Lightroom Catalog question?

[MikeA]

I was working on my images and for some reason my Lightroom catalog popped up on my desktop. Could I have pulled it there from the top bar of the Programm window by accident? I tried to move the catalog back over the program window and it started working on something - OMG - so I stopped whatever was running and left the catalog on my desktop. Can anybody here help me? THX

 

[bleirer]

I find if it does a major update it will put a program shortcut on the desktop. This is not the catalog though. By default the catalog is stored here. If your catalog is actually on the desktop and not a program shortcut then I don't know.

• Windows: \Users\[user name]\Pictures\Lightroom
• macOS: /Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom

Maybe you are set to auto update? Check if it is a shortcut. Right click and look at the choices. There is a way to see the location of the shortcut target on the hard drive. Maybe file properties? If it is just a shortcut you can delete it or pin it to the taskbar or whatever, since it's just a shortcut.

 

[MikeA]

I find if it does a major update it will put a program shortcut on the desktop. This is not the catalog though. By default the catalog is stored here. If your catalog is actually on the desktop and not a program shortcut then I don't know.

• Windows: \Users\[user name]\Pictures\Lightroom
• macOS: /Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom

Maybe you are set to auto update? Check if it is a shortcut. Right click and look at the choices. There is a way to see the location of the shortcut target on the hard drive. Maybe file properties? If it is just a shortcut you can delete it or pin it to the taskbar or whatever, since it's just a shortcut.

Thank you - It is not a short cut. I had my catalog along with my images on an external drive and it is still there (last change shown yesterday just before I made the mistake, something in combination with the lightroom top bar). I had my catalog back up on the hard drive.

Now, if I make any change to an image, it uses the new catalog on the desktop. What should I do?Can anybody here help? THX

 

[gnpToday]

Do you still have your catalog file on the external drive?

If so I would backup the external catalog files just to be safe.

Then I would copy the catalog from the desktop to your external drive. From there you should be able to double click the catalog file on the external drive to verify that all is well. I would then delete the desktop catalog.

 

[bleirer]

So this one on the desktop is what? A new catalog with a different name? A move of the existing with identical name? A copy of the existing?

 

[aolander]

I recently had a folder in my Pictures folder appear that was a duplicate of the folder that was my original for the Catalog, Previews, etc. After determining it was actually a duplicate (at least as far as I could tell), I deleted it. It may have shown up because I recently got a new computer, and I transfered my Pictures folder from a backup. Reinstalling LR may have created a new Catalog folder. The duplicate hasn't reappeared, and LR has been working OK.

 

[MikeA]

Do you still have your catalog file on the external drive?

If so I would backup the external catalog files just to be safe.

Then I would copy the catalog from the desktop to your external drive. From there you should be able to double click the catalog file on the external drive to verify that all is well. I would then delete the desktop catalog.

Sound advice I think - I will do that as soon as I get home, thank you

 

[MikeA]

So this one on the desktop is what? A new catalog with a different name? A move of the existing with identical name? A copy of the existing?

It seems a copy of the existing with an identical name (I hope). Since I have been using it for years, I am being careful...

 

[TonyB]

Just a thought - did you try holding down the alt/option key while opening Lightroom Classic and manually pointing to the catalog on the external drive? You can also set the option to use that catalog when Lightroom opens.

 

[MikeA]

Sound advice I think - I will do that as soon as I get home, thank you

Hi Greg, I just made these changes and everything seems to work fine again

 

[gnpToday]

Glad that worked for you!