Can't find files listed on drive in LR5 to reattach catalog metadata to moved files

[J.W. Wall]

I am trying to recover from having moved a whole year worth of files outside of LR 5 some while ago. The catalog shows these on a dimmed-out drive, and all files have a "!" mark. When I connect the drive, which I had renamed, it shows no contents and I can't find any folders on it from inside LR so that I can point LR to the missing year. I tried restoring the old drive name, which was no help. However, when I used locate on one photo, it did transfer intact to the drive I had just connected, but the old (grayed out) drive listing changed to 0 photos for that date. Gasp. Any help would be much appreciated! I'd like to be able just to point LR to the missing year of photo folders and have it attach the catalog metadata to them (there are a many thousands...). I'm on a Mac, using Mavericks. Thanks for any help!

 

[Jim Wilde]

Hi, welcome to the forum.

When you say "it shows no contents", what is "it"? Lightroom or Finder?

We'd be better able to understand the situation if you could post a couple of screenshots for us. One of the Folders Panel in Lightroom which shows the missing year folder, and another showing a Finder view of the drive in question.

If you need any help with taking or posting screenshots, see Taking Screenshots and Posting Screenshots.

 

[J.W. Wall]

Thanks. By "it", I meant that the listing of the drive inside LR shows no contents. As a result, I can't point LR to the missing files. I'm working on the screenshots.

 

[J.W. Wall]

Here are four screenshots illustrating part of the problem (see next message for final shot)(first one should be last). The three folders showing "0" images were the ones I clicked on inside LR to try to "Locate" the missing files. When I did that, LR moved the photos to another drive, but did not Locate adjacent files. The actual files are now on the drive named "AL 3" which does not show up at all inside LR (even after I restarted LR). When I bought "AL 2" it was named with the OWC factory moniker shown in the LR directory. When I bought "AL 3" it had that same name, so I renamed both of those drives, "AL 2" and "AL 3". Apparently I confused LR in the process, then compounded it by moving the 2012 files from my internal drive or the "AL 2" drive to "AL 3". So that's pretty much the mess I've created for myself. Any help would be extremely welcome. I've used Locate before in LR successfully, so can't figure out why I can't do it now.

 

[J.W. Wall]

 

[Jim Wilde]

The three folders showing "0" images were the ones I clicked on inside LR to try to "Locate" the missing files. When I did that, LR moved the photos to another drive, but did not Locate adjacent files.

From this, and the screenshots, I'm guessing that you started off trying to use the Locate function on individual image files. If so, this was the wrong thing to go....the correct, and very simple, procedure in this situation is to start at the top level folder showing in the Folders Panel, right-click, select "Find Missing Folder", a file browser opens, use it to navigate to and select the corresponding folder on the correct drive, and Lightroom will relink it and all the sub-folders and all the contained images in a matter of seconds.

However, for this to work, the folder structure on the "correct" drive has to be identical to the folder structure on the old, now incorrect, drive.....and it's not clear to me that this is the case from your screenshots. The first thing to establish is where exactly the photos now reside....you said "the actual files are now on the drive named AL 3", so I have to ask why you tried to relink those three folders to "AL2" (which, BTW, is a complication we'll have to try to figure out later on)?

Then I need you to retake a couple of screenshots. First, the Folders Panel....can you retake that screenshot twice, first can you take a screenshot to include just the Catalog Pane showing the All Photographs line and the AL 2 Drive expanded as you showed initially but also with the bottom folder (2012-01-01) also expanded to show what folders lie below. Next can you take another screenshot of the "OWC Mercury Elite AL Pro" drive, but collapse the 2012 folder so that I can the full extent of the first and second level folder structure on that drive. Finally I need to see a Finder screenshot (of AL2 or AL3) which shows the matching folder structure to the Folders Panel.

I have to say I am confused by what I'm seeing, so hopefully the new screenshots will clear up my confusion.

 

[J.W. Wall]

Thank you again for taking the time to look into this puzzle.

I didn't moved files intentionally to AL 2. When I clicked Locate for the 20120101 files, LR put them in AL 2. LR does NOT show AL 3 as a connected drive, no matter what I do.

Here are the screen shots, as I think you wanted them. If not, I'd be glad to re-do whatever you need. Thanks again!

 

[Jim Wilde]

Thanks for the screenshots, almost but not quite what I need. Specifically I need to see in a Finder screenshot the top-level folder "!JWW LR & Bak Photos", I think/hope you've simply gone one level too deep in the hierarchy.....so if you can find that folder and take a screenshot that would be great.

Returning to your "locate" issue, Lightroom doesn't of its own accord decide to move any files.....all that happens is that the user (i.e. you in this case) is given the option to tell Lightroom where the missing files are, at which point Lightroom changes the path reference in the catalog and reflects the change in the Folders Panel. No data is moved, only the reference is changed. I suspect (again hope) that in fact these few images also exist on the AL3 drive, in which case we should be able to rectify things.

But first we need to relink those 35k+ images, so the screenshot I requested should help us do that.

 

[J.W. Wall]

Indeed it exists on both AL 2 and AL 3. But LR does not show AL 3 at all.
I realize that I clicked to tell LR where the missing files are, but I didn't know LR would move the files rather than just link them up with the info in its catalog.
Thanks again so much for your help!

 

[Jim Wilde]

Indeed it exists on both AL 2 and AL 3. But LR does not show AL 3 at all.
I realize that I clicked to tell LR where the missing files are, but I didn't know LR would move the files rather than just link them up with the info in its catalog.
Thanks again so much for your help!

You keep saying that LR moved the files to AL2, which I've already said is not the case, so perhaps I'm not explaining things very well....so I'll try again as it's important you understand this:

Initially you had a drive called "OWC Mercury Elite AL Pro" which contained some 35k+ images that had been imported into Lightroom. You then decided to rename that drive to either AL2 or AL_3 (I'm not sure exactly which), but after doing that Lightroom has now lost contact with those 35k images for the simple reason that the OWC Mercury etc. drive is no longer online. Lightroom doesn't know that you've renamed it to something else, it just doesn't see the original drive so all 35k images are now reported as "Missing or Offline".

At this point it appears you've clicked on one of the missing images in one of the sub-folders and used the "Locate" function. When you use this option, Lightroom doesn't go off and search the system for the missing file (as some users think), instead all it really does is ask the user to tell it where the missing file can be found. This is done using the file browser that opens, and it would seem that you've used that browser to point to the file on the AL2 drive, at which point Lightroom verified that the file matched the info in the catalog, checked around and found another 129 missing images in the same folder on AL2, and so updated it's internal tables and as a result added the AL2 drive and the folder and the images to the Folders Panel. No files were moved, they already existed on AL2, only the catalog was updated.

AL_3 won't appear in the Folders Panel until such time as you either import some pictures to/from that drive, or if you had "located" the missing file on the AL_3 drive instead of the AL2 drive (then obviously it would be AL_3 you now see in Lightroom instead of AL2).

And that almost brings us to the next issue: when we come to relink those missing 35k images from the OWC Mercury drive, which drive do you want them relinked to? As I understand it, the images exist on both drives, so at this stage you can choose which one you want to use as the "prime" LR images drive (with the other presumably being a backup)? Or was it your intention to spread your images across both drives?

However, before we get that far we have to deal with another issue. According to the LR Folders Panel, below the "!JWW LR & Bak Photos" folder are three sub-folders: "!2013", "2012" and "J Photos 2012 bk", containing respectively 8452, 27072, and 83 images. However, in the Finder screenshots I cannot see that "2012" folder at all, and given that Lightroom thinks there are 27K images in it, we need to understand where it now is. Do you know, and if so can you show me?

 

[J.W. Wall]

Thank you for your patience. I'm working on the answers. (It takes longer at my age....)

 

[J.W. Wall]

Hi and thanks for your patience. I hope the following answers your questions. I do appreciate the explanation of Locate, I think I've got it now!
The first "OWC Mercury..." drive was renamed "AL 2".
The 2012 photos do indeed exist on both AL 2 and AL 3. However, I renamed the "2012" folder to "J Photos 2012 bak". I think the three sub-folders you mention in your last paragraph must be the former names of folders, except "J Photos 2012 bk" which may be the "J Photos 2012 bak" on AL 2 and AL 3.
My intention was to put the 2012 photos on AL 2 and use it s the primary for that year, and use jwhd as the primary for 2013 and 2014.
Can the needed relocation occur by me using Locate in LR on each month's images, selecting the proper folder on AL 2? (I have used write metadata to xmp, but assume it only writes to the main files on jwhd and not to the backup on AL 2 and AL 3 as those backups are made when the photos are loaded using Image Ingester).

I tried to use old backup catalogs to establish an historical sequence (e.g., Dec. 30, 2013, June 1, 2013, and others). However, I cannot open LR4 catalogs without allowing LR to also move the thumbnails, according to its dialog box. I didn't want to take that chance and perhaps make things worse. The June, 2014 catalog tells me things were in poor shape by then.

((Once things are fixed) I would like to move (inside LR this time!) 2013 to AL 2, where they already reside but as a backup. This will be an annual event to open up space on internal drive jwhd. Perhaps that's not the best way to do it? There's not room on a 2TB external for more years than that.) Thank you again for all your help!

 

[Jim Wilde]

The 2012 photos do indeed exist on both AL 2 and AL 3. However, I renamed the "2012" folder to "J Photos 2012 bak". I think the three sub-folders you mention in your last paragraph must be the former names of folders, except "J Photos 2012 bk" which may be the "J Photos 2012 bak" on AL 2 and AL 3.

To be honest, if you're not even sure yourself what you have done, I really don't know how I can fix things for you using the forum. I can try, but it will likely take a long time....before I can advise on the correct recovery action I need to understand exactly what you have done, and where all the folders and pictures are that Lightroom can no longer see. Given your own apparent uncertainty, it will inevitably require more questions, more screenshots, more questions, etc. At our current rate of progress, and given the apparent complexity and confusion, I can envisage the recovery maybe taking several weeks. I'm not sure where you are based, but it might be more practical (and certainly quicker) if you can find a local expert who would be prepared to come and work "hands on" to help figure things out.

While you are thinking about that, I need a couple more screenshots:

1. Open the Folders Panel in Lightroom and expand that "2012" folder so that I can see the sub-folders.
2. Using Finder, can you show me where that "J Photos 2012 bak" folder is? I can't see it in the screenshots you've posted so far. I need to see where it sits on the drive, and I also need to see it expanded showing me the next level down.

 

[J.W. Wall]

Thank you so much for your help. I am happy you are willing to pursue this further, and perhaps we shall. Before deciding to ask for even more of your time and expertise, I wonder what you think of foregoing this complete reconstruction process, for perhaps a simpler method suggested in my previous post: "Can the needed relocation occur by me using Locate in LR on each month's images, selecting the proper folder on AL 2? (I have used write metadata to xmp, but assume it only writes to the main files on jwhd and not to the backup on AL 2 and AL 3 as those backups are made when the photos are loaded using Image Ingester)."

So, can all or most of the questioned items be Located by month instead of by year, assuming that those month folders are identical to LR's list?

Alternatively, it strikes me that the xmp might have all of the worthwhile information that LR's catalog contains (how can I establish that?). If so, I could simply eliminate the missing catalog items, and reload the questioned files from the originals, no?

 

[Jim Wilde]

Relinking on a folder by folder basis is certainly one way out of the mess.....provided you are confident that you will be able to look at the folder contents in Lightroom (including the actual images) and then be able to find the correct folder on your hard drives. If you are, and you want to progress that way, then you shouldn't use the "Locate" option on individual images, as the "automatically find nearby images" process is sometimes unreliable. Instead, if you have a certain match, right-click on the missing folder in the Folders Panel, select "Find Missing Folder", and in the resulting file browser you navigate to and select the appropriate folder on the appropriate hard drive.

Note that you can work top down, not bottom up, i.e. if for instance you have a "month folder" in the Folder Panel, with many dated sub-folders, and you can locate that month folder and its sub-folders on a hard drive, using "Find Missing Folder" on the month folder will relink that AND the dated sub-folders. Makes for a much quicker process, but you have to be sure you have a good match.

 

[J.W. Wall]

Thank you. If I find that a folder has a more or fewer files, should I use sync folder at that point?

 

[Jim Wilde]

If you mean that the actual folder on the hard drive has more or fewer files than Lightroom has cataloged, then yes synchronising the folder (after you've relinked it) could be used in the situation where there are more files on disk, but you have to pay very close attention to the synchronise dialog box as it offers the option to remove any missing files from the catalog, which you may want to uncheck if you're not sure that you want that action to be carried out.

Similarly, if there are fewer files in the folder than Lightroom was expecting then that will mean that after relinking Lightroom will still be missing some files from that folder, so all that you'll get if you then use synchronise is the option to remove those missing files from the catalog. That'll be your decision to make....

 

[J.W. Wall]

Thank you. Just to double check, am I correct that write metadata to xmp does not write Lightroom's edits?

 

[Jim Wilde]

Not quite....write metadata to xmp WILL write the details of the last edit position, so yes if you import into a new catalog you will see the edited image. What you won't see is the edit history, as that is one of the things which are not included. Other things not included are virtual copies, collection status, stacks, flags, and Develop module panel switches.