adding missing photos to LR 6.9

[bobbabe]

Lightroom Version Number

LR 6.9

Operating System

1. macOS 10.14 Mojave

I have, I think, located a good number of missing photos, but they are in Apple's "Photos Library". In LR 6.9 I have all photos organized by date, for example 2006-03-21, But in Photo Library (iPhoto) i had the pix organized without much Id other than what camera applied and the date form as June 7,2006 and the time 17:22:58. I believe thats why LR cant locate these photos. SO, my question here is si there a way to change the dates to allow LR to locate the missing phots that may be in the Photo app? Of so, LR locate those images in the future if they are still indeed on my hard drive?

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Apple’s Photos Library is a package (a special kind of folder that behaves like a file) that is not accessible to Lightroom. You need to stop using both apps, because they do not work well together and because they kind of do the same thing, but in a non-compatible way. Lightroom edits will not show in Photos, and vice versa. So choose which app you continue to use, and abandon the other.

If you want to use these photos in Lightroom, you will have to move them out of Photos.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

To add a little more to Johan's answer, if you export the photos from Photos app as "original format" and put them in normal folders, then you can tell Lightroom where to find them.

 

[bobbabe]

Apple’s Photos Library is a package (a special kind of folder that behaves like a file) that is not accessible to Lightroom. You need to stop using both apps, because they do not work well together and because they kind of do the same thing, but in a non-compatible way. Lightroom edits will not show in Photos, and vice versa. So choose which app you continue to use, and abandon the other.

If you want to use these photos in Lightroom, you will have to move them out of Photos.

To add a little more to Johan's answer, if you export the photos from Photos app as "original format" and put them in normal folders, then you can tell Lightroom where to find them.

I think I"ll have to do some organizing here first. Perhaps keep my wife's photos on the Photo app and mine on Lightroom. (Yes I know they're not ON Lightroom but LR points to them, as does the Photo app. From now on create a folder for my future photos and, if I understand correctly, direct LR to look there as the target for my photos. Is that correct? If so, where wold you recommend leaving that folder. In the pictures file?[/QUOTE]

 

[Johan Elzenga]

The Apple Photos app can store the original photos either inside the library package or outside. From what you described, the photos seemed to be stored inside the package and that means Lightroom can’t see them. If the photos are moved outside the package, Lightroom can also see them and work with them. It would still not be a good workflow and prone to errors, but at least you can use that for the time being. The location of the folder with the images is irrelevant, as long as you do not try to save them outside of your User environment (so ‘Pictures’ is fine, but not the root of Macintosh HD, for example).

 

[bobbabe]

The Apple Photos app can store the original photos either inside the library package or outside. From what you described, the photos seemed to be stored inside the package and that means Lightroom can’t see them. If the photos are moved outside the package, Lightroom can also see them and work with them. It would still not be a good workflow and prone to errors, but at least you can use that for the time being. The location of the folder with the images is irrelevant, as long as you do not try to save them outside of your User environment (so ‘Pictures’ is fine, but not the root of Macintosh HD, for example).

I don't edit anything within Photos . Thats just where they go when importing from the memory card and , in the absence of any other type of image software such as LIghtroom, where they are stored. My next question then is how and where would one move "Photos" so LR can access them to find missing images? Thank you so much for your reply. It explains a lot.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

I don't edit anything within Photos . Thats just where they go when importing from the memory card and , in the absence of any other type of image software such as LIghtroom, where they are stored. My next question then is how and where would one move "Photos" so LR can access them to find missing images? Thank you so much for your reply. It explains a lot.

They don't have to go there, that is up to you. Even if the absence of other software you don't have to use Apple Photos. You could simply copy the images from the memory card to a location on your hard disk manually by using the Finder, just like you would copy any other type of file from one disk to another. You will have to turn off Apple Photos. When the camera/memory card is connected, start Image Capture. Choose the memory card in the left panel, and either choose 'No application' or 'Lightroom Classic' at the bottom instead of Apple Photos.

You can move the current images out of the Photos library by right-clicking on it, and then choosing 'Show Package Contents'. That will open the library like a folder, and give you the chance to find the subfolder with the images and move that outside the package.

 

[bobbabe]

The Apple Photos app can store the original photos either inside the library package or outside. From what you described, the photos seemed to be stored inside the package and that means Lightroom can’t see them. If the photos are moved outside the package, Lightroom can also see them and work with them. It would still not be a good workflow and prone to errors, but at least you can use that for the time being. The location of the folder with the images is irrelevant, as long as you do not try to save them outside of your User environment (so ‘Pictures’ is fine, but not the root of Macintosh HD, for example).

 

[bobbabe]

Such valuable information. I called Apple support to see if they had any information as to why I was not able to see the
"Photos" folder when locating missing photos from LR. They didn't offer anything other than telling me I had to talk to Adobe, as LR is not an Apple product. Thank you again.

 

[clee01l]

Such valuable information. I called Apple support to see if they had any information as to why I was not able to see the
"Photos" folder when locating missing photos from LR. They didn't offer anything other than telling me I had to talk to Adobe, as LR is not an Apple product. Thank you again.

The Photos app create a package of folders and subfolders. In MacOS, the contents of "Packages" are not normally visible to you OR the Lightroom app. Locate your Photos Library in your Pictures folder.
Rightclick on the iPhoto Library and choose "Show Package Contents" to expose the folders inside. Search for a folder called "Masters" and open it. Drill Down to the lowest level folder and you will see the image files contained inside. Copy the "Masters" folder and it contents to a location outside of "iPhoto Library" Now these copied image files will be visible to the Lightroom Import process.

‎⁨Macintosh HD⁩ / ⁨Users⁩ / ⁨{YourUserID}⁩ / ⁨Pictures⁩ / ⁨iPhoto Library⁩ / ⁨Masters⁩ / ⁨2015⁩ / ⁨03⁩ / ⁨17/⁩
(FWIW I'm not sure if the exact name of the Photos library package above is correct as I have removed all vestiges of the Photos app from my computer since I manage all photos in LR)

This has nothing to do with Lightroom and everything to do with how Apple hides your original photos from access by other photo apps.

 

[LexS]

Photos are inside in the Photos app ! If you delete one it is deleted without going into the Trash bin.
They are not available in the Finder because they are not there. You can send them to a another app, like Preview, there you can open Print, then select PDF in the printer page on the left bottom and select either save it as jpg or tif in a folder:
This when in Preview: