How can I recover JPEG previews from a Lightroom 2 catalog after losing the original drive?
Asked 1/17/2011
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I’m using Lightroom 2 on macOS. My catalog and preview cache are on my local hard drive, but the original photos were stored on an external drive that I’ve lost. Is there an easy way to extract the preview images from the local Lightroom catalog/previews cache so I can at least recover those JPEGs?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
5
For Lightroom2, consider using Jeffrey Friedl's “Extract Cached Image Previews” to do just that (works on any platform LR2 runs on, i.e. Mac, PC).
My “Preview Extraction” plugin for Lightroom 2 allows you to extract JPG preview images from a catalog's image cache. This might be of use if you have lost the original master images, or don't have them at hand.
It also seems that FastPictureViewer (PC only) supports that preview format (e.g. all your .lrprev files in your "Lightroom 2 Catalog Previews.lrdata" directory).
This codec if part of v2.4.0.3 and let users browse the Lightroom preview cache (*Previews.lrdata) directly from Windows Explorer. Windows 7 and Vista users can also open LR previews directly in Photo Viewer or Photo Gallery. The codec was tested with LR2 and LR3 preview files.
For Lightroom3, consider using Marc Rochkind's LRViewer (Mac, PC).
Originally by user1273. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1273
15y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes. If your Lightroom 2 catalog still has its preview cache, you can extract the cached JPEG previews even if the original files are gone.
The main option mentioned is Jeffrey Friedl’s Lightroom 2 plugin, “Extract Cached Image Previews” (also referred to as a preview extraction plugin). It is designed to pull JPG preview images from Lightroom’s image cache and works on platforms Lightroom 2 supports, including macOS.
Look for your preview cache folder, typically named something like:
Lightroom 2 Catalog Previews.lrdata
That cache contains the rendered previews Lightroom generated earlier. The extracted files will only be the preview versions, not your original raw files, so quality and resolution depend on what preview sizes Lightroom had built.
One answer also mentions FastPictureViewer support for browsing Lightroom preview caches, but that is PC/Windows-oriented, so for macOS the Lightroom plugin is the relevant route.
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