Adobe Rant! I am running Lightroom 3.6. One morning last December I was shocked when I opened up LR and it was empty! All 1000 + processed photos gone. Called Adobe support..after a 45...

Pixelpixie88 Loc: Northern Minnesota

I am running Lightroom 3.6. One morning last December I was shocked when I opened up LR and it was empty! All 1000 + processed photos gone. Called Adobe support..after a 45 minute phone call, she could not find them..anywhere! To make a long story short, my catalog is gone again (but this time, I can find my photos on my hard drive). Now when I go into LR, it won't load photos, and won't shut down. It was actually freezing up my computer in other programs.
I took my computer into a fix-it shop last week to see if it was my computer..paid $100.00...got computer home and it works just fine as long as I don't go into LR. Same thing happens all over again.
So...today I called Adobe..guess what...pay $40.00 and I can get help. I turned them down...the guy at the fix-it shop said that he would do reinstall for me.

Has anyone else ever had this problem?

Thanks for letting me rant!

Marsha

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Pixelpixie88 wrote:

I am running Lightroom 3.6. One morning last Dece... (show quote)

I've not experienced this problem but can I suggest that you backup and save the catalog file on a thumbdrive or CD next time. I don't remember to do this very often but I have over 14,000 images cataloged now and I don't want to do it over again. I read a thread yesterday that reminded me to copy the catalog files to an external drive just in case the same thing happens to me that happened to you. I did have it backed up on the external drive already, but it had been 6 months or longer since doing it. At least I had 10,000 images in that catalog backed up. It's easy to do.

rebride

Have you optimized catalog? File>Optimize Catalog...

Pixelpixie88 Loc: Northern Minnesota

jeep_daddy wrote:

I've not experienced this problem but can I sugges... (show quote)

Thanks jeep_daddy. I do back up now to an external. However, I still have the LR problem and it's a pain in the....!

I appreciate your comments and it just reconfirms me (or anyone) to back up our photos!

Pixelpixie88 Loc: Northern Minnesota

rebride wrote:

Have you optimized catalog? File>Optimize Catalog...

I'll give it a try and let you know..thanks.

mdorn Loc: Portland, OR

Pixelpixie88 wrote:

I am running Lightroom 3.6. One morning last Dece... (show quote)

Your rant is very welcome! I realize LR is the premier photo editing software out there, but I use ACDSee Pro because I simply don't like or trust huge database files. I realize it's probably an unjustified fear, but many years ago when I used to work for a database management company, I experienced many corrupt database issues. Good backups are certainly the key to not falling victim to them.

Pixelpixie88 Loc: Northern Minnesota

mdorn wrote:

Your rant is very welcome! I realize LR is the premier photo editing software out there, but I use ACDSee Pro because I simply don't like or trust huge database files. I realize it's probably an unjustified fear, but many years ago when I used to work for a database management company, I experienced many corrupt database issues. Good backups are certainly the key to not falling victim to them.

Thanks for commenting....I agree with you.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Pixelpixie88 wrote:

I am running Lightroom 3.6. One morning last Dece... (show quote)

You might want to consider backing up your photos on an external drive. You should definitely back up your catalog. Have you tried uninstalling and re-installing Lightroom? I would be shocked if LR had anything to do with the disappearance of your photos off the hard drive. You seem to be having a few different issues. There could be a variety of reasons for your problems. Since I don't know you or your computer skills, I also can't rule out user error. Hard to be sure what happened without a hands on analysis of your computer

olcoach Loc: Oregon

I know who not to use. Sorry about your misfortune but I'd go somewhere else as quickly as I could.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

olcoach wrote:

I know who not to use. Sorry about your misfortune but I'd go somewhere else as quickly as I could.

Why are you assuming the fault is with Adobe Lightroom? No one else seems to be having those issues.

Pixelpixie88 Loc: Northern Minnesota

If you google the problem, a few come up. Also, if you read my thread, I did state the I took my computer into the fix-it shop and when I got it home, Lightroom was still acting weird.
No problems until I go into Lightroom! Did you do a search on this and find that no one else is having this problem?
These things can happen to a software program.

mwsilvers wrote:

Why are you assuming the fault is with Adobe Lightroom? No one else seems to be having those issues.

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

When Lightroom is closed, find the folder in which the catalog is stored and look for a file with a name similar to ??????.Catalog.lrcat.lock
the question marks will relate to the name of the catalog.
The important bit is ".lrcat.lock"

If Lightroom is closed, and only if closed, delete the lock file, then reboot the computer and try LR again.

If the lock file does not exist (When LR is closed) the problem lies elsewhere.

Pixelpixie88 Loc: Northern Minnesota

Thanks Searcher..I'll go and look for that.

Searcher wrote:

When Lightroom is closed, find the folder in which the catalog is stored and look for a file with a name similar to ??????.Catalog.lrcat.lock
the question marks will relate to the name of the catalog.
The important bit is ".lrcat.lock"

If Lightroom is closed, and only if closed, delete the lock file, then reboot the computer and try LR again.

If the lock file does not exist (When LR is closed) the problem lies elsewhere.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

Pixelpixie88 wrote:

I am running Lightroom 3.6. One morning last Dece... (show quote)

So a little more information please.

What platform are you running? Windows or Mac
Your version of LR may not work if you have upgraded your
operating system along the way. Consider upgrading LR
to insure workability with current OS.

Don't forget that you have have automatic updates turned
on in the OS, and upgrades may be taking place in the
background and hidden from you.

HTH

Pixelpixie88 Loc: Northern Minnesota

BobHartung wrote:

So a little more information please.

What platform are you running? Windows or Mac
Your version of LR may not work if you have upgraded your
operating system along the way. Consider upgrading LR
to insure workability with current OS.

Don't forget that you have have automatic updates turned
on in the OS, and upgrades may be taking place in the
background and hidden from you.

HTH

Sorry, yes I should have mentioned those things. I was so upset that I sure wasn't thinking clearly.
Running Windows with LR 3.6. I did the LR upgrade a few months ago.
Thanks Bob for trying to help.