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Files not lost, just missing from Lightroom

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hafeatherston

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  1. Windows 10
Synchronize folder finds photos that are still in the proper directory on my hard drive but not in the corresponding lightroom directory. They were there previously but now they're gone. They are not missing, so I don't need to locate them, they are just not there anymore. Any ideas why and should I just re-import them to reattached the pointers or is there a better method to clean this up?

I am also getting a lot of duplicate files generated with my PC name appended to the file name, even on files I haven't opened lately. I'm not sure why this is happening and if it might have something to do with the problem above. I do delete the duplicate files on the hard drive. I do run Lightroom on 2 computers that share the catalog on OneDrive, but I'm very careful to make sure the catalog has finished syncing before switching computers. Again, not sure if this is relevant but I thought I should include this info.

I would appreciate any help on both of these issues.
 
On the first part of your question, Lr can't just 'forget' photos - two possibles to consider. 1) you deleted them from Lr (I appreciate that's unlikely or you'd say!) or 2) you opened an older or backup copy of the catalog before they were imported. That possible?

Can you also confirm the actual version of LrC you're using (About will tell you, the latest is 9.4)
 
Thank for the reply Paul. I wouldn't have thought it would forget some photos but I haven't deleted them ( I would have said) and I haven't opened any backups. And yes, I'm on 9.4
Should I just re-import them to clean up the pointers??
 
I'm really stuck. I selected my Pictures folder and ran Synchronize Folder to see how many photos were not found in Lightroom. It was over 2000! I selected one that I edited the other day, so I'm sure what occured with it. I opened it in Lightroom and edited it in Photoshop and saved it. I returned to Lightroom and the photo was there with the Photoshop edits. I saw it there. Now it's not in Lightroom but it is in the hard drive folder, in the correct folder.
I thought that I had read somewhere that importing files again could cause issues, so I have not re-imported them, but I'm not sure how else to fix this problem.
Again, I would appreciate any help! Thanks.

Holly
 
So, you imported one photo out of the 2,000 that were found when you ran Synchronize Folder; is that right? What happened between the time that you saw it in Lightroom -- after the Photoshop edit -- and when it went missing again? Did you restart Lightroom or your computer?

Also, have you tried using the Filter Bar to search for the filename of the "missing" photo? It's possible that it is in Lightroom's catalog, but not in the place where you expected to find it. Try it and let us know what happens.
 
Hi - thanks for replying. I ran Synchronize Folder to see what was there, but I didn't import anything yet.
After the edit I did restart Lightroom and probably my computer, but I'm not sure. I do know that a number of the photos that showed up as needing synchronization I have never edited.

I just tried the Filter Bar as you suggested. The original photo that I was editing is there, but the Photoshop edit (a tif file) is not.

Thanks again.

Holly
 
Dumb question, I hope, but when you typed the file name into the Filter Bar, did you include the extension? If you did, the TIF or PSD from Photoshop would be filtered out. I'm assuming the original was some other format such as JPG, NEF or CR2.

Next, open Windows Explorer and search your entire computer for the filename - without the extension - and see if that TIF/PSD file exists. If not, maybe you forgot to save it in Photoshop.
 
Not dumb. I tried it with and without the extension with no luck and yes the original is a JPG.

The file is in File Explorer and in the correct folder. I checked a number of the other files that showed up on the synchronization and they also don't show up with a Filter Bar search but do show up in File Explorer.

Holly
 
I've re-read your posts. Sounds like you might be confusing "re-importing" with "synchronizing". If you synchronize the 2,000 photos, you won't lose any data.

It sounds as if you've never actually finished the synchronization. You need to click the Synchronize button for the photos to be added to your catalog. Try that and you should resolve this issue.
 
Thanks. That's what I thought I needed to do, just still baffled by the photos being missing in the first place.

Any ideas on the duplicate files generated with my PC name appended to the file name?
 
I've re-read your posts. Sounds like you might be confusing "re-importing" with "synchronizing". If you synchronize the 2,000 photos, you won't lose any data.

It sounds as if you've never actually finished the synchronization. You need to click the Synchronize button for the photos to be added to your catalog. Try that and you should resolve this issue.

I don’t think you are on the right track here. If a file is cataloged but showing as missing, you don’t want to synchronize the folder or reimport. Synchronizing the folder is an import process too

If the image files are in the catalog but listed as missing, you need to relinquish the files to the current path because the path info in the catalog is no longer valid either because you or some process moved or deleted the files outside of Lightroom.

If the files are no longer cataloged but in the folders where they were originally imported. The remained there because you used the remove function instead of the delete function. When you delete Lightroom pops up a dialog asking if your want to delete the files from the Disk AND the catalog or Only Remove them from the catalog.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Synchronize folder finds photos that are still in the proper directory on my hard drive but not in the corresponding lightroom directory. They were there previously but now they're gone. They are not missing, so I don't need to locate them, they are just not there anymore. Any ideas why and should I just re-import them to reattached the pointers or is there a better method to clean this up?.
I you have files in folders in windows that are not in the same folder in the Lightroom Catalog but were there previously, they were removed fron the catalog but not deleted from the file system.

Also if you revert to an old catalog that shows these folders but was older than when you imported these files in the later catalog files you need to simply open your lates catalog.

If you removed the catalog information about these file you need to reimport either by the conventional import dialog of by using the synchronize folder function which invokes the import dialog


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
The original post said "They are not missing, so I don't need to locate them, they are just not there anymore." They're missing from the catalog without a trace.
Is it possible there is a filter active?
 
Yes, they are not missing. Synchronize is showing all the photos that are in File Explorer but not in my catalog. I was saying re-import because there is no way that I neglected to import 2000+ files and the function in synchronize is import. I am diligent about making all changes in Lightroom. And I do delete from the hard drive as well if I delete a photo. But I haven't deleted that many. The only mass deletes I have made from File Explorer were the duplicate files with the PC name appended to them. They don't show up in Lightroom, so I can't delete them from there.

I checked the filters. They're off.

I'm still baffled. Should I synchronize??

Holly
 
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