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Cannot access Lightroom files on NAS and want to move files to external drive.

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Swr4him

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Sep 29, 2016
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Currently, I have installed LR via Creative Cloud on two computers. On one of the computers I recently have not been able to access my photos which are on a NAS drive. Manufacturer of drive has not been helpful with solutions. Consequently, I want to move photos to external drives. Since I cannot access the files on NAS drive, what is the best way to do this? Can I move the catalog? Need some helop with this situation. The other computer, I accessed the photos and placed them on an external but the Windows 8.1, 64 bit, 12 GB memory, is not allowing me to access the NAS. I can, however, attach the NAS via the network port to the computer but it keeps connecting and disconnecting. Any help will be appreciated.
 
Welcome to the forum. The catalog file needs to be on a locally attached drive not a network shared drive. But the image files can be located on a NAS. You can move the Catalog file and the image files too if need be. How did you get them on the NAS?
 
The catalog file is on a locally attached drive. The photos are the only thing that are on the NAS. I imported the photos from my camera photo reader into Lightroom.
 
In all likelihood accessing your photos is going to be much slower than a USB3 HDD attached to your computer or having the files on your computer.
 
The catalog file is on a locally attached drive. The photos are the only thing that are on the NAS. I imported the photos from my camera photo reader into Lightroom.
Then I don't understand why there is an issue with putting the image files on the NAS. Can you read and write to the NAS using Windows File Explorer?

I would not worry too much about Ethernet bandwidth speeds. WiFi will be slower than Gigabit Ethernet, which will be slower than USB2. After you complete the initial development, except for Exports and Prints, LR does not access the original file very often, working instead with the Preview and Smart Preview which will always be stored in a folder alongside your catalog file.
 
Sir, in my initial message, I state that I cannot access the images on the NAS. I want to transfer them to a external drive and I am looking for a way to put the photos on the external with LR instead of moving them on the external and going thru the process of importing them again.
 
Sir, in my initial message, I state that I cannot access the images on the NAS
Does that mean that you can't read them even with Windows File Explorer? How did the image files get on the NAS? Is the LR catalog file referencing the images on the NAS? Did it ever work with LR and these images on the NAS? Could it be something simple like Windows changed the drive letter of the NAS and LR wants the old drive letter that is still stored in the path listed in the catalog.

I'm still trying to understand if this a a LR catalog problem or if you have a NAS problem and need to some how repair the NAS. If you want to copy the image files from the NAS to another disk you have to be able to access (read) these files in order to do the copy. If you can read the files with Windows File Explorer, you can read them with LR and don't really need to move them anywhere.
 
Correct, cannot read them with Windows File Explorer because I get this message on the attached file. The files got on the NAS as I explained on the previous message. Yes, when I could access the NAS, It worked with Lightroom, and recently, I for some reason cannot see the images on LR 0 I get the "?" missing file icon. I think I have a NAS problem with my log-in I think. I can access the NAS with my daughter's computer log-in but cannot access LR with her log-in. Hence, I can see the files on the NAS in the Windows Explorer under her name and can get to the images that way but cannot use LR to access images. So think I can only drag them via Windows Explorer onto a external drive and import the long way back into LR. This is a real mess! Been fooling with this for about a week
 

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Then you have a permissions problem on the NAS.. The NAS probably came with software to administer the NAS drive. It is probably running some version of LINUX unless it is some proprietary system. Can you use your browser to navigate to the NAS IP and logon there as an administrator? If you can do that then you need to inspect the logins permitted and the read/write permissions on the folders containing your images You can even change the NAS password on the user that logs in to the NAS on your Windows PC. Then once you have a valid user and password for the NAS, you can unmount the the NAS drive on the PC and remount it using the valid userID and password for the NAS. Make sure that you mount the NAS volume to the same Windows Drive letter that LR has registered for it in the catalog file.
 
I will post image of my users and read/write permissions on the software. The admin password on the software and the PC login are not the same - they never have been. Do you think something has changed on one of my Windows 8 updates that has changed something? The NAS never has had a Windows Drive letter - always logged in by clicking on NAS drive as listed under Network. Will also send images of this too. Certainly appreciate the time you are taking with this! Also sending copy of what Windows Explorer looks like on daughter's account when she clicks on NAS in Windows Explorer. She sees all the folders. Also showing what I see in Lightroom. webaccess.png network.png webaccess.png webaccess.png network.png
 

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Finally received communiation from Buffalo, the manufacturer or my NAS, the first of 7 e-mails that made sense. I was instructed to go to a You Tube video which addressd the error message that I was receiving and followed instructions to remove credentials under the manage credentials category. Then I restarted and signed back in. It did not work immediately but after approximately, 1/2 hr, I went back to the NAS and I was able to sign in with my password on the NAS (and immediately clicked on remember credentials) and then I was in the drive again. Thanks for your responses and his truly was a learning experience. School is always in session as I have learned. Now also I had a recommendation to add another user to my PC which I did and I could access the NAS that way but then I would have the problem of moving my files so I could access my LR. Wow!
 
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