KTJohnson Loc: Northern Michigan

Well folks, I was almost done posting godan1's trucks when disaster struck. I was trying to run a backup for Lightroom, but it wouldn't work. It said I needed more room. So, I started deleting old backups and when I got to the 3rd to the most recent one ... I lost all the photos & info in Lightroom. I don't know that happened, I still had two more recent backups.

When I tried using either of them a window popped up and said "assertion failed". Still working on it, so far to no avail.

I have an older backup on a Toshiba external hard drive that does load all my folders back into Lightroom, but the empty photo slots don't connect to my photos on the internal G hard drive.

Any advice would be helpful.

mvetrano2 Loc: Commack, NY

Oh, too bad KT, I was really enjoying your posts. Hopefully someone can help you and you can resume posting, good luck!

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Is it possible that the deleted backups are in the Recycle Bin (or whatever your computer calls it)? A simple right-click and Restore would get them back.

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

No where do you mention which version of LightRoom you are using. If, by chance it is LR CC your photos could be in the cloud.

maxlieberman Loc: 19027

I know your feeling. Sorry, and good luck.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

Please supply us with more info and we'll try to help. DO NOT ERASE ANYTHING ELSE UNTIL THIS IS SOLVED. ALSO, DO NOT EMPTY YOUR TRASH IF YOU ARE USING A MAC! What machine, OS version and Lr version are good starters! Best of luck as your vehicle photos are GREAT!

KTJohnson Loc: Northern Michigan

I'm using a PC running Windows 10, and using Lr 5.7

Gort55 Loc: Northern Colorado

I have been enjoying your posts, too. The good news is that your photos are probably still there -- it's only the catalog that's screwed up. Hopefully a Lightroom guru can help you out.

mr spock Loc: Fairfield CT

What a disaster!! Hope you can recover

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

The deleted catalog backups are probably in your recycle bin, that’s the good news. The bad news? Deleting those catalog backups isn’t gonna clear much disk space.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

If you were in the the Lightroom\Backup folder, there's no way for the deletion of these LRCAT files to cause the issue you've described. Possibly, you've been deleting other "backups" of your images in error?

That said, your best and immediate action is to restore all the LR-related files from the Windows Recycle bin. You can sort by the delete-date as well as the original folder to help identify the files to be restored. Get back to LR 'normal' operations before continuing. Possibly, just have Windows restore all files deleted on the date this issue started.

Running out of space when trying to create a new LR backup hints to a larger and more immediate issue of having not enough local diskspace on your hardrive. After getting LR running, you need to consider this larger issue. What is using all your available space? Do you need to add a USB-drive to allow for more space. A 2TB Western Digital (WD) Password is about the size of a paperback book and runs about $75 at BestBuy.

You knew to look immediately at your LR back-up folder. How often are you taking LR backups? Is it more frequent than once a week? How many backups were in the back-up folder? These files are cumulative, such that Week2 is entirely the same as Week1, except for edits and additions between Week1 and Week2. Week3 has everything from Week1 and Week2 and as well as the additions / modifications from Week3. Unless you make some erroneous mass-delete of historic images, you really never need more than just one LRCAT back-up. And, you really only need them on a weekly basis.

Confirm back the LR operational restore. Then, consider why your harddrive is full and what corrective actions are needed.

R Beck Loc: western Pa.

Sorry to hear that, I really enjoyed them. Hope you can get them back, they sure were great.

Drewline Loc: Castle Rock, Colorado

Do you have more than one hard drive? If so, check each hard drive for for a recycle bin. I have used a program called Total Commander forever for all my file handling. It can be configured to allow the viewing of hidden files and directories. Works great on Win 10.

KTJohnson Loc: Northern Michigan

Thanks to all who responded with helpful hints. However, nothing seemed to work.

I ended up finally upgrading to Lightroom Classic. All my photos were still in the "My Lightroom Photos" folder on my hard drive and I am slowly importing them into Lightroom Classic.

Funny thing is, most of the folders are imported intact with all the edits I've made to them, keywords, and descriptions included. But occasionally a folder is imported ... photos only, no edits, no info. Can't figure out why, but fortunately only a few are that way.

Thanks again for all the help.