What’s Your Preference?

Fishsarahg17 · #1 (**permalink**) 12-01-2009, 11:36 PM

Last night I was just finishing a huge edit on a client pictures, over 100 pictures.

Suddenly, my scroll bar was stuck at the very end on the very last picture and then it said that Lightroom had encountered a problem, and shut LR down.

When I opened it back up, all of the work I had just done to all those pictures, crops, WB, etc. (only that folder) was gone! Back to original unedited picture!

I checked the history of each picture and the only history was the original import date. And all of the pictures that I had deleted were back in that folder too, (but "missing or broken", of course, because I had already emptied my trash).

LR put the entire folder back to the original import!

What happened? I tried restarting my computer (it's the only thing I could think to do), but that didn't work, so I had to redo hours of work.

Has this happened to anyone else? Is there any way to recover edits?

zona5101 · #2 (**permalink**) 12-02-2009, 12:06 AM

are you sure you opened up the same folder?...for example you might import raw then convert to dng and work on the dng folder but then opend the raw folder?
Reason I ask that is because I have had LR lockup and shut down but I haven't lost any work.
If you did lose your work i feel for you, i know how frustrating that would be.

sk66 · #3 (**permalink**) 12-02-2009, 12:22 AM

program crashed before saving changes...you lost the xmp sidecar "change files" that tells lightroom what changes to apply in the current view.
Lightroom doesn't actually make changes to the original file..it makes changes to the way the original is viewed.

kirbinster · #4 (**permalink**) 12-02-2009, 12:40 AM

Sounds very strange. Any time I have had lightroom crash it only looses info for the last shot I am working on not all the previous edits. Are you certain you are in the right directory or maybe it was where you made a back up of the raw.

elkidogz · #5 (**permalink**) 12-02-2009, 12:43 AM

sounds to me like you emptied trash while the program thought those pics were still present. crash boom doom ensued. - lesson? do not ever empty trash can whilst in the program u used to delete. bad things happen.

PamEli · #6 (**permalink**) 12-02-2009, 02:44 AM

It's happened to me... when I went and deleted my catalogs... I thought they were just old backups I didn't need anymore, but they contained my edits.

fletch · #7 (**permalink**) 12-02-2009, 10:16 AM

Its a stange one as Lightroom doesn't "save" in the traditional sense. Edits update a database (the catalogue) and therefore when they are written to the database the are already "saved". If LR crashes it shouldn't overwite any data already stored in the catalogue. Therefore when you restart the database still has all of your edits and knows where all of your files are.

It sounds to me like the database (catalogue) became corupted and therefore reverted to an earlier version, maybe a backup copy. This copy must have been created after you improted the photos in question but before you deleted any of the rejects. Therefore the catalogue still though the rejects were in the original folder. Infact those originals had been deleted from that location.

It is definately nothing to do with XMP sidecars, emptying the trash etc. Lightroom simply doesn't work that way.

Fishsarahg17 · #8 (**permalink**) 12-02-2009, 07:51 PM

I always import RAW files (RAW files go into LR and into my "My Pictures" folder in Windows. Then I edit them and then export the finished product as JPEG, then burn to disc for clients.

I know that this is probably not proper work flow, but it's all that I know how to do. I don't know anything about XMP files or why I should use them.

I had deleted the rejected pictures long ago, not while the LR was running and not during this session.

I also don't use the catelog portion of LR. I only make folders. I know I should be using catelogs but I don't really understand that part either.

As you can tell, I'm new to LR and am learning as I go.

I was hoping someone knew how I could have restored my edits?

Bluenoser · #9 (**permalink**) 12-02-2009, 09:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fishsarahg17

I always import RAW files (RAW files go into LR and into my "My Pictures" folder in Windows. Then I edit them and then export the finished product as JPEG, then burn to disc for clients.

I know that this is probably not proper work flow, but it's all that I know how to do. I don't know anything about XMP files or why I should use them.

I had deleted the rejected pictures long ago, not while the LR was running and not during this session.

I also don't use the catelog portion of LR. I only make folders. I know I should be using catelogs but I don't really understand that part either.

As you can tell, I'm new to LR and am learning as I go.

I was hoping someone knew how I could have restored my edits?

Sorry I can't help with your problem, but I can tell you that if you're using LR, then you're using a Catalog. All your folders are in one or more, depending on your setup.