Today’s Question: You mentioned that in some cases it might be easier to start with a new catalog in Lightroom Classic rather than restoring a very old backup. How would you go about starting over with a new catalog?
Tim’s Quick Answer: While I suggest at least attempting to write metadata changes to existing images first, starting fresh with a new catalog in Lightroom Classic is as easy as creating a new catalog and then importing all existing images into that catalog.
More Detail: Starting over in Lightroom Classic with a new catalog provides an option to overcome problems affecting your existing catalog, such as missing folders and photos, metadata mismatches, and more. However, it is important to keep in mind that starting over will cause you to lose certain metadata and updates related to your images.
For example, you will definitely lose information related to features only supported by the Lightroom Classic catalog. That includes collections, virtual copies, and stacks, for example. If you had not previously enabled the option to save metadata to the source image files, you would also lose other metadata updates such as keywords and star ratings.
Therefore, if you decide to start over with a new catalog, I recommend first saving metadata to the source images. This won’t update source images that are currently missing, but it will at least help maximize the preservation of metadata updates. You can save metadata for available images by selecting all images in the All Photographs collection in the Catalog section of the left panel in the Library module and then choosing Metadata > Save Metadata to Files from the menu.
You can then create a new catalog by choosing File > New Catalog from the menu. Then click the Import button at the bottom of the left panel, select the source hard drive or folder where all photos are stored, and make sure the “Include Subfolders” checkbox is turned on. Select the “Add” option at the top-center. I recommend turning off the “Don’t Import Suspected Duplicates” checkbox to ensure all photos get imported (and you can later delete duplicates that are discovered, of course). Adjust any other preferred settings on the right panel and click the Import button at the bottom-right of the dialog to initiate the import of all images into your new catalog.
