wings42 Loc: San Diego, CA

Greetings All,

I'm quitting Lightroom and never going back to it because of how LR uses one catalog to keep track of photos and changes to those photos.

A backup hard drive on my PC died. When I replaced it I made the bad mistake (because of LR cataloging) of putting the drive containing my photos in its location. Windows changed the drive letter designations so all my photos were now on D: drive instead of the previous E: drive. My LR catalog was located in the LR directory on the the new D: drive but thought that itself and all the photos and changes it had cataloged were still on E:.

With the change in drive letters ALL photos became invisible to LR.

Similar LR confusions on a smaller scale had happened to me in the past. Since all additions, deletions, changes to photo file names or relocations MUST BE MADE USING LIGHTROOM TO BE VISIBLE TO LIGHTROOM if anything is done with Windows that doesn't exactly follow LR requirements, imagine the difficulty in recovering files. In other words, your only tool to recover photos and changes is using an application, LR, where those same files are invisible to it. The recovery procedures are difficult with one or two directories but its almost impossible with thousands of files in hundreds of invisible directories and sub-directories.

I exactly (I thought) followed the LR procedures for recovering lost files. The first attempt with the first file didn't work, so I made a small change which I thought was correct and that seemed to work. But very quickly, the ONLY thing my one LR catalog remembered were a few files I successfully recovered, but none of the LR modifications were remembered for thousands of other photos.

I obviously did something wrong, but a photo processing system shouldn't be that fragile and hard to manage with something as critical as cataloging and keeping track of changes to photos.

Besides this catastrophic loss of so much work, LR can be a slow dog of a program. My PC isn't a speed demon but its pretty fast, with 12g of memory and a dedicated graphics card. I've literally waited 20 seconds for two comparison photos to come into focus using LR, a royal pain if a day's shoot had 250 photos!

I'm looking for another photo processing system that's powerful with a good work flow. Right now, Paintshop Pro X8 is top contender. Any suggestions will be very appreciated.

tsilva Loc: Arizona

So you make a mistake and blame a program.

Typical of this place...

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Gee, such an easy problem to fix... All you had to do was tell Lightroom where the images were now located - would have recovered everything within a few minutes.

As for speed... you definitely need good hardware and plenty of ram, I assume you had a current version of Lightroom and not an older slower one, or made the mistake of storing originals on a USB 2.0 external drive or a slow internal drive.

Sorry, no real alternatives for the best in digital photo asset management in my opinion.

wings42 Loc: San Diego, CA

Sorry. I'm certainly not perfect and I do make mistakes and take responsibility for them. That's why I need a photo processing program more forgiving than LR.

Dealing with demanding software isn't nearly as much fun as being out in the chaparral taking photos of wildlife and later enjoying looking at those photos.

Spotted Sandpiper - Liberty Station

(Download)

Pacific Orangetip butterfly - PQ Canyon

(Download)

Anna's Hummingbird f - South Park

(Download)

wings42 Loc: San Diego, CA

The LRCAT file is still there from August 9. I'll try again, but continue looking for a more forgiving PP program going forward.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

The best thing is do some reading and spend the time to learn how Lightroom works - most people get confused because they think it is a file browser - it is a database, so everything must be imported (which only plugs in information about the images into the catalog)

If you right click on the folders that have question marks you can select find folders/files and tell Lightroom where they are and the catalog will be fixed.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

I know you are frustrated, but the unfortunate reality is that using sophisticated software requires an understanding of how it works. Most problems with Lightroom tend to be from people who just want to be able to use it without spending a whole lot of time learning and understanding it. Its a very powerful program and although it can be used with some success by even a novice it requires a considerable amount of time to understand it. There are are software packages out there, that may meet your needs better.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Moving the main drive to a different location could mess-up a lot more than Lightroom. I'm surprised that anything worked after that.

Not only Lightroom but any database program will become unstable if you muck around with the records outside of the program. It's like when you put something in the garage in a place where you know where it is. Then somebody moves it without telling you. When you go to find it you can't. That's what happens when you mess with records outside of a database program. It's a bad thing to do to a cataloging program.

If you really want to do that then I suggest you simply use the windows file manager to organize your photos. I hear that Windows also has some photo editing tools. Maybe give them a try?

I wish you luck and hope you are able to find a program that better suits your needs.

canonjohn922 Loc: Vineland,NJ

Lr is software, when I run into a problem I jump right here before I make it worse. There are so many knowledgeable people on this forum to help, all you have to do is ask. With digital, PP is a necessary evil to make your photos look how they appeared to you when you shot them. :) :)

steveo52 Loc: Rhode Island and Ocala Florida

I hated LR when I moved from Apple's Aperture, but I knew days were numbered and Aperture would be retired forever with no chance of updates. I've watched as many training videos as possible especially at lynda.com. I've had my moments with the catalog system most recently when one of my back up hard drives failed. But I asked questions and got answers. A little patience works. Good luck!

BebuLamar

You can use the darkroom.

wings42 Loc: San Diego, CA

LOL. Can you imagine processing 250 photos in a darkroom . . .

in color?

LarryFB Loc: Depends where our RV is parked

Don't give up on Lightroom because of misunderstanding what it does or how it works. Lightroom is a very powerful database for photography and works extremely well. Unfortunately, like so many other things, it requires some knowledge about what it does and how it works.

It sounds like your problem came to light because of a hardware issue (a failed hard drive). Don't fault Lightroom because of your limitations and lack of understanding. That's just like saying don't fault your camera because you don't understand the exposure triangle, depth of field, shutter speed selections, ISO requirements, or anything else. This is not to say you are in the datagory of not understanding the basic principles of photography. I have read too many posts of people claiming their lens is soft because they took a photo with a 400mm lens at a shutter speed of 1/10 sec. I have read too many posts of people questioning their focus because the depth of field was insufficient when they were shooting a long lens wide open. I could go on, but that should be enought to make the point.

Please learn the basics of the software you are using before you give up.

If you want to give up on Lightroom, that's fine with me. BUT, if you understand it, and the way it works, I think you will be totally impressed and possibly believe that nothing currently available it better.

Good Luck!

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

The first thing I do when installing any new software is go into the program's settings menu and configure the program to behave the way I want it to. Depending on the nature of the software, this may include how generated files are managed, such as exporting and naming. Usually I keep the amount of automated processes concerning file handling by the program to a minimum. But the important thing is to control the software, and not let the software control you!

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Take a deep breath, cuss up a blue streak, and then have a good night's sleep.

I have LR but don't use it. As others have said, this is not really an LR problem. It is a more general computer management problem, where you need a little bit of a skill refresh. This kind of problem could happen again with any software package. It should be recoverable, it depends what you have deleted or what you have on a backup somewhere.

This isn't really an Adobe problem, but it is one that you need to recover from. Don't delete anything, and people may be able to help.

Patience...., and good luck....