Thanks for your kind assistance!
I went down the easy road and reinstalled the whole thing, et voilá: database is, where it's supposed to be and the everything seems to work nicely.
Yes, windows.
I can't find this database anywhere on my computer - so my guess is, that it's accidentally just stored somewhere temporarily and is deleted when the pc has been switched off for some time.
Good morning! I installed xnviewMP this spring in order to manage a vast collection of pictures. I was surprised how quickly the labelling and categorizing went. Then other things were more important, and when I went back to carry on organizing to my disappointment all the categories had vanished ...