Help please, can't find photos in the gallery

[emesfa]

Hi! I have a problem I already had like a month ago but I don't know how to solve it.

I upgraded from L2.5 to L3 and couldn't import some of the photos I had been using with L2.5 (some!) I was getting crazy when someone here recommended me to open the L2.5 gallery and convert it and then import from the gallery. Great, problem solved.

But now I can't find MOST of my pictures (the ones used with the L2.5 and some used with L3) and I just don't know what to do. I've done the previous instructions over and over but the only thing I get is to creat gallery-3/-4 but nothing really changes...
I have a whole 2010 folder that is not found... and I can't "find the folder" because it doesn't appear in there!
I'm thinking about erasing all the galleries because I can't even import my photos and this is really driving me crazy... any suggestion?

 

[emesfa]

is this what you need?

 

[emesfa]

and these...

 

[clee01l]

If you want to move a folder named "2009" from your current parent folder to a parent folder on a different drive, you need a container (parent folder) to receive it.
Once you have this container folder in place, in LR, click on the '+' located on the right side of the Folder header in the folder panel. This opens a context menu. From this menu, choose {Add Folder...} Then in the dialog that opens, Navigate to the container folder that you set up on the new drive and choose it. Now Back in the Folder panel, you have (at least) two parent folders. Drag the folder named "2009' from its old parent to the new parent that you just created. Any sub folders under "2009' will get moved too. If you have additional high level folders at the same level as "2009' (Like perhaps '2008' ) you will need to move these after you have started the '2009' move.

 

[Jim Wilde]

Emma, before you do any moves, could I have two more screenshots please: again in Windows Explorer can you browse to G:\Emma\Fotos\ then right-click on the folder Lightroom 3 Catalog, select properties, wait until that finishes counting the files and give me a screenshot of the result. Then click on the folder to open its contents in the right-hand window and give me a screenshot of it. I'm trying to find out how much space your catalogs and previews data are taking up on the G drive, before you make the decision about which picture folder (if any) you need to move.

Also, it seems that you are using a backup catalog, were you aware of that?

 

[emesfa]

am I using a backup catalog? I guess I wasn't aware of that...

I'm just so tired of this mess in my folders, I thought I had cleared it up but it seems I didn't... yet.

I still have the folder with all the catalogs I told you about the last time I asked... I fear deleting anything and messing it up even more.

Another thing... when I process a picture in LR then I export and process it in Photoshop. I know the picture I export is saved in a folder in G. Should I delete that folder since I save (again) the jpg and psd after processing in PS? I don't like doing the "Edit in Photoshop" because I can't save the jpg then.
I know there must be easier ways to do this and it disheartens me so much knowing I'm adding more complications....

 

[Jim Wilde]

Don't despair, it shouldn't take much to sort these last issues out. One more screenshot please: open that Backups folder within the Lightroom 3 Catalog folder and take a shot of the right-hand window.

Looking at all those hard drives, apart obviously from the C drive, are all the others externals or are any of them internal? Just trying to establish which would be the best drive for setting up a new catalog folder so that you'll not run into the problem of the catalog being offline when you start Lightroom as you did a few weeks ago.

 

[emesfa]

C and E are internal, the other 3 are external.

 

[Jim Wilde]

OK, thanks for that....it confirms that somehow you started using the backup catalog sometime after January 24th. Probably not an issue, but I think the first thing we need to do is to get the catalog location on a firm basis. Ideally it would be better on one of the internal drives, and although there isn't a great deal of free space on either of them there will be enough for the time being (and when we do the move we can get rid of some of the backups as you don't need so many).

After we've done that, I think it would then be a good idea to have a look at the G drive to see what data we can clean off there....when we've done that we can make a decision about moving some of the pictures over to the H drive (it may not be necessary just yet).

Finally we can look at your workflow in respect of Photoshop and see if we can find a way that is more efficient regarding disk space usage.

Does that sound like a sensible way forward? We don't have to rush this, we can take our time to make the right decisions and we can take it step by step over the next few days.

If you are OK with that we can make a start as soon as you are ready....we can start tonight or leave it until it is more convenient for you.

 

[emesfa]

Ok, we can start as soon as it's ok for you although I may come and go and it'll take me some time to reply but will check as much as I can.

 

[Jim Wilde]

OK, before we start can you just tell me how comfortable you are using Explorer to copy files and folders from one drive to another? Do I need to provide detailed instructions or are you happy if I just say "copy file x from the G drive to folder y on the C drive"?

 

[emesfa]

if it's not going to ruin the folder in LR, I'm ok copying or moving using Explorer, that's fine, and if I get lost I'll let you know.

 

[Jim Wilde]

OK, well the first thing we are going to do is create a folder on the C drive called something like 'Lightroom Catalog Folder' which you can either create in the Pictures folder or in the root directory. It only matters from the point of being able to easily locate it and to include it in your backup scheme. For now let's create it in the root directory, then create a sub-folder within called "Emma LR3 Catalog".

When they have been created, make sure that Lightroom is NOT running and then go to the G drive and open the folder G:\Emma\Fotos\Lightroom 3 Catalog\Backups\2011-1-24 2215. Inside that folder you should see a file called Emma LR3 Catalog.lrcat and a folder called Emma LR3 Catalog Previews.lrdata. I want you to COPY these two items and put them inside the folder Emma LR3 Catalog which you just created inside the Lightroom Catalog Folder on the C drive.

Let me know if that is understood!

 

[emesfa]

Yes, understood and done.

 

[Jim Wilde]

OK, now double-click on the file Emma LR3 Catalog.lrcat on the C drive....this should open Lightroom, when it does take a screenshot of the Edit>Catalog Settings>General Tab. Thanks.

 

[emesfa]

done.

 

[Jim Wilde]

Great....now 3 last things for this evening....

1. In Lightroom, Edit>Preferences>General Tab.....in the box for the Default Catalog, where is says "When Starting up use this catalog" I want you to make sure that the file specified is the new catalog on the C drive. If is currently says 'Load most recent catalog' click on the down arrow to the right and you may see several catalogs listed....if the new one on the C drive is there, click on it to select it. This will make sure that you always startup using the correct catalog. May I have a screenshot to make sure it's correct.

2. On the G drive, rename the Emma\Fotos\Lightroom 3 Catalog folder to something like 'Old Catalog Folder'....when we are finished we will delete this, but for now let's keep it but hide it from Lightroom.

3. Finally, can you give me an Explorer screenshot of the G drive so that we can start thinking about a clean up.

Thanks.

 

[emesfa]

1. changed. (see attached)

3. still need to delete those folders we created in december, haven't had time to go back to that and revise but I think we can delete them now

 

[Jim Wilde]

OK, that looks fine. Could I just have a screenshot inside the Emma LR Catalogs folder on the G drive? Thanks.

 

[emesfa]

done.

 

[Jim Wilde]

Thanks...let's call it a night and we'll start having a look at the G drive clean up tomorrow, OK?

 

[emesfa]

OK! Thanks!

Night!

 

[Jim Wilde]

Emma, a couple of things for you to do please:

1. When you gave me the screenshots of the Properties of all your hard drives, you gave me the H drive twice (see post #202), I think you have another drive so could you show me the Properties of that drive please?
2. On the G drive, if you have never had any reason to go looking in the Duplicate Fotos folder, I think you can go ahead and delete it.
3. Also on the G drive, in Explorer can you open the Backups folder inside the OLD Catalog Folder? I think you can safely delete all the sub-folders that start with the 2010 year....we'll keep all of the 2011 backups, but you don't really need more than that. Then after you have deleted all the 2010 backups, could you COPY the "Backups" folder from the G drive into the C:\Users\Emma\Lightroom Catalog Folder\Emma LR3 Catalog folder on your C drive. Then post a screenshot of that Emma LR3 Catalog folder, thanks.

Once that has been done we'll adjust your Lightroom backup process to use the new location, pending a look at your regular backup scheme. While we are doing all this we may as well get that fully sorted as well. :grin:

 

[emesfa]

ok, everything asked to be deleted is deleted... and I'm about to COPY "backups" folder, but it asks to combine it with the current "backups" folder... I guess I should accept, just asking to do it well

 

[Jim Wilde]

There shouldn't be a current Backups folder unless you did a backup after we moved the catalog to the C drive. If you have, no problems to go ahead and merge. If you haven't taken a backup I'm a bit confused so please get back to me...

 

[emesfa]

ok, it's true... every Sunday asks me to do a backup so that is probably why... I merged them.