How to change the drive letter where LR looks for my photos

[msilver2]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom classic 8.3.1

Operating System

1. Windows 10

At home, I've been keeping all my photos on an external hard drive that my computer knows as the H drive. So the LR catalog looks for my photos on this drive.

I use my laptop computer at work, where i plug into the work network, and then I use the same laptop at home. Because my work network assigns drive letter H to a drive, my new computer, when back home, will not let me assign letter H to the external drive that has my photos.

I'd be happy to give that external drive a different letter, one that doesn't cause a conflict with the letters used at work, but how would LR find my photos? Is there a way to tell LR that all the pathnames in the catalog that begin with H:\ must now be changed, to say X:\ ? Can this be done globally without much trouble?

(In case it matters, my new computer is a windows 10 computer)

Any help is much appreciated

 

[Paul McFarlane]

Hi

Yes, easy. Check the point on this Blog that includes the entire drive assignment changing:

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-photos-missing-fix/

 

[Philippe Coudé du Foresto]

You can also "mount" your drive in a folder. This path will never change, so you can use it to reference your image in LR instaed of a letter.

 

[PhilBurton]

You can also "mount" your drive in a folder. This path will never change, so you can use it to reference your image in LR instaed of a letter.

Phillippe,

Are you speaking of Windows or Mac OSX? If Windows, it might be helpful to provide a link to a good explanation of how to use a Windows mount process.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Phillippe,

Are you speaking of Windows or Mac OSX? If Windows, it might be helpful to provide a link to a good explanation of how to use a Windows mount process.

MacOS X does not use drive letters. Never has. It uses disk names, so this problem does not occur.

 

[Philippe Coudé du Foresto]

Are you speaking of Windows or Mac OSX?

I'm speaking of Windows. Asigning a folder is done the same way as assigning a letter :
After connecting the external drive, go to the drive management as you would do to assign a letter. Once in drive management :
(My Windows is in french, so my translation might not represent the exact terms in Windows english)

1. Right click on the drive
2. Select "Change drive letter and path"
   
   
   
   
   
3. In the dialog box, select "Add"
   
   
   
   
   
4. In the new dialog box, select "Mount in the following NTFS folder:"
   
   
   
   Click on "Browse" to open a browse dialog box
   
   
5. Select a folder (and eventually create a new one)
   
   
   
   Click "OK" to close the Browse dialog box
   
   
6. Click "OK" to assign the selected folder
   
   

Your drive is now assigned to this path that will never change.
Note the a drive can be assigned more than one path (a letter end a folder, 2 letters, etc.)
On my system, I've a root folder called "DisqueExterne" in wich I've created a folder for each drive (HD or USB key), and I give to the folder the same name as the drive.
I often delete the letter assignment, so the drive is only accessible thru the folder path.

In LR, I use the folder path, not the letter path (if any)

 

[clee01l]

MacOS X does not use drive letters. Never has. It uses disk names, so this problem does not occur.

And in MacOS, the volume name is always mounted in a folder