How to Restore Photos from a Backup Catalog in Lightroom

This guide will give you the easiest ways to restore photos from a backup Lightroom catalog.

I’ve been using Adobe Lightroom for many years, and I often need to restore photos.

Knowing how to restore photos from a backup catalog ensures you won’t lose your images.

Let’s dive into the tutorial.

How to Restore Photos from a Backup Catalog in Lightroom

One of the most tragic things that can happen to a photographer is losing their prized photos.

It’s a tragic day when you realize Lightroom has crashed or your laptop has disappeared.

When this happens, you’ll have lost all your photos and your Lightroom edits.

No one would wish this on their worst enemy.

However, if you’ve been a smart cookie, you will have created a backup catalog of your work.

It may not be up to date with all your edits, but if you’re lucky, it will have the majority of your work stored safely.

No need to fret; all you have to do is restore photos from your backup Lightroom catalog.

Step 1 – Locate Your Photos and Backup Catalog’s Location

In the event of a pending catastrophe, you have made a backup of your Lightroom catalog.

The backup Lightroom catalog will contain your most recent edits, so you won’t lose your hours of hard work.

If or when disaster has actually struck and your Lightroom catalog has been destroyed, you are equipped and ready.

The first step to restoring your Lightroom catalog is to locate the backup.

If you can’t remember where you stored it, you can search your device or hard drive using the extension .lrcat.

• More: How to Protect Your Photos from Natural Disasters

Step 2 – Open the Backup Catalog

When you have located the folder where your Lightroom catalog is stored, open it up.

Sometimes, Lightroom creates duplicate backup catalogs, so it’s possible there will be more than one backup catalog in the folder.

Check each of the catalog’s metadata to see when they were saved – you want to open the most recent version.

The most recently saved catalog will have the most up-to-date edits.

To open the catalog, double-click its icon.

The catalog will now open in Lightroom.

Step 3 – Relink the Thumbnails

When the images are opened in Lightroom’s Library, you will notice that there’s an exclamation mark in the top right-hand corner of each thumbnail.

This indicates that Lightroom is not linked to the photo files; it has forgotten where they are located.

To relink Lightroom to the photos, head to the left-hand panel and click on the arrow beside Folders.

The Folders panel will open and locate the folder where you stored your photos.

Click Control (for Macs) or right-click (for Windows). A drop-down menu will appear; select Find Missing Folder.

A browser window will open. Navigate to the photos folder, select it, and hit Choose.

Lightroom will automatically link the thumbnails to the original photos.

• More: How to Organize Photos More Efficiently in Lightroom

You will be able to see when a photo is relinked, as its thumbnail will no longer have an exclamation mark.

Now, if you click on any photo, you can open it in Lightroom’s Develop module and continue developing it.

If you also lost your photo folder, you can use the same method to link Lightroom to a backup photo folder (you made a backup folder of your photos, didn’t you?).

The backup folder does not need to have the same name as the original folder.

The new folder will replace the old folder and Lightroom will discern which photo links to which thumbnail.

If you have more than one photo folder, you can repeat the process with each folder.

As I am sure you’re aware, it’s ultra important to keep a backup of your catalog and photos, update it regularly, and know where it’s stored.

We hope you’ve been able to use this tutorial to put all your photos back on your device, safe, sound, and ready to be edited.

If you enjoyed this tutorial, you will want to check out – Soft Proofing in Lightroom, Photoshop, and Other Software.

FAQs

How do I restore a Lightroom catalog from backup?

To restore a Lightroom catalog from its backup file, you will first need to locate it.

When located, unzip the catalog’s backup folder.

Once unzipped, head to the main menu bar and select File > Open Catalog.

Now, navigate to the backup file, select it, and open it.

What is backed up when you create a backup of your library catalog Lightroom?

The backup catalog contains all the catalog metadata information.

This includes the time and location the photos were taken, keywords, and their location on your computer.

The backup also contains the camera settings and all the Lightroom edits at the time of backup.

What are Lightroom backup files?

Lightroom saves backup files to protect your files. Normally, backup files are saved on your computer.

How do I rebuild my Lightroom Classic Catalog?

Rebuilding your Lightroom Classic catalog depends on whether you have a backup file saved.

If you have a backup file of the Lightroom Classic catalog saved, you can open it in Lightroom.

To do this, head to the main menu bar and select File > Open Catalog.

Then, locate and import your catalog.