• Welcome to the Lightroom Queen Forums! We're a friendly bunch, so please feel free to register and join in the conversation. If you're not familiar with forums, you'll find step by step instructions on how to post your first thread under Help at the bottom of the page. You're also welcome to download our free Lightroom Quick Start eBooks and explore our other FAQ resources.
  • Stop struggling with Lightroom! There's no need to spend hours hunting for the answers to your Lightroom Classic questions. All the information you need is in Adobe Lightroom Classic - The Missing FAQ!

    To help you get started, there's a series of easy tutorials to guide you through a simple workflow. As you grow in confidence, the book switches to a conversational FAQ format, so you can quickly find answers to advanced questions. And better still, the eBooks are updated for every release, so it's always up to date.
  • 12 December 2024 It's Lightroom update time again! See What’s New in Lightroom Classic 14.1, Mobile & Desktop (December 2024)? for Feature updates, new cameras and lenses, and bug fixes.

Catalogs Catalogue Issues

Status
Not open for further replies.
Howard Routledge

Howard Routledge

Member
Premium Classic Member
Joined
Sep 16, 2012
Messages
97
Location
North -West UK
Lightroom Experience
Intermediate
Lightroom Version
6.x
Lightroom Version Number
13.2
Operating System
  1. Windows 10
1715273143137.png

Having another nightmare with the catalogue and seek two remedies, please.
I have scanned 13 images into 'pictures' and then imported to LR. I had opened the relative folder for them to import into but you can see what has happened, they have appeared in a new folder named 2024 shown at the top of the catalogue list. I have tried to click and drag the images to the folder I wish them to be in but the message I get is 'file already exists at destination' - which is quite confusing as they are not shown in that folder..

Secondly, I have a folder named 'Railway Main File' but for some unknown reason (probably whilst I have been trying to click & drag the above images, I don't know), an identical 'sub folder' is now included in the catalogue. Just to compound matters even more, the sub folders shown , titled 'family', 'landscape' etc were folders, not sub folders.

Can someone offer guidance as to how I can remedy the situation.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
1715279316235.png


I have followed the instructions using a One Touch external drive and now have a catalogue list as shown. When I right click on one of the folders to 'find missing folder' I am taken into Pictures but I cannot get a folder to return to the catalogue. As I have already lost 3 folders whilst attempting this move, I have stopped to ask further advice before I cause further loss.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
If you follow the instructions in the link carefully, then you should not have to use ‘Find Missing Folders’. Yes, the subfolders go missing when you relink the problem folder to the temporary folder, but that is solved after you have relinked the temporary folder again.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
1715334887696.png

I now have the 'Railway Main File' folder back, thank you, but as you can see the catalogue is still showing 6 missing sub folders. The Capsfix temp folder has done its job and is now empty. Not wanting to do an action that will be wrong, how will I retrieve the missing folders bearing in mind your above advice re such action.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
1715678504044.png

I hope it is okay to resurrect this catalogue issue without starting a new posting. I obviously spoke too early about the catalogue problem being cured. The catalogue was complete and each image was listed as a result of your help but when I came to import a new sub folder (highlighted & shown as 44871 Waitby) the other sub folders within the 2024 folder immediately changed to showing the dreaded question mark. I then began to 'find missing folder' process but stopped the process when I noticed that a number of question marks are now also showing in the folder 2023. Can I seek further help please?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
First, can I ask you to post screenshots that are actually legible? Second, as I cannot look at your drive, you will need to do some homework yourself. Look at the parent folder, not in Lightroom but in real life on the drive. Are those missing folders present? Are they present but perhaps there is a small difference in the capitalization between the name shown in Lightroom and the name shown in Windows Explorer? Remember that this started as the capitalization error…
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
1715711270272.png

This is what I have discovered. When I right click on any dated folder in LR then 'show in explorer' it takes me to Local Disc (C). The folders within 'Railway Main File' are headed as follows; This PC. Local Disc (C). Users. User .Desktop. HDD backup. Railway Main File. Railway Main File. In the 2024 folder 6 out of 14 photos are listed. These include the one I imported at the weekend which caused all of the other folders to then display a question mark. I have then commenced a 'find missing folder' and began to transfer. When I had completed 5 such moves I stopped to seek advice because other folders in the 2023 folder were similarly affected.
When I go into 'Pictures', which I always use as the parent folders, the Railway Main Folder heading only includes; This PC. Pictures. Railway Main File. In the 2024 folder it contains the missing 8 folders only - these are the ones shown with the question marks in the LR catalogue. There is quite a difference in the titles as shown between Pictures and Local Disc (C).
I have tried to describe the issue as best as I can, I hope it makes sense.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm sorry, but it does not make sense to me and again the screenshot is pretty much useless because it is such poor quality. What you need to find out is how the folder panel in Lightroom is different from the reality on disk. The best way to do that is to make good quality screenshots of both. Your last screenshot is only 161 x 417 pixels. Why so incredibly small? Surely your screen is much bigger than that!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Your screenshots of the Lightroom folder panel do not show the complete folder structure, but I notice that the Explorer screenshot shows you have two ‘Railway - Main File’ folders. The second one is a subfolder of the first one. The screenshot shows the folders inside that subfolder. Most likely that is where things went wrong, either during import or when you ‘reconnected’ folders.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
1715792299026.png

I've only just realised that I hadn't sent a screen shot (now included) of the folder list from 'find in explorer'. There is quite a difference in the headings between Explorer (Local Disc (C) and the My PC Pictures one sent last night. Is this quite normal or as you suggest, could it be an Import issue caused by two different paths.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The main folder 'Railway Main Files' probably should have been named 'photos' or something similar - but that was many years ago. The first screen shot shows the sub folders when the the folder is opened via Explorer. When I open the sub folder 'Railway Main File' (second screen shot) naturally all of the dated photo folders are there. Aware that I cannot change anything outside of LR, how do I proceed from here?
1715795497233.png


1715795545710.png
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
What you need to do is compare the real situation on disk with what Lightroom thinks it should be (as shown in the folder panel). Any differences lead to 'missing' folders in Lightroom. Then for those missing folders you will have to make up your mind: Do you think that what Lightroom shows makes the most sense? If so, then you will have to find the 'missing' folders on your disk and move them (using Explorer) to where Lightroom says they should be. This will automatically 'reconnect' them in Lightroom. Looking at your previous screenshot that shows some of the missing folders, I think the hierarchy shown in Lightroom does make sense, so that means you'll have to try to restore that hierarchy on disk.

If on the other hand you think the situation on disk is the more logical one for a certain folder, then you will have to use 'Find Missing Folder' in Lighroom to 'reconnect' the missing folder in Lightroom to the folder on disk. That means the folder stays on disk where it is, and the hierarchy in Lightroom is updated accordingly.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
On trying to solve the issue, I appear to be getting into a deeper hole.
Going on the route of 'find missing folder' I moved to missing ones into LR via Explorer. LR catalogue was then complete for the 2024 Steam folder but the folder on disc was now empty. Trying to solve this issue I tried 'Update Folder Location', unfortunately this removed the folder from LR. I then re-imported the folder back in LR but the first screen shot shows where it is now located (highlighted). Trying to move the folder to its rightful position at he bottom of the dated ' Railway Main File folder I get the message ' already exists at this location' which is baffling to say the least.
1715950100411.png


The second screen shot shows that 'Pictures' does not include the 2024 folder but it is included if I go via Explorer (third screen shot).

1715950364214.png



1715950399984.png


I haven't attempted to 'find missing folders' in the 2023 folder until I have solved the issue with 2024. Can you offer further help please.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I’m sorry, but I am running out of steam here. I explained at the very beginning of this thread that I suspected that you are experiencing the ‘capitalization error’. I gave you a link how to solve this. Then all of a sudden you were facing ‘missing folders’, even though that is not a symptom of this problem and should also not be the result of fixing it. So we discussed what to do if you have missing folders. And we discussed checking the contents of your hard drive in Explorer and comparing that to what Lightroom thinks it should be. If there are differences between those two, then you should see missing folder in Lightroom. Your screenshot does not show any missing folders however.

Now you say you have reimported a folder (I never said you should do that), used ‘Update Folder Location’ (apart from being used in the capitalization error fix we did not discuss that), and you describe trying to move a folder in the Lightroom folder panel (which we never discussed either). I feel like talking to a brick wall. Whatever I say, it does not come through and you seem to do something else. To be honest I have completely lost track of your problem and I really don’t know what else to say.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top