Classic can't see the folder my synced photos are stored in

[norrit]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom Classic 8.3

Operating System

1. macOS 10.14 Mojave

Here is my setup: I usually import photos from my memory card to the cloud based Lightroom on my iPad. I also use Lightroom Classic so all photos will eventually be synced to the cloud and the originals will then be downloaded to my hard drive. Sometimes I have to make room in my cloud so I break the sync and delete my originals in the cloud. So now I only have the collection in Classic with the originals on my hard drive. So far so good.

I usually just let Lightroom Classic download to the default gibberish-folder within the Mobile Downloads.lrdata-file. Yesterday I needed to make som space on my hard drive so I moved all originals in one of my synced collections from the gibberish folder to an external drive, knowing that this will cause Lightroom Classic to display the missing file icon.

Now to my problem. Usually when I move files like this, I just update the folder location so Lightroom know where my photos have moved. But I can't see the gibberish folder in Lightrooms folder panel. Maybe because it's inside the lrdata package file? So I can't right click the old folder and update the location. I can of course point out the new location for a single photo, but the "find nearby photos" does not work so I must do it manually for every single photo in my collection (not a reasonable option).

Any ideas?

 

[Jim Wilde]

If you right-click on one of the missing photos and select "Go to Folder in Library", that should expose the sub-folder in the Folders Panel. But I'm not sure if that will be of use, as I'm unclear as to how you moved those originals. You obviously didn't do it within Classic (as you should have done), otherwise they wouldn't be missing....so what did you do? Did you move individual photos from the MobileDownloads package to the external drive (presumably then deleting the originals), or did you move a sub-folder to the external drive (again deleting the sub-folder after the move)? If the latter, then yes you should be able to use the "Find Missing Folder" when you expose the sub-folder in the Folders Panel and right-click on it. But if the former, then you'll be left with the option of relinking individual photos and hope the "find nearby missing photos" works. Alternatively, move them back to the original sub-folder and then do the move properly using Classic to do it.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

The Mobile Downloads.lrdata package should show up in the Lightroom folder panel as a separate device, like it were a different disk. That gibberish folder should be inside that device, so maybe it's displayed collapsed. 'Show Folder in Finder' should indeed reveal that.

It may be a good idea to stop using the Mobile Downloads.lrdata package. In the Lightroom preferences - Lightroom Sync, you can select any other folder as the destination folder of mobile downloads. That means you can download all those images to the external hard disk directly, so you'll never need to move them.

 

[norrit]

Thanks for your helpful replies! I totally forgot about the "Go to folder in library" command! That solved it for me. My iPad is listed in the folder panel and the photos are within an "imported photos" folder. I will probably move the files back to my gibberish folder and make a proper move as Jim suggested.

I used this method to see what happens so I can help my customers when (if) they do the same. I've actually tried at least 5 different techniques for this workflow: "Start in cloud based Lightroom, wait until the originals have downloaded to your hard drive, stop syncing, empty the cloud, sync again to get smart previews back to the cloud based Lightroom". So why not start in Classic right away you might wonder? Because one of the premises is to do all imports on a long trip where you only have your iPad available.

Anyway, big thanks for your help!