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Confusing appearance of External Drive in Folder based LR v11.3 catalog

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gail smith

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Lightroom Version Number
Lightroom Classic version 11.3
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  1. macOS 12 Monterey
Hi all,

I have a client who has somehow managed to create a LRC catalog v-11 that shows her External drive (where images files exist) as a ‘volume’ of her Macintosh HD. It also lists her Year folders under a '/' location of her Mac HD. In the screen captures below, you'll be able to see how mixed up it has become. In SS_2 note that the JMac1 is actually a separate External drive, but it shows as a 'Volume' of her Mac HD.

We found some help on the Adobe help website at the following link:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/volumes-drives-display-folders-lightoom.html

The ‘solution’ described at the url above (hiding parent folder, etc) didn’t work exactly as described there for us. However, we have managed to copy files to the actual JMac1 outside of Lightroom, and relink it all to the External drive, and eliminate most of the Duplicates.

Note that I work via Zoom with this client, and once I come up with some steps she can follow, I leave her on her own until we meet again. We are in different cities.

My current plan of attack is to create a New Catalog. Before Importing anything to it, we are Saving Metadata to Files. So far, we have Imported two or three folders to the new Catalog. Everything appears as expected. The Folders are part of the JMac1 External drive, they have no connection to the Mac HD.

I appreciate any thoughts or comments you might have.

Thank you!

Gail
 

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The EHD is a mounted volume mounted in a sub folder of the root folder (/). This probably happened when the use requested Lightroom Classic to show the parent folder

You could try to “Hide the parent Folder” on the Volume to see if that does not solve the problem (which really is not a problem).


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
The EHD is a mounted volume mounted in a sub folder of the root folder (/). This probably happened when the use requested Lightroom Classic to show the parent folder

You could try to “Hide the parent Folder” on the Volume to see if that does not solve the problem (which really is not a problem).


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Thanks but in my question I mentioned that the 'Hide the parent Folder' command did not work in this case. I cannot think of any reason for an External Drive to show up as a Subfolder of the root folder (/) as you mention. Additionally, since this has happened, and the EHD shows as a subfolder, all the files which are located on the EHD are 'Missing' - as shown in the attachments I uploaded. Very perplexing.
 
Yes, you need to use ‘Hide this parent’ until the name of the disk is the top folder. Then restart Lightroom.
Yes. We did that. And it made no difference. And all of the files on the EHD show missing Folders which we cannot re-link. We cannot relink because when navigating to the EHD in the Mac Finder, Lightroom does not recognize the EHD as a Subfolder of the root folder (/). What to do?
 
The EHD is a mounted volume mounted in a sub folder of the root folder (/). This probably happened when the use requested Lightroom Classic to show the parent folder

You could try to “Hide the parent Folder” on the Volume to see if that does not solve the problem (which really is not a problem).


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Another thing. You say it is really not a problem, and yet, in the screen captures I attached it is evident that Folders in the EHD are not recognized. They are listed as missing with '?' next to them. And, re-linking (as I would usually do) does not work because the EHD is NOT a subfolder of the root folder so it is not possible to navigate to what the Lightroom catalog is looking for! It is definitely a problem for my client since her current catalog shows over 23K missing files - as indicated in the screen captures.
 
Another thing. You say it is really not a problem, and yet, in the screen captures I attached it is evident that Folders in the EHD are not recognized. They are listed as missing with '?' next to them. And, re-linking (as I would usually do) does not work because the EHD is NOT a subfolder of the root folder so it is not possible to navigate to what the Lightroom catalog is looking for! It is definitely a problem for my client since her current catalog shows over 23K missing files - as indicated in the screen captures.
The problem that you are needing to address is that of a Missing Folder (?) in the Lightroom Folder panel. It has nothing to do with an EHD. The parent folder that is shown in the Screen shot is the Library Folder. The Library Folder is a hidden System folder and applications such as Lightroom Classic do not have access to that "Library" folder. I can't tell you how the "missing Folders" got assigned to the "Library" Folder, but you will need to move them to a non system folder location before LrC can access them.
To expose the "Library" folder in Finder, Click on the "Go" menu item to drop down the sub menu. When you press the {Option} key the "Library" folder sub menu item is exposed. You can then click on that "Library" submenu item to open the Library folder in Finder. You should at this point be able to see the date named folders that are sub folders of "/Library" If they are not there, then they have been moved some where else. You need to find that "somewhere else" in Finder. If the date named folder in question are subfolders of "/Library", you need to move them "somewhere else" in Finder. Once you Locate the true location of the missing folders, you can right click on any folder in the Folder panel showing a (?) and navigate to the "somewhere else" location using the "Find Missing Folder..." context menu. You may need to repeat this for all missing (?) folders in the Folder panel.

FWIW EHDs are mounted as sub folders under the root folder as "/Volumes/{VolumeName}/
 
Yes. We did that. And it made no difference. And all of the files on the EHD show missing Folders which we cannot re-link. We cannot relink because when navigating to the EHD in the Mac Finder, Lightroom does not recognize the EHD as a Subfolder of the root folder (/). What to do?
I don’t understand your remark. Lightroom should not recognize the EHD as a subfolder of the root folder. It should show the EHD as a separate device. The missing folders are shown as subfolders of the root Library folder. I have no idea how they got there according to Lightroom, but I am pretty sure they are not there and have never been there in the first place, that is why they are missing. The root Library folder is off limits to Lightroom. Have you tried this: right-click on one of those missing folders and choose ‘Find Missing Folder’. Then in the dialog that follows navigate to where that folder really is (on the EHD?) and select it. Doesn’t that relink this folder and -if it is indeed on the EHD- correctly show the EHD as device?
 
I don’t understand your remark. Lightroom should not recognize the EHD as a subfolder of the root folder. It should show the EHD as a separate device. The missing folders are shown as subfolders of the root Library folder. I have no idea how they got there according to Lightroom, but I am pretty sure they are not there and have never been there in the first place, that is why they are missing. The root Library folder is off limits to Lightroom. Have you tried this: right-click on one of those missing folders and choose ‘Find Missing Folder’. Then in the dialog that follows navigate to where that folder really is (on the EHD?) and select it. Doesn’t that relink this folder and -if it is indeed on the EHD- correctly show the EHD as device?
The problem that you are needing to address is that of a Missing Folder (?) in the Lightroom Folder panel. It has nothing to do with an EHD. The parent folder that is shown in the Screen shot is the Library Folder. The Library Folder is a hidden System folder and applications such as Lightroom Classic do not have access to that "Library" folder. I can't tell you how the "missing Folders" got assigned to the "Library" Folder, but you will need to move them to a non system folder location before LrC can access them.
To expose the "Library" folder in Finder, Click on the "Go" menu item to drop down the sub menu. When you press the {Option} key the "Library" folder sub menu item is exposed. You can then click on that "Library" submenu item to open the Library folder in Finder. You should at this point be able to see the date named folders that are sub folders of "/Library" If they are not there, then they have been moved some where else. You need to find that "somewhere else" in Finder. If the date named folder in question are subfolders of "/Library", you need to move them "somewhere else" in Finder. Once you Locate the true location of the missing folders, you can right click on any folder in the Folder panel showing a (?) and navigate to the "somewhere else" location using the "Find Missing Folder..." context menu. You may need to repeat this for all missing (?) folders in the Folder panel.

FWIW EHDs are mounted as sub folders under the root folder as "/Volumes/{VolumeName}/
Thank you. I appreciate your looking again at this dilemma. Yes, I see what you are seeing. No way of knowing how the files and folders ended up in the root library folder, but I think our solution of saving Metadata to files (folder by folder), moving them "somewhere else" (namely the EHD, called JMac1 in the Folders Column), and then adding them to a new Catalog will have to suffice.
 
Another thing. You say it is really not a problem, and yet, in the screen captures I attached it is evident that Folders in the EHD are not recognized. They are listed as missing with '?' next to them. And, re-linking (as I would usually do) does not work because the EHD is NOT a subfolder of the root folder so it is not possible to navigate to what the Lightroom catalog is looking for! It is definitely a problem for my client since her current catalog shows over 23K missing files - as indicated in the screen captures.
Yes, right you are. Thank you for pointing out the Library folder! We are in the process of moving them 'somewhere else', such as the EHD where they were meant to be.
 
Yes, right you are. Thank you for pointing out the Library folder! We are in the process of moving them 'somewhere else', such as the EHD where they were meant to be.
Where are they now? Lightroom expects them to be in the Library folder, but says they are missing so they are apparently not there.
 
Thank you. I appreciate your looking again at this dilemma. Yes, I see what you are seeing. No way of knowing how the files and folders ended up in the root library folder, but I think our solution of saving Metadata to files (folder by folder), moving them "somewhere else" (namely the EHD, called JMac1 in the Folders Column), and then adding them to a new Catalog will have to suffice.
You are going around in circles. You can’t save metadata to files as long as these files are ‘missing’, so you will first have to ‘reconnect‘ them before you can do that (and then you no longer need to do that).
 
Where are they now? Lightroom expects them to be in the Library folder, but says they are missing so they are apparently not there.

Lightroom does not have permissions to the “Library” folder to read the folders. This does not mean they are not there.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Lightroom does not have permissions to the “Library” folder to read the folders. This does not mean they are not there.
I thought about that too, but you forget one thing. Lightroom Classic apparently did read those folders, otherwise it wouldn't show them in the catalog at all. So if it did read those folders and added them to the catalog, why would it all of a sudden be unable to read them now and show them as missing? That doesn't sound logical. Granted, it's not impossible. Maybe the new MacOS Monterey security has something to do with this, but I would think it is more logical that those folders have simply been moved, just like what always happens with 'missing' folders.
 
I thought about that too, but you forget one thing. Lightroom Classic apparently did read those folders, otherwise it wouldn't show them in the catalog at all. So if it did read those folders and added them to the catalog, why would it all of a sudden be unable to read them now and show them as missing? That doesn't sound logical. Granted, it's not impossible. Maybe the new MacOS Monterey security has something to do with this, but I would think it is more logical that those folders have simply been moved, just like what always happens with 'missing' folders.

It might be possible for MacOS to allow the /Library folder to be open for read but not read in any sub folder such as the date named folders. More puzzling is how Lightroom ever got the date named folders into the /Library folder to begin with. But without more knowledge of the history that got the Folder panel to show as it does, we are both just guessing.

However, we bot h are in agreement on the solution: Find or move the Date named folders to a new location that is not under the /Library and use the LrC “Find missing Folder” to relink.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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