Import Custom folder structure on import

[vbnut]

Lightroom Version

Lightroom Classic version: 12.0.1

Operating System

1. Windows 10

For many years (since at last 2008) I've been successfully using the technique for customizing the folder structure used when importing images described by Mark and Matt, along with one manual step after importing to get my desired folder structure. After purchasing a new camera I upgraded from Lightroom 5.7.1 to Lightroom Classic (12.0.1) a week ago, and have been processing images that had already been copied to my computer (using a Powershell script I wrote that to use exiftool to copy images into my desired folder structure and create two backup copies). Today I started to do my first import from a memory card, and noticed a couple strange things. It appears that my import presets were successfully transfered from LR 5.7.1 or LrC, but when I select my one of my import presets in LR 5.7.1 the Destination section of the Import dialog looks like

and if I open the Date Format menu I see

while in LrC it looks like

and if I open the Date Format menu I see

LrC is indicating, however, that it is going to import the images to the desired location

After noticing this, I realized that I hadn't copied my custom TranslatedStrings.txt file into LrC like I've had to do every time I've installed LR 5.7.1 (and earlier) on a new computer. I then checked in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom Classic\Resources and saw that there was no en folder, so after exiting LRC I copied that folder from LR 5.7.1 to LrC restarted it and found it didn't make any difference.

At that point I realized that I didn't understand how LrC was indicating that it was going to import the images to the desired location (after I select my preset) given the missingTranslatedStrings.txt file, so I opened the C:\Users\pcanning\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Import Presets\User Presets\Wildlife from Card.lrtemplate file in Notepad and found in contains a line
shootNameFormat = "%Y/%Y-%m/%Y-%m-%d",
which seems to explain that. Interestingly, there doesn't appear to be a seperate/new folder for Lightroom Classic presets, different from Lightroom 5.7.1 presets, so I guess my presets where accidentally inherited. In fact, while experimenting I created a couple new import presets in LrC, and they do show up in the LR 5.7.1 import presets menu.

So, my first question is Does anyone know how to get 2022 Photos/2022-12 December/2022-12-06 to show up in the LrC's Date Format menu?

As I mentioned above, to get my desired folder structure, 2022 Photos/2022-12 December/2022-12-06/2022-12-06 <event_name_or_location>, I have always had to do manually create the final 2022-12-06 <event_name_or_location> folder and copy the images into it. My Powershell script prompts me for event_name_or_location, and copies the images into the final directory. The main reason I was looking so closely at the new import dialog (and its documentation) is that I was hoping that after 7 major releases and 8 years Adobe would have added

1. official support for customizing folder structure
2. a tag that I could put in the string template to access that value I type into the Into Subfolder field in the Destination section so that I can combine it with the date tags to specify the final 2022-12-06 <event_name_or_location> folder

I've looked in the Adobe documentation for importing and haven't found anything about either of these features, so my second question is did I miss something for item 1 and is there any way to accomplish #2?

Finally, while many of the entries in the import preset preset files (e.g. Wildlife from Card.lrtemplate) are pretty self explanatory, a number of them are not (and some of those have intriguing names). My final question is has anyone found documentation for the import preset file format, or reversed engineered it?

 

[johnbeardy]

After noticing this, I realized that I hadn't copied my custom TranslatedStrings.txt file into LrC like I've had to do every time I've installed LR 5.7.1 (and earlier) on a new computer.

That's probably a mistake. While they have not fundamentally changed the mechanism over those 8 years, Adobe have added terms and keyboard shortcuts since 5.7.1, so it's better to copy the line from your old translation file into the same place in the current one.

Also, you need to edit the TranslatedStrings.txt in the program itself, not in a user presets folder.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Translated Strings file also changed name and location a few years ago. This blog's about using it to change keyboard shortcuts, but the same file and locations apply: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/custom-keyboard-shortcuts/

 

[vbnut]

Thanks folks.

@johnbeardy, As suggested in the custom keyboard shortcuts blog post Victoria referenced, there is no existing translate strings file in the en folder in Windows. In fact in my installation there wasn't an en folder until I created it. It appears the English strings are embeddded in Lightroom.exe (I can extract them using the Linux strings command).

@Victoria Bampton I had the right location, but the wrong filename. Renaming TranslatedStrings.txt to TranslatedStrings_Lr_en_US.txt fixed the problem with the Date Format menu.

That answesr my first question and it sounds like the answer to part 1 of my second question (is there an officially supported way to customize the import folder structure?) is No.

That leaves part 2 of my second questions and my third question. Can anyone answer these:

• Is there a tag that I could put in the string template to access the value I type into the Into Subfolder field in the Destination section so that I can combine it with the date tags to specify the final 2022-12-06 <event_name_or_location> folder?
• Has anyone found any documentation for the import preset file format (the entries in the file), or reversed engineered it?

 

[Victoria Bampton]

That answesr my first question and it sounds like the answer to part 1 of my second question (is there an officially supported way to customize the import folder structure?) is No.

Correct, nothing official.

That leaves part 2 of my second questions and my third question. Can anyone answer these:

• Is there a tag that I could put in the string template to access the value I type into the Into Subfolder field in the Destination section so that I can combine it with the date tags to specify the final 2022-12-06 <event_name_or_location> folder?
• Has anyone found any documentation for the import preset file format (the entries in the file), or reversed engineered it?

Other than what you'll find on the web, I think the only documentation is in the Geeky Bits chapter of my Missing FAQ book. And no, you can't add anything like that to the folder name. You can rename the folder after import of course, to add the event name to the automated date.

 

[vbnut]

Thanks Victoria. I guess I'll have to decide between using my Powershell/exiftool script followed by my Import wildlife from existing folder import preset or using a preset that imports into 2022 Photos/2022-12 December/2022-12-06/2022-12-06 RenameMe followed by renaming the final folder. Each approach has its own pros and cons. I may end up using different approaches depending on what's on the card (i.e. how many shoots and how many days).