Sub-folders Don't Copy

[Ollie]

I've filled a 3TB external drive so have just installed a larger one. I want to transfer the image files on the old drive to the new one. In LTR-4 I highlighted the main folder and about a dozen sub-folders, selected all images, and hit Export to the new drive. At first I did not check "Put in sub-folders", thinking that since I had highlighted them in the old drive on the left I did not need to. I clicked Add to this catalog and set File Settings at Original. The result was that all the images were transferred to the new EHD, but were all jumbled up in one folder; no sign of the sub-folders. So I deleted everything in the new EHD and did the process again, this time checking "Put in sub-folder." That seems to allow for naming only one sub-folder and since I had a dozen or so I left the field blank. Same result: everything transferred but all jumbled up together in a single folder. So I deleted everything again. My work-around was to copy and paste the main folder and its sub-folders directly from the old EHD to the new one, outside of LTR. Then I Imported the images in a batch back into LTR, after highlighting the main folder and the sub-folders. So I'm where I needed to be, but I don't understand why the original attempt to Export from the old drive to the new one did not maintain the sub-folder structure. And did I lose anything by transferring the files outside of LTR and then importing them? Can anyone shed any light on this?

Once my files are all in the new EHD--actually two new EHDs, one for backup--I'll install my upgrade to LTR-5, but I wanted to get the new, larger EHDs in place first.

Thanks for any help.

Ollie

 

[Mark Sirota]

You're making it more complicated than it needs to be. No need to export, you can just move the files from hard drive to the other.

There are two ways to do this, both pretty easy: outside Lightroom and inside Lightroom.

To do this outside Lightroom, just copy the folders from the old drive to the new one. Then tell Lightroom about the new copies by right-clicking the top-level folder in the Folders panel and choosing "Update Folder Location" from the context menu. Navigate to the new copy on the new drive. Once that's done, you can safely delete the copy on the old drive.

To do this inside Lightroom, first you'll need to tell Lightroom about the new drive by clicking the + at the top of the Folders panel, select "Add Folder..." from the context menu, and select (or create) a folder on the new drive. Now you can just drag and drop from the old drive to the new drive in the Folders panel. (This will copy to the new drive, then delete the copy on the old drive, all in one action.)

I prefer doing this outside Lightroom because I can use a more robust copying tool that verifies the new copy, but others may differ.

 

[Ollie]

Mark: Thanks for the suggestions. Essentially the "copy outside Lightroom" is what I did. Never did find a "Update Folder Location" menu option (maybe in LTR-5?) but I used the "add photos without moving location" after I had copied the files to the new EHD. Many thanks. Ollie

 

[Mark Sirota]

Mark: Thanks for the suggestions. Essentially the "copy outside Lightroom" is what I did. Never did find a "Update Folder Location" menu option (maybe in LTR-5?) but I used the "add photos without moving location" after I had copied the files to the new EHD. Many thanks. Ollie

No, that's not what you wanted. You re-imported. Re-importing is almost never the right answer to any Lightroom problem. By doing so you've lost some information about your files, like collection memberships, virtual copies, Develop history, and stacks. Did you import into your existing catalog, or into a new catalog?

I would recommend going back to the copy of the catalog before you did that, then follow my instructions a little more carefully. In the Library module, in the Folders panel, right-click on the top-level folder; that context menu is where you'll find Update Folder Location.