What Will You Do If Your Lightroom Catalog Becomes Corrupt?

[@soundslikewater]

It’s exactly the things in the end you pointed out but were hesitant to include that I’m interested in. Thanks for doing these!!

[@ajays2060]

Nice informative video! I will go into my Lightroom and start saving the metadata files to futureproof my workflow. I too would be interested in more videos on metadata, etc. Thanks again

[@eduardorusso5612]

ok, but my camera save as .dng (drone DJI), and than no extra files (xmp) is write on folder. How to proceed? Convert .dng to .raw?

[@DigitalMastery]

No. the xmp info would go directly into the .dng file and you're good to go. Just like I mentioned for the HEIC and TIFF files in my example.

[@kbqvist]

Thanks Ben, for an another excellent video. If I remember right, LR used to write to xmp pretty much for each individual editing step you made to an image, when you chose automatic save to xmp. This could slow down some types of editing steps quite a lot. But you seem to indicate here that LR now only writes to xmp when you leave the develop module, when automatic save is chosen. I guess that should mean that automatic writing of xmp to files does not slow editing down nearly as much now?

[@DigitalMastery]

Adobe changed how the auto XMP setting works so it no longer updates all the images on each image change. I believe it only saves when you switch to another image.

[@kbqvist]

@@DigitalMastery Thanks, that would make sense..

[@silvere36]

So this only works IF you've created xmp files BEFORE issues with catalog happens correct? Wouldn't it be easier to just back up catalog?

[@drshawnie]

you bet I would be interested in more info re: metadata etc. thank you so much Ben

[@courtneyfoster4697]

HI, what do you know about lightroom and hashtags? can you help? or is this just something that needs to be done outside of LR only

[@ianbraithwaite9563]

Great Video with useful and understandable info, this is definitely an additional back up option that I will follow.

[@michaelbowen2239]

Very good and informative. I am a newbie to Lightroom and Photoshop, and I just ran into a case where my tag information is corrupt. Adobe has the catalog file and is working on it, but me being a techie wants to know if there is a way to rebuild my hierarchical tags from scratch without having to go through and edit thousands of files? In my case when I look at the entered keywords those are fine, but when I look at the keywords and containing keywords it show keywords that had existed at one point, but have since been edited out, but they still remain as a top level tag. Really has me confused. Any ideas?

[@ZNARFPRODUCTIONS]

Always enjoy your videos Ben (aka Crazy Eddie). Not sure if I had the third box checked to write xmp. files from the very beginning. Just to ensure all files had the xmp files saved I selected all photos and tried to save. I get a pop up window that says, "One of more of these photos has been changed in an external application. Should LR overwrite the settings on disk?" two options... "Cancel" or " Overwrite Settings". What will "overwriting " do to thise files as they exist now? Thanks for everything

[@DigitalMastery]

Overwrite means update the xmp file so it matches the info thats in your LR catalog file. 99% of the time it's the option you want to use.

[@sablemountain]

If you have .xmp files created previously, can't you just create a new catalog and synchronize it to your file location and have a new working catalog?

[@DigitalMastery]

Synchronize is only used for a folder that is already in your LR catalog. If you were starting a new catalog, you'd use import the image files.

[@sablemountain]

@@DigitalMastery Thanks for the reply, so instead of synchronizing your image folders, which do not appear in a new catalog, you could import your complete file location in a new catalog and then have a working catalog of your files? So if you have .xmp files you are back with a non-corrupted catalog.... seems like a "easy" way to get back to a working catalog with all your adjustments... Yes?

[@DigitalMastery]

@@sablemountain Yes. You can get back with all your adjustments if the metadata has been saved. BUT, you will not have collections, stacks, virtual copies or the history list that usually appears on the left in the Develop module. So, it's not as good as opening a backup catalog, but is a level of insurance that makes me feel more confident using Lightroom Classic.

[@howardhack655]

Great information that I will used at once

[@suzannegmirek1520]

Excellent video, as always. Thanks...glad to know you've taught that in one of your other classes and I already had mine set up that way. Is there any way to backup collections? I started using them pretty extensively as it saves the sort. I think I'd be lost without my collections in some of my projects. Of course, they're backed up with LR, but... any extra insurance anywhere 🙂

[@DigitalMastery]

Collections are only in your LR catalog file, so be sure to keep it backed up.

[@haaa]

So, Ben, if I tick on preferences the third box I get my shots saved as emp? My question is will everything be saved as such or just the ones from now on (the adjustment time)? Thank you, great video again.

[@DigitalMastery]

I'm actually not sure since I implemented XMP so long ago. I'm assuming it might be from that day forward. You can always click All Photo in the upper left of the library module and then type command-S to force it and then use the auto setting to keep things up to date from that day forward.

[@haaa]

​@@DigitalMastery I did what you adviced and I feel safer now (at least as much as Lr's inconsistency allows). I opened one directly from my files and found my masks and everything on it. Thank you master!!

[@paulehjertaas2319]

Thank you. great video. I wish I had known about this earlier. I have no idea of what other metadata things you could discuss, but it seems to me that this is usually where things go wrong! A question though. If I sent a photo to PS and brought it back and did a bit more work including cropping. If I save metadata to files, it asks if I want to overwrite the info for those files. What should I choose?

[@DigitalMastery]

Always overwrite unless you purposefully made a metadata change in another app that you're wanting Lightroom to load. (like changing a keyword or rating using Bridge)

[@paulehjertaas2319]

@@DigitalMastery many thanks

[@MikeGiovinazzo]

amazing and through explanation - very well done. I've always had XMP on even though it apparently slows me down but my main purpose was to rebuild my LR catalogue in the event of a loss. Had no idea PS or Bridge could use them too. Not sure what additional XMP info/icons you might be referring to but I am very curious.

[@DigitalMastery]

XMP files and storing the info directly in compatible files is exactly how Adobe Camera Raw saves changes to images... Lightroom Classic just happens to support them in case you need to work with both programs... we're just cheating and using that functionality as another level of backup. Those icons I'm referring to let you know if your extra backup is up to date or has issues.

[@MikeGiovinazzo]

@@DigitalMastery hey thanks for that. We then we all deserve to understand these extra flags, especially if we are bouncing back and forth between LR & PS. I do see the occasional Metadata out of sync icon and on the assumption that LR is the master catalogue and whatever happened outside of LR must have been unintentional, so I tell LR to overwrite it.

[@Bolobozo]

Yes Ben, more please.

[@DigitalMastery]

It's coming today

[@janetslaterphotography2806]

Great information

[@atephoto]

Great video

[@richhughes2225]

What will I do if my catalog becomes corrupt? I won't find that information in this video. Maybe you should retitle this video.

[@DigitalMastery]

If you follow that the video discusses, then you would still be able to access all your adjusted images even if your catalog became deleted or corrupt. The thumbnail say "safegaurd your catalog data", which is exactly what .XMP files can do. If you watch this video before corruption happens, then you would have a lot you could do if and when your catalog becomes corrupt.

[@jmgcg]

What Will You Do If can´t open Lightroom and the catalog anymore? Come to youtube and see this nice video, from this guy Ben Willmore Oh, and get by with a little help from Ben Mm, gonna try with a little help from Ben