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Big, Big mistake

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blinder5

Member
Joined
May 18, 2012
Messages
70
Location
Ottawa CDn
Lightroom Experience
Beginner
Lightroom Version
5.x
Lightroom Version Number
5.7
Operating System
  1. Windows 10
i renamed my catalog of more than 35k images and now i can't access them! i have a backup folder along with folders named 2017-2019 consecutively but i can't seem to import all the folders beneath the year title: eg 2017 subfolders 11-25-2017. can i find a restore software to dig deep into my hard drive and find my real catalog ? or is there a better way to retrieve photos or am i sol??
Boo Hoo.
 
I am sorry to hear you are having troubles with your catalog and images.

First, for clarification, are your images all intact and where they should be if you look for them in Windows/File Explorer? I was not clear from your post if the trouble was just the catalog or both catalog and images

Second, have you been creating catalog backups in LR or have you been backing up your computer? If you have a recent backup, I would recommend copying the files/folders and tucking them away so if you do try to switch from your primary catalog to a backup of it that you have a copy in case something happens and you need to revert to it.

Now, what exactly did you rename? And at any point did you try to change the name back? And why are you trying to import images that have already been imported?

I would recommend not taking any more action just yet and trying to further explain the problem so the advice you receive will help you get things corrected as best as can be.

--Ken
 
I would recommend not taking any more action just yet and trying to further explain the problem so the advice you receive will help you get things corrected as best as can be.
Indeed, don't change anything anymore untill it's clear what happened exactly.
 
both catalog and images are missing. only have 2017-2019 years and most have a ?/! when i click in file explorer it says E: drive an external drive. i have two more external drives to search. should be images from years 2009-2019 in catalog.
yup, i;ve been creating backups.
i renamed the whole catalog on my drive c: for lrt.
thanks for your reply. any help would be great.
 
If all you did was rename the catalog file, then all you should need to do is either double-click on the renamed catalog when Lightroom is not active, or start Lightroom and do File>Open Catalog and choose the renamed catalog in the following dialog box.
 
got the correct catalog but many images missing. i'll check my ex hhd's for backup or Pictures.
thanks for helping.
 
got the correct catalog but many images missing. i'll check my ex hhd's for backup or Pictures.
thanks for helping.
no pictures here's a look at my e: drive
 

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I would hold off on doing anything with LR right now. Using Explorer, try to find your images among your drives. Unless you somehow deleted them, inside or outside of LR, they should be on a drive. As John Little said, drive letters can get changes by the OS and this can cause havoc if you are not aware of the change(s).

--Ken
 
no pictures here's a look at my e: drive
That doesn't help us at all....that's the catalog backups you're showing there. It would help much more if you opened the correct catalog and posted a screenshot of the Folders Panel.
 
That doesn't help us at all....that's the catalog backups you're showing there. It would help much more if you opened the correct catalog and posted a screenshot of the Folders Panel.
here's two jpg's.hope it helps.still missing 2009-2016 images. none on one of my xternal drive.
 
here's two jpg's.hope it helps.still missing 2009-2016 images. none on one of my xternal drive.
Files did not come through.

And have you been searching for the folders through the search function or by looking manually?

--Ken
 
by looking manually
The images indicate that LR believes your images reside on your C: drive (which is a 5TB drive or partition). Is your C: drive your primary drive (as that letter is usually reserved for that drive)? If so, have you searched via the search feature for a file or folder? And have you looked in your Recycle Bin to make sure that it was not somehow deleted recently?

--Ken
 
not sure what u mean by searching via search feature. file explorer? if you mean go to folder when i click on ? then it says e: drive.
 
not sure what u mean by searching via search feature. file explorer? if you mean go to folder when i click on ? then it says e: drive.
You can use Explorer to see your files/folders and then browse the file tree (in the left pane), or you can actually type in a term for Explorer to search for in its search box. In the latter, the program runs a query of the files. In the former, you are just browsing (not technically a "search"). I often do the former when I just need to find a file and know, or believe I know, where it is. The problem with just browsing is that it is not comprehensive, and files can sometimes be in places where you never expected.

--Ken
 
Imagine that you have a file, "My special file.txt", somewhere on the C: drive, but you can't recall where. How would you proceed? You would get into Explorer, double-click on the C:\ drive (maybe called LocalDrive or something similar). This gives you a listing of the contents in a window. In the upper right of the window is a box saying "Search C:\" or something similar. Enter "My special file.txt" into that box, hit Enter, and it does a search for your file. Same thing for any other file name. Or you can Google "windows 10 search files" for more authoritative directions.
 
Imagine that you have a file, "My special file.txt", somewhere on the C: drive, but you can't recall where. How would you proceed? You would get into Explorer, double-click on the C:\ drive (maybe called LocalDrive or something similar). This gives you a listing of the contents in a window. In the upper right of the window is a box saying "Search C:\" or something similar. Enter "My special file.txt" into that box, hit Enter, and it does a search for your file. Same thing for any other file name. Or you can Google "windows 10 search files" for more authoritative directions.
Thank you for providing an example. I know it seems like I am diving into the weeds on something simple like a search, but this is a written conversation between two strangers, and I like to assume nothing. I usually know where I need to find files so I often just drill right down to them, but I know that not everybody else does that. But in case the OP did, I wanted to make sure that the OS did a search as well. The OP's jpeg above indicates that the files are in a top level folder called Pictures. I am not sure if that is user created or an OS creation (or Library) as I am on a Win7 machine right now and the default folder is My Pictures.

--Ken
 
The problem is, Ken, that there's insufficient detail in the screenshot of the Folders Panel. Specifically what, if any, other drives are listed below the C drive. On the C drive, Pictures contains some 4k photos, but there are at least another 34k in some other parent folder or drive.

Blinder5, could you collapse the Pictures folder in the Folders Panel then take another screenshot showing the complete Folders Panel from the top down to the header of the Collections panel. Also, run the Library menu command "Find All Missing Photos" and tell us what the number of missing photos is reported.
 
Another thing to consider is that Windows can sometimes rename external drives, perhaps depending partly on how many of them are attached. It can seem arbitrary.
It's not arbitrary. Windows assigns the first available (not currently assigned) letter in alphabetical order.
 
It's not arbitrary. Windows assigns the first available (not currently assigned) letter in alphabetical order.
It may not be arbitrary, but Windows has often enough reassigned letters to drives that I have "hard" assigned letters near the end of the alphabet. Quite annoying when it happens.

--Ken
 
nope not c: when i search. says E: wd etc. wd i guess means western digital but haven't used a wd hd in years. so i guess i'll try and rename my drive.
 
It may not be arbitrary, but Windows has often enough reassigned letters to drives that I have "hard" assigned letters near the end of the alphabet. Quite annoying when it happens.

--Ken
Two questions. First, how may external drives are you using? Second, does your computer have more than one drive or is the drive partitioned so that it appears as if more than one drive is in the machine when viewed in Explorer?

If you your external drives number few, plug them in and search them all. And, if your machine has more than one drive or partitions, please make sure you search them all. That many files do not just disappear.

Thanks,

--Ken
 
is the drive partitioned so that it appears as if more than one drive is in the machine when viewed in Explorer?
It is no longer necessary to have multiple partitions on a disk drive. There used to be a size limitation for partitions. This has been long obsolete. The only reason to partition a disk drive is to create a separate space for different operating systems or different copies of the same OS. I have a 8TB hard disk that is one partition. If you have erroneously partitioned you disk into multiple partitions, there are programs that will merge the partitions without losing data. If you have a place to park your data on the disk, you can re-partition and reformat the disk after preserving any critical data in the existing partitions. This will reduce the number of drive letters that Windows must assign.
 
It is no longer necessary to have multiple partitions on a disk drive. There used to be a size limitation for partitions. This has been long obsolete. The only reason to partition a disk drive is to create a separate space for different operating systems or different copies of the same OS. I have a 8TB hard disk that is one partition. If you have erroneously partitioned you disk into multiple partitions, there are programs that will merge the partitions without losing data. If you have a place to park your data on the disk, you can re-partition and reformat the disk after preserving any critical data in the existing partitions. This will reduce the number of drive letters that Windows must assign.
I completely agree. But, I know that some manufacturers will create partitions (that are not hidden) for things like BIOS updates, and there are some folks who just like partitions for their OS to be separate from their data. The odds of this are not great, but as the OP is having trouble finding files, I wanted to make sure that we did not overlook the low hanging fruit.

--Ken
 
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