Automatically reorganizing folders/pictures?

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crusius

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Hi all, first post here.

Here's my problem: I have thousands of pictures (from the days before Lightroom) organized in folders named like "digital''''1", "digital''''2", and so on.

After I started using Lightroom, the default import has pictures organized by date, and that's how they stand right now. So I have pictures in the catalog that are not consistently organized in folders. This makes finding them a mess in other programs like BibbleLite.

I'd like to reorganize everything so that the folder structure looks like "2''8-1'", "2''8-11", and so on. And I'd expect that this is a task that Lightroom should be able/required to do.

I have searched and searched but found no answer. Isn't Lightroom capable of helping me organize my folders? All I found were ways to do it manually, but for people with thousands of pictures (like me and I suppose almost everybody else) this is practically impossible. Is there a way?

Best,

- Cesar
 
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Cesar, welcome. First of all, o help us help you could you please take a moment to fill in your signature in the "userCP' that is found at the top left of the page - thanks.
You can do what you want but it will require your input as you have probably guessed.
As LR keeps track of files by reference (there are no image files in LR except VC's) they need to be moved at an OS level.
Now this can be done within LR and is best done that way.
You can create the folder structure as you go in LR. You would be best to sort your files by capture date and then you can move files of the same date into date named folders easily.
Yes it will take some time but it will be worth the effort in the long term.
I know, I chose to do the exact same thing and now my files are easy to find and manage.
Collections and keywords then come into play for grouping files together that are in different dated folders.
My structure is:
2''8
>2''9-11
>>2''8-11-23 Juno Olives
>>2''8-11-23 Flowers (I mostly put a brief description on the bottom level name)
There may often be several folders for the same day for differing jobs.
Hope that helps.
 
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Thanks Geoff,

Yes, I understand I can do that, as I've seen similar suggestions before. But it really strikes me as a complete failure of Lightroom in this regard: isn't it supposed to help people organize thousands of pictures? Well, one of the obvious tasks in that role is to organize (and re-organize) them into folders.

I'm glad you like what you ended up with, but if you change your mind later on you will have to go through the same big amount of work, when Lightroom could easily do it for you. This is the main reason I haven't yet upgraded to LR2: because it still fails this basic task. (This and the lack of read-only access to catalogs.)
 
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crusius said:
Thanks Geoff,

Yes, I understand I can do that, as I've seen similar suggestions before. But it really strikes me as a complete failure of Lightroom in this regard: isn't it supposed to help people organize thousands of pictures? Well, one of the obvious tasks in that role is to organize (and re-organize) them into folders.

I'm glad you like what you ended up with, but if you change your mind later on you will have to go through the same big amount of work, when Lightroom could easily do it for you. This is the main reason I haven't yet upgraded to LR2: because it still fails this basic task. (This and the lack of read-only access to catalogs.)
Click to expand...

I'm sorry you're are disappointed, however can you tell me how LR could organise files into places only you can define?
Do you know of any application or OS that can do this?

LR does a wonderful job or organising my files how I want now that I have create a structure into which LR can place and track them.
 
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The EASIEST way I can see is to:
1) Select 'All Photographs' from the Library
2) Save Metadata to Files for all photos (generating xmp's if not already there for RAWs
3) Make sure you have a backup (or two) of your photos and catalog
4) Have enough drive space for a new copy of all your folders
5) Start a new catalog
6) Import all of your existing files/folders to a New Location (the aforementioned hard drive space) using one of the date-organized templates.

To my mind this would be one of the least "manual" methods, although it would be very time consuming (on LR's part) and would require a lot of waiting for it to churn away in the background on your part.

I'd personally NEVER (again) let a program automatically organize my files on disk to what it thinks is the best method. I let iTunes do that to my mp3s when I installed it and it destroyed my filing system for music (AND renamed ALL of my files :x). It promptly got uninstalled and I shall never use iTunes again (I don't have an iPod BTW). Having a program do that would be like having a person come through and organize your house... sure, everything might be neat and tidy, but you'll probably not be able to find what you want.
 
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LOL Jason, yeah, I remember the first time iTunes did that to my files too. You know you can turn that off in Preferences, right?

If you want automation, Jason's suggestion is as close as you'll get. Just be aware that xmp doesn't hold absolutely everything - Flags, virtual copies, collection membership, Develop history, stacks, Develop module panel switches and image pan positions are not stored in the XMP, so would be missing in the newly reorganized catalog. Whether that's a problem for you, only you can decide.

Other than that, it's down to manually tidying up as Brad suggested. More time-consuming, but also more control.

Ideally you'd set up your filing system when you first start using LR, but a lot of people don't think of that, so I'd agree, a 'reorganize my files for me' option would be useful. Put in a feature request explaining why you'd want it! Official Feature Request/Bug Report Form
 
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Victoria Bampton said:
LOL Jason, yeah, I remember the first time iTunes did that to my files too. You know you can turn that off in Preferences, right?
Click to expand...

I didn't at the time... but you know what they say about first impressions. If that's the way you want to program your defaults, then I don't want your software! :lol:
 
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Cesar.

Yes, it does fail at that, principally because the only arrangements it has for creating folders are during import. While it can perform token based renaming for previously imported images, it can't handle, the automated token based folder creation.

How are your images organized now? (digital 1, digital 2, doesn't completely explain it)

If they're correctly tagged with metadata, Lr will be able to create the date based structure you've suggested. Altho' any folder based organization you've created in your current strategy will be lost.


Read-only access to a catalog can be achieved with Marc Rochkind's Lr/Viewer,
here.
 
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One example: "Reorganize catalog folders" with a drop down just like "Import". If, for example, one has been importing into folders that use one certain date scheme and later regrets it, Lightroom should be able to re-organize the folders (and the pictures within) using another date scheme. Such a situation should not be that uncommon.

I, for example, have pictures I imported in their original folders, but would like Lightroom to help me move them around into "date folders." I don't want to import them again because I'd lose the edits and such. Moreover, the date scheme I chose for new imports turns out to be not what I really wanted, but now I'm stuck with thousands of pictures in those folders, some with heavy editing. Moving them around from within Lightroom would be an exercise in frustration and waste of time, especially knowing that Lightroom could do that automatically for me.

In any case, it is rather simple: right now Lightroom organizes pictures in folders automatically only on import. It should be able to re-organize the folders after import if the user feels like it.

As applications that do it, well, I hope Lightroom would be one of them :) ! I can surely write a script that would do it using metadata, but what about Lightroom edits and such? It seems besides the point, though, because it really looks like a job Lightroom should perform for me. It does on import, but refuses to do so after that.

Cheers,
 
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Sure, but unfortunately the only way to do that in Lightroom currently is to re-import everything.

So my recommendation would be to create a new catalog, and in that catalog do an "Import from Catalog" to import from the old catalog. In the Import dialog, you'll have the opportunity to "copy to a new location", and there you can choose a date structure.
 
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Thanks Mark, that's a good idea. I've been keeping a separate catalog synchronized with that feature (it's the "read-only" catalog equivalent of the main one), but for some reason it never occurred to me I could copy the pictures into a new structure instead of just referencing the ones on the other catalog :oops:
 
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Mark Sirota said:
So my recommendation would be to create a new catalog, and in that catalog do an "Import from Catalog" to import from the old catalog. In the Import dialog, you'll have the opportunity to "copy to a new location", and there you can choose a date structure.
Click to expand...

Mark, am I misunderstanding what you're saying, or am I missing something obvious, because when I look at the Import from Catalog dialog box, there is a 'copy to a new location' option, but it copies in the existing hierarchy, and there isn't an option to choose a date structure.
 
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Caught red-handed, apparently -- I recommended that without actually trying it, and assumed it worked just like the "copy to a new location" in the Import dialog.

Sorry, Cesar!

Okay, Plan B: Write out the XMP data for everything, then create a new catalog, and Import into it.

Unfortunately, this approach will lose collection membership and all the other stuff not stored in XMP.

And I'd suggest Plan C as well: Submit a feature request.
 
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Oh phew, I thought I was losing it completely! I remember thinking, when I was writing that section of the book, that it would be really useful to be able to import from a catalog into a new structure, so the more feature requests the better!
 
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Related Topic

I have Adobe Lightroom 1.' on an old computer and have modified photos somewhat; but mostly rated the pictures with stars and colors, and added filtering keywords. My understanding is that the original photos (raw, jpeg, etc...) reside in their original locations and all the information and scripts (metadata) reside in the Lightroom Catalog folder.

I have a new computer with the original photos in a slightly different directory structure and have upgraded to Adobe Lightroom 2, but haven't done anything yet with creating catalogs, importing pictures, etc...

What is the best practice (or best method - least time consuming) to put everything onto the new computer without losing any of the stored information (Metadata and/or other stored data) and continuing on with Lightroom2?

I want to make this the least painful and get back to work with Lightroom2.

Thanks! :?
 
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Hi Ken, welcome to the forum!

How different is the folder structure? And what's the folder structure like on your old machine? A screenshot of the Folders panel would work a treat, and then we can talk you through the upgrade process.
 
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Victoria

First of all, thanks of your offer of assistance!

I have attached an image file of both the "old computer" directory structure
and the desired "new computer" directory structure, as requested.

I modified the attachment to show the directory structure of the "old computer", since it wasn't available. I will have access to this computer to copy the information from Lightroom 1 Catalog directory (or any other information).

The "new computer" directory structure can be anything that makes since at this point. I showed it under My Documents on the C-drive because my understanding is that, should I upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista in the future, there are features in Vista that will be useful for tracking pictures (I don't know what they are, but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot since I am basically starting over). I am also thinking about mirroring my C-drive to make future new computer upgrades "less difficult".

If anyone has any other helpful recommendations, that would be a bonus.

Thanks again!
 
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Ah, ok, I'm with you. So they'll still be in the Personal and Projects folders as they currently are, but those will just be in a different location, is that right?

In that case it's really easy. All you want to do is make sure the LR1 catalog shows the Personal and Projects folders in the Folders panel, giving you a hierarchy. That'll make it really easy to relink once you get to the other machine. Instructions on the hierarchy are here: http://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroomqueen/141samples/141FolderHierarchy.pdf

That done, you can copy the catalog and the files over to the new machine. You can double click on the catalog to open it straight into LR2. It'll ask if it can upgrade the catalog (make sure you've got a backup, although there shouldn't be any risk). Say yes.

When LR2 then opens, there will be question marks all over the place, but that's fine. Just right click on those 2 parent folders in the Folders panel - the Personal and Projects folders. Choose Find Missing Folder for each, and point to the new location. You should be all set! Obviously leave it on your old machine until you've sorted the new one!
 
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Victoria:

Thank you for your assistance. Your description above looked pretty simple; so I was off doing other things for Christmas and haven't gotten around to trying it yet.

Since some time has past, I just wanted to let you know I appreciated your help and will get back later with how well this went.

Thanks again!

Ken Wallace
 
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No worries Ken, it's a busy time of year for everyone. Thanks for reporting back!
 
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Victoria:

The procedure worked exactly as you said. I am now off and running with LightRoom2. Thank you very much for your assistance!

My latest problem is that I can't print large picture files with Lightroom 2.2. I am able to print using Photoshop; but Lightroom has a problem with apparently not having enough memory. My work-a-round is to edit the file first in Photoshop (changing from 16-bit to 8-bit since my operating system currently can't work in 16-bit; decreasing the picture resolution; making my crop within Photoshop). Do you know of another work-a-round? I don't like to make destructive edits to my original file, when the whole point of Lightroom is not to make destructive edits.

Ken Wallace
 
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That's probably the best workaround for the minute, if you can edit a copy, print it, then delete it. Or just go back to 2.1 for the moment.
 
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