments instead of multiple undos. It's in the left panel in the develop module.
If you were able to open the test catalog that you made you should be able to open your last backup too. Please answer these questions.
Where is the backup that you want to restore from located and is it zipped?
What is the file size of the backup and of the original?
If it's on an EHD did you copy it to your local drive?
Did you try to delete the backup that won't open and try to restore your last backup again?
Do you still have the original catalog?
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wow, i wish i had know about the history panel earlier. thanks for that tip.
but in regard to your questions, I'm not sure if you're not understanding how time machine backup works for if I'm just not understanding your question. the backup location, size and zipped/or not zipped shouldn't be a factor. time machine just runs in the background every hour and to restore i just go in to a past date and time. i don't know if these files are stored as zip files but i don't think so. and yes, i did delete the non-working catalog and tried again using another restore point.
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The reason for my questions regarding size and location is to identify a discrepancy in the TM version and the original lr cat file. You've successfully made a test catalog and restored it from TM, the catalog you want to open should behave exactly the same way. If there is a difference in the file size that might indicate a problem.
Are you also using Lr to create a backup when you exit the program? Have you tried to open a Lr backup as opposed to a TM backup? The question of whether the file is zipped is related to the Lr backup (not TM) and I was not clear about that.
I'm suggesting that you use a Lr backup vs a Time Machine restore point to see if you can open that catalog.
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unfortunately there is not LR backup. the entire folder has been deleted, so i can't compare to the 2 versions. but even when i go to a different restore point the catalog won't open. i called adobe customer support and had no luck. i guess I've really stumped everyone lol.
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And you emptied your trash?
Have you shutdown Lr and rebooted your computer?
Just want to understand... you never made a Lr backup when you quit the application? Moving forward you might want to set that preference to every time you exit so that you will be reminded to make backups on a regular basis. As you have just observed a backup isn't really a backup until you successfully restore it. Best to go with the belt and suspenders method of using Lr to backup along with TM.
You mentioned in your original post "so is the problem that i didn't delete the catalog i wanted to replace?"
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Could you please make the screen capture large enough so we can read it?