u have problems with the old database
We're very concerned about database upgrade issues. We're aware of issues in the way 1.0 was using SQLite that made the database more fragile than we'd like and we've addressed those in 1.1. Of the issues we've seen so far where we have databases to look at the report is:
We've seen a case of a database failing to upgrade because it contained data that we did not create. Generally this would come from running other tools to examine or work with the database. Deleting the foreign data fixed the problem.
We've seen cases where issues in which the database actually failed the integrity check. We are looking for patterns with these and are working on tools to recover as much information as possible. In 1.1, we have tried to make these issues much less likely to occur by changing some of our SQLite usage.
We've seen one case where the database failed to upgrade because of a problem during the logic that looks for sidecar files. We are investigating this.
We've heard reports of people losing photos or virtual copies from the database during the upgrade. These are a puzzle to us because the upgrade largely just copies data from the old database to the new database and hence should either get everything or nothing. One thing to check is to make sure that images are not being filtered out via the filmstrip header or some other mechanism. For example, there is a new option in 1.1 to control whether or not virtual copies are shown. It's possible that the filter state is not getting initialized properly during the upgrade.
We take these issues all very seriously and are working both to make things more bullet proof and to provide better recovery options. In the meantime, we recommend:
Run integrity checks frequently.
If you crash, do not delete the journal file next to the database if there is one. Doing so will corrupt your database because the journal file is an integral part of SQLite's logic.
Do not use other tools to open the Lightroom database or if you feel you must, do not do so while Lightroom is running since competition for the database is a prime suspect in corruption.
If you've got a database that won't upgrade or where the upgrade seems to lose information, please save these and if we can't diagnose the problem directly, we will probably ask for copies of the database. (We don't need a copy of the preview cache.)
As we know more, we will provide more information. Thank you for your patience and your support of Lightroom.
Mark