Catalog Backup

[MPRamsey]

Using Lightroom 3.6, I have my Catalog Backup set to occur on a weekly basis and backups have been successful in the past. Yesterday was the Day so when I exited Lightroom, it prompted me to perform the Backup so I initiated it. After 5 minutes, the status bar showed 85% complete. After 3 hours it had still not completed...still showing about 85% complete. I selected cancel of which the status bar changed to show it was Cancelling. After 8 hours of restful sleep, I returned only to find it was still Cancelling. I had to End the Application (Windows XP SP3). I did not attempt to restart Lightroom and only hope that there will be no problems when I do.

Has anyone else experienced the hang-up of the Lightroom Catalog Backup? Can you share your experience and and more importantly, why this occurs and how to resolve it so it won't happen again?

Thanks,
Michael
Love basketball? Check out my galleries at www.MichaelRamseyPhotography.com

 

[Jim Wilde]

I haven't personally experienced this, nor do I recall it being mentioned by others.

My immediate thought is a drive problem....is the destination drive for the catalog backup an internal or external drive? If the latter, have you checked that access is still OK? Have you rebooted the PC since the problem....it would be a good idea.

At some point you're going to have to bite the bullet and open the catalog in Lightroom.....suggest you do that and let us know how it goes.

 

[MPRamsey]

Thanks Jim for the response. I checked my internal backup drive and it is functioning properly and has plenty of space for the Catalog Backup. I did so without rebooting the PC. I then started Lightroom and after what appeared to be some sort of status window flash (about the blink of an eye) Lightroom opened to the place I was prior to closing it last time. I ran through a few checks and everything seemed to be in order. After about 1 hour of use, I configured it to perform the backup the next time it closed then exited. The backup began and after about 1-2 minutes, it exited normally. So all seems well.

If it occurs again, I'll be back here to document it. Any suggestions on the steps to take if this were to occur again?
Michael

 

[Jim Wilde]

Glad it was OK, but not really got much in the way of ideas if it happens again. Trouble-shooting a very intermittent problem is always a pain. Obviously, if it does happen then start the Task Manager and see if there are any obvious issues (such as consistently high CPU activity)....though I'd tend towards there being NO activity as Lightroom is probably waiting for something. Oddly enough you stand much more chance of finding the culprit if the issue starts happening more frequently, as then you could start looking for a pattern, e.g. the same USB device always connected when the problem happens.

Sorry I can't be more help...

 

[MPRamsey]

Well, I'm back to report another instance of a failed weekly catalog backup. I experienced the same thing as described in my original post with one exception. After setting at 85% complete for only about 1 hour, I "Ended the Application". I checked some backup catalog file dates and times and they all had a date/time of about 5 minutes after I started the backup. I restarted LR, did a few sanity checks and all seems to be in order. I fear the day it isn't.

Mike

 

[clee01l]

Mike, I think I might have had this same experience once or twice on Win7-64. I'm not sure what the problem might be that triggers it. I do not recall there being an issue when I forced a new backup after the first one failed. All LR is doing is a straight file copy which could be done using the OS file functions manually. However, LR does more than backup. It tests the integrity of the database. that is it makes sure there are no orphan rows in each table in the database and the the relationships between the tables are sound. The other thing that it does is optimize the catalog database. When ever rows are deleted in catalog tables the extra space is not freed so the fille actually stays the same size. Optimization, actually compacts the database and make the overall file smaller and more efficient to read and write. It is these two operations that I expect are causing the problem.

By doing backps once a week, you have decided that you are willing to redo any imports and any metadata and development effort for the interval between backups. As long as you are aware of the risks Once a week backup is fine. I also do once a week backups. Sometimes however during that interval I will make a significant number of changes (Keywords, Post processing and Publish services) The is not harm in going into settings and changing the backup frequency to "The next time Lightroom Closes" You get an immediate backup on close and the next time LR opens ithe backup frequency is back to once a week.