Lightroom catalog, catalog backups question

Long story short, I had about 15gigs of catalog backups hogging a large portion of the drive on my working laptop. I deleted the vast majority, but when I opened lightroom, I encountered an issue where it couldn't find the catalog. I managed to sort this out, but looking at the path of the Lr5 catalog, it seems that Lr references the most recent backup each time it opens. I was under the impression that it was referencing the standard Lr5.cat catalog and the backups were just that, backups. Is that normal, or do I have a wonky setting?

In Preferences/General there is a setting which tells LR which catalog to use. The default is "Load most recent" and that is probably what is set in your app. So if one time you opened one of the backup files, accidentally or intentionally to see what it contains, LR will keep going back to it every time it launches. So do this; with LR closed, in Explorer go to the regular (not backup) catalog (by default it is in C:/.../Pictures/Lightr​oom) and double-click on it. LR will launch with that catalog and, as above, go back to it each time from now on.

tzalman wrote in post #17394857
In Preferences/General there is a setting which tells LR which catalog to use. The default is "Load most recent" and that is probably what is set in your app. So if one time you opened one of the backup files, accidentally or intentionally to see what it contains, LR will keep going back to it every time it launches. So do this; with LR closed, in Explorer go to the regular (not backup) catalog (by default it is in C:/.../Pictures/Lightr​oom) and double-click on it. LR will launch with that catalog and, as above, go back to it each time from now on.

But, if he's been working in the Backup catalog for a while, going back to the regular catalog might lose some recent work... right?

Thanks tzalman. Thats exactly the setting that is checked. Nathan, I believe every time you do something it updates the standard LR5.cat file, so I dont think anything will be lost...hopefully. Any info tzalman? Kind of a ridiculous default setting if you ask me...

gnome chompski wrote in post #17394885
Nathan, I believe every time you do something it updates the standard LR5.cat file, so I dont think anything will be lost...hopefully. Any info tzalman? Kind of a ridiculous default setting if you ask me...

I am pretty sure it does NOT do this and that Nathan is correct. LR allows you to have multiple catalogs. If you open a catalog then LR will only save work into that cat. There is no One Catalog to find them all and in the darkness bind them.

hmmm, if thats the case, i might just continue doing what I am doing and just be conscious of what file it is accessing before I delete the backups. I get really stressed out when I move something around incorrectly in Lr and I get the ?.

The problem you may have is that some photos are in one catalog, and others photos in another one, which is a pain if this is the case. Nothing is lost (assuming you didn't delete the catalog) but things are spread in multiple catalogs. A possible solution is the establish your "master" catalog (and know where it is on your disk), and for photos in another catalog, open that one up, select those photos and export as a CATALOG (yes a small one). Then go back to the master, and IMPORT the catalog you just exported.

gnome chompski wrote in post #17394991
hmmm, if thats the case, i might just continue doing what I am doing and just be conscious of what file it is accessing before I delete the backups. I get really stressed out when I move something around incorrectly in Lr and I get the ?.

Just FYI if you want to move the catalog out of the backup folder for safety sake it is easy.

• You just close LR then move the file then reopen LR.
  
• It wont find the catalog and will offer the option to Create a new catalog of Choose a different catalog.
  
• Select the second option and LR will display a select catalog dialogue offering a list of recent catalogs. Ignore those.
  
• Click on the Choose different catalog button (bottom left) and navigate to the new location of your catalog and double click it to open.
  

Dan Marchant wrote in post #17395660
Just FYI if you want to move the catalog out of the backup folder for safety sake it is easy.

• You just close LR then move the file then reopen LR.
  
• It wont find the catalog and will offer the option to Create a new catalog of Choose a different catalog.
  
• Select the second option and LR will display a select catalog dialogue offering a list of recent catalogs. Ignore those.
  
• Click on the Choose different catalog button (bottom left) and navigate to the new location of your catalog and double click it to open.
  

This is what I need to do. Thanks

Another way to do it that I have used:
1. LR closed.
2. In Explorer go to master catalog and change its name slightly, add an x before it, for instance.
3. Go to backup folder, copy latest .lrcat file.
4. Paste it into the same folder with the master catalog and change its name to that of the master (without the x).
5. Open LR. [BTW, if you press and hold the Ctrl key before launching LR it will start with a dialog window asking what catalog you want to use - handy if you have multiple catalogs.]
6. If all is well you can highlight the latest work (what you did by mistake on the backup) and ask LR to create new previews for those photos.
7. Finally, to avoid later confusions, delete the old master.