Your questions beg more questions in search of an answer .. On Aug 24, 2013, at 4:53 AM, Eric Weir <[email protected]> wrote:
> When I attempt to adjust either white balance or exposure under Library/Quick > Develop a "loading" image with spinning wheel displays and the wheel just > keeps spinning. What's going on? What OS are you running Lightroom on? What version of Lightroom are you using? How much RAM do you have installed? How much FREE disk space is available on the volume where your Lightroom catalog folder is located? How much FREE disk space is available on the startup volume for your system, if that is different? How is the volume that your Lightroom catalog folder is located on connected to the system if it is not the startup drive? How many photos are in your Lightroom catalog? Have you used the command to build 1:1 previews for the photos you are working on? Are the photos digital captures or scanned film images? That's the sort of information that makes answering questions that this a bit easier. But it might not be needed in this instance. > I've determined that a backup catalog is loaded. But when I load the standard > catalog---other than backups I have only one---several of my most recent > folders are missing. How do I make this backup catalog my catalog? > And is the fact that the catalog that is loaded is a backup the reason for > the "loading" message that just hangs? How did you determine that you have a backup catalog loaded? If you are running from a backup catalog, and your "standard" catalog is missing the recent folders you imported, then somehow you chose a different catalog from the "standard" for your recent imports. Some context to make things clearer: A Lightroom catalog folder, at minimum, contains a .LRCAT file and a .LRDATA file/folder. The .LRCAT file is the catalog database file that Lightroom stores information about the image files into. The .LRDATA file/folder* contains the various previews and thumbnails that Lightroom uses to display the image files with in the several different modes and sizings that are needed. * I call it a "file/folder" because on OS X it is presented by the Finder as a single icon whereas on Windows it is presented as a file directory—it's actually the same thing on both, but OS X has the concept of 'bundling' file directories that users should not work inside of directly into single icons to help keep things from getting inadvertently messed up. A Lightroom catalog folder also often includes by default a Backups directory where it writes copies of the .LRCAT file when it does a backup operation. It puts this directory inside the catalog folder by default since it cannot know where else it ought to be until you tell it. Normally, the first time Lightroom comes up with the backup dialog, you should tell it right there to put the Backups directory somewhere else, typically on a volume located on a separate hard drive, to minimize the risks of loss. There can be other folders and files in a Lightroom catalog folder, but that's enough for now. When Lightroom makes a backup, it is important to understand that what a Lightroom backup consists of is a copy of the current .LRCAT file stored in a new subdirectory, named by date, created inside the designated Backups directory. It does not copy the .LRDATA file/folder, nor does it copy the original image files. So: If you are actually using a backup catalog, what's happening is that when you go to edit, Lightroom sees that the .LRDATA preview data for your image files is incomplete. If you're in the Library module and using Quick Develop, you can have selected one or many images from the currently available set that it will need to apply the edits to, so it need to update the previews for all the images in the currently chosen set if they are not complete. That's how you get the "loading" image that spins and spins as it works to traverse all the currently available images and create all the many different previews and versions needed to do its job. If you're on a slowish computer with limited RAM or limited disk space, this can take quite a while to complete. To set Lightroom to ALWAYS open with a specific catalog, open Lightroom Preferences, General tab, and use the "When starting up use this catalog" item's popup menu to select the catalog you want it to use. (You have two dynamic choices - "open with the last catalog that was being used" or "present me with a selection dialog" - and then a list of recently opened catalogs specified by path name.) To set where to put the Backups folder, open the Catalog Settings dialog and set Lightroom to "Backup on next exit". From the backup dialog, you can choose where to put your backups by clicking the "choose" button. Hope that helps.™ Godfrey -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
