Lightroom :: Previews Are Corrupting Original Images?
Nov 8, 2013
It happened a couple months ago, but I thought it was a bug, and now it's happened again, and now it's corrupting my original files.
Here's what's happening, at least my actions thus far. Lightroom 4 worked fine and dandy. No issues whatsoever. We then upgraded to LR5.
Now, as I'm going in Library tab through images as it's seems to be pulling up an image it shows up with jagged edges and just looks -- corrupted. So then I look at the file in Finder and now that image can't be opened up in Photoshop, Preview or any other application. For some reason LR's previews are corrupting the ACTUAL, ORIGINAL images.
Now back a month ago, it happened when it wasn't a big deal, I had the RAW original files backed up, but now, now it's corrupted at least two folders and the original RAW files can't be opened. Here's the summary:
-- As for corrupt cameras/disks -- I have files from Hasselblaad and from Canon doing this. I have many different cards that were used in this.
-- It's only when I opened up in Lighroom 5. Otherwise files were fine. JPEG conversions that were made from these images weeks ago were fine.
-- It's happening to one out of every 5 pictures or so. Which is A LOT OF PICTURES TO BE CORRUPTED.
For the ones that I have backed up, now I have to go figure out which....rename them...etc. AND HOPE AND PRAY this doesn't happen again.
-- It says it can't open the file.
And then when I go to finder, through lightroom, to RAW image it doesn't work to even bring it in Photoshop.
SO it's corrupting my files so that Photoshop can't recognize them. NOT all photos are being affected, just the folders I go to in Lighroom. Any other files in lightroom (from same day/camera) are okay.
I'm using Lightroom 3 with the catalog on my macbook and original files on seagate firewire goflex external hardrive,
( has happened with 2 different firewire seagate hardrives) Lightroom has been corrupting some images (edits and some originals) randomly, which are then un-retrievable apart from my personal back ups.
I'm wondering if it's possible to create smart previews for images that were imported into the catalog in a prior version of LR. As my catalog continues to increase in size, I'm considering relocating my images to an external drive (currently on the hard drive). I'm obviously concerned about doing any unintended damage to the catalog and workflow.
After I've exported through LR 3 I am getting different tone qualities only with two different image viewing windows. The picture attached shows the example of the image on the left opened with Windows Photo Viewer is brighter red tie and bluer suit while the one on the right is opened with Microsoft Photo Editor is more darker red and purple suit. The one on the left is the correct image.
This is also happening when the photo is sent through an inventory management system we have. I am exporting with 600 x 1200 jpeg resize 72 dpi at sRGB, 100 quality, and jPeg mode in File settings.
LR 3.6 has serious limitations causing what should be an easy task hours to trouble shoot. Exporting original size JPEG images to DVD should be a no brainer but the application was not built to handle MS OS 7 64bit. Choice is to upgrade to LR v 4 but will it work?
I wish to create DNG files for my existing Lightroom catalogue, but also wishe to retain the original camera RAW images. If this can be done, how I go about it as I seem only to be able to find an option for conversion to DNG only.
by mistake I imported (moved) several AVI and MPEG videos into a specific folder that I inteded to use as backup for one of my relatives.
Problem is that my original folders, where I stored these videos, along with specific names regarding genre and/or subject were left intact, with nothing inside them.
I am trying to find a way to "revert" the import process and send those files back to where they belong.
Recently I have been asked for certain images taken in 2011.
When searching for them I have discovered that the original capture information has been "gone missing / become lost".
For clarity, the information I'm referring to is the ACTUAL capture date and time of the original image as appears in the raw file metadata.
This data no longer appears on ANY of the subsequent version of any image taken in that year whether PSD or Jpeg.From checks already carried out, the data remains on the original RAW files.
All other years are OK.How can I transfer the date & time of the original image capture from the raw file to subsequents copies (PSD / Jpegs etc)? As literally hundreds of images are involved, is there a bulk routine that I can perform to synchronise this data?
Here's what the corruption looks like in my Library view. Note that all of the photos are the same. I just rapid-fired a bunch of shots down the hallway to test this out.
I first noticed the corruption on the PC, pulling photos from the 32GB card. I bought a new hard drive (SSD hybrid), installed a clean version of Windows 7, and upgraded to Lightroom 5, then the 5.3 update. I re-downloaded some photos from the 32GB card, and they still show up corrupted. So here is my further testing:
I shot a series of photos like shown above on the 32GB card, downloaded them on the laptop with a new USB cable. The photos look good.I shot a series of photos on the 4GB card, downloaded them to the laptop with the same cord, they look good.I imported the same photos photos from the 4GB card and from the 32GB card on the PC with my existing Lighrtoom Catalog and they are corrupted.I created a new Lightroom Catalog on the PC and downloaded the same photos from the 4GB card and from the 32GB card on the PC and they are corrupted.I think we can rule out corruption or issues on the hard drive, the OS, the USB cable, and both of the CF cards. It baffles me that a new HD, clean OS install, new catalog, new USB cable, and upgraded Lightroom haven't solved the problem. Is it possible that there is some other part of the hardware on my PC which is corrupting the files?
I have done but I am using lightroom 1.4. Previously, any pictures I edited would show as an edited file in the library now all that happens is the original image shows as the edited image.
I have exported some files and reimported them into a new catalog. LR either will not let me export the.tiles- saying they are unsupported or if they do export they are damaged.
if I export the files as a new catalog they are fine.
when I check the exported files in windows explorer they have lines going through them.
I am working on my laptop Win 7 64 bit using Toschiba esata external drive.
this is not happening on my desktop just my laptop
I bought an A7R in November and I awaited 5.3 to support the camera, so basically I have both the software and camera new.However, on certain photos on import the files become corrupt in Lightroom with long straight horizontal lines going through the image.
Only random files, off any SD card. I have recently had a new hard drive so it can't be that plus ive used two different SD readers. I have also reinstalled Lightroom.
They open fine in PS and save down as TIFF's just fine, so I'm really at a loss now.
I think the next step is to try on my work laptop with Lightroom installed from creative cloud to see if the same files corrupt on.
1. Workflow is in lightroom version 4.1 Photoshop CS5.5 is used when necessary as secondary workflow 2. Import works fine. "preview thumbnails" appear normal. When I CLICK on the next image it will suddenly do this ^ to the file 3. I have tried taking that EXACT file and running it through Adobe DNG converter but it comes out looking exactly like this... so it seems that lightroom is actually corrupting the file 4. I have a copy of all my raw files on another drive so I can grab those files and they do not have this problem
I have just installed Lightroom 3 - on PC laptop - and imported some images from the Picture Folder on the OS drive.Everything seems to be fine except (and its a major except) there are absolutely no thumbnails or previews of these pictures appearing in Lightroom to work on. I have tried this with a few different file formats.
In LR 4, you should skip the previews and just start playing a slideshow (it would render as it played). It looks like that's been removed in LR5? How can I restore the LR4 functionality?
I have about 20 gigs of previews on my hard drive, yet have LR set up to delete the 1:1 previews after 1 day. How to force LR to get rid of all these previews and free up the 20 gigs of hard drive space?
Facts - MacPro with 16gb ram and latest OS X. When i import images 1:1 previews are generated. My preferences file says to never get rid of 1:1's and I have a 90gb cache file. Using 2 - 24" monitors.
Question:Grid view in one display and the other shows loupe view. When click on loupe view on second monitor to go to 1:1 it can take 15 seconds (D800 files) for the 1:1 loupe view to show. What is weird is that if I go to an image in grid (second monitor off) and go to the menus and build a 1:1 preview then when I open loupe on the second miniotr and go to 1:1 it is immediate with no waiting.
Added later Have instructed LR to build 1:1 previews on a group of files. After doing this the 1:1 loupe view is immediate. For those images that were not yet rendered took time to show 1:1 in loupe.
I rerally do not understand how this is happening since 1:1s were rendered at import. Evbidently the import 1:1s have been removed - but why?
I just switched from a PC (XP) to an iMac (Lion), and have gotten all of the pictures and catalog moved over. HOwever, none of the previews show. When I go to develop mode, picture opens, preview generated: But, when I then switch to another file, the preview seems to disappear and has to be regenerated each time.
Is it possible to make preview photos that have the exclamation mark ( ! ) top right - into low res jpegs? I seem to have accidently deleted the RAW files before exporting.. not sure how this happened as I don't recall doing it. They are not on my external hard drive and sadly not on my memory card either.
I have pictures on an external hard drive that are imported into my catalog. One folder ( out of many) when called up do not show previews when in Library. If I choose develop, the pictures appears and so does the preview. When I try to backup , I get an error message that my preview cache is having a problem. All other folders have good previews.
I just installed LR 5 and find all the previews grayed out. In grid view I see only placeholders and metadata, no images. Also the navigator window is blank. When I go to develop-mode the image stays invisible, until I enter the cropping mode. Only then the image becomes visible, but after exiting this tool it is gray again. Removed LR and installed again, same issue.
Tuesday night, I was working on a senior photo session. Everything was working perfectly fine. I decided to export the 2013 sessions to a new catalog. Everything still looking great. No issues.
Some potentially important info: I was using two monitors: a pro-level Viewsonic LED backlit 24" calibrated monitor and my laptop monitor. I was working with the Nvidia driver to calibrate the laptop monitor to be "close" to the pro monitor. I was able to get there using the Nvidia controls (versus the defaults). Then the Nvidia auto-updater prompted me to update my video driver that same night. I let it do its thing. Everything appeared to be fine with it and I was still able to work with LR5 no problems.
I had to take a break for a few hours. So, I closed LR5 and came back later to work on more images. When I pulled up the new 2013 catalog, all the image previews (thumbnail and large) were gone. The physical images were still on the drive, but I couldn't see them to edit nor preview them no matter what module I chose. I selected various images I'd just worked on and went to the Develop module - no dice. The preview was not working nor any thumbnail previews.
So I did some troubleshooting. I deleted the LR5 prefs file and let it recreate the file. Still nothing. Same behavior. I went to uninstall LR5 thinking I'd just reset the whole shebang, and noticed that I had LR5 and LR5CC installed (apparently CC didn't uninstall the single license version). So I uninstalled both LR5 installations. I rebooted and reinstalled from CC.
...still nothing... same behavior.
I uninstalled it again (since it's unusable) and installed Bridge CC. Voila! The images are all there and I can work with them in ACR, etc. No issues at all.
This leads me to believe that something got messed up with LR5's configuration with previews. I believe I did have Smart Previews enabled.
So now that you have all that info and backdrop: What should I do to get LR5 back to normal so I can keep working on these paying gigs? If i can understand what caused the break, I'll avoid doing that from now on.
I've seen this topic on the threads, but mostly for previous versions. I have LR4, and my previews load so slowly. How can I speed them up? Bridge handles the previews so fast and it is so much nicer going through with that program, but I'd like to move my workflow to LR4 solely. But hard to with the preview handling being so much slower.
