Import Importing to Existing Folders from Other devices

[jenandbob]

Lightroom Version Number

LR Classic 6

Operating System

1. Windows 10

Hi! I've got a folder structure that is by Year, then Month, then individually event named folders. How do I go about importing from 2 different phones and a GoPro. I used to have folders, by Date only, so Lightroom would automatically add the pictures to each day's folder of pictures. But, now with this new Year/Month/Event file structure, is there any way to avoid having to touch each picture and drag them into the appropriate folder? Thank you!

 

[clee01l]

The biggest problem that I see is your “year/month/event” folder structure. Lightroom has a default “year/month” import folder structure. “Event” is more appropriate when used as a Collection. And this is how you are using “Event” in Lightroom mobile.

Since you are using Lightroom 6, should I assume that you are not using a subscription? With a subscription all of the albums would be sync’ as Classic collections and there would be no issues. In Lightroom mobile, you do not really have access to the file system folders and what you see in Lightroom mobile aren’t really albums inside of “folders” but albums inside of collection sets as you will find in LR6.
Adobe made a mistake when they named groups of Albums in Lightroom mobile as “Folders “. This has confused you in thinking Lightroom mobile “folders” were the same as LR6 file system folders.

How do you import from your mobile devices into LR6? I don’t think you can sync to LR6 through the cloud without a subscription which would make your issue go away .

 

[jenandbob]

Cletus, thank you so much! I had never considered using the default LR folder structure as the Library (as it is named - duh!) and then use Catalogs as a way to manage and organize the photos. I mostly use LR desktop (not LR Mobile). I do not have a subscription. I downloaded and my last update was 6.14. I only use mobile to edit a few photos when I download them from my DSLR to my phone.

I was in the middle of organizing my 98,000 photos, so I have the last 10 years broken up into the the Year and Months. What would be the easiest way to get back to get them back to the Year Month default import folder structure? And now that I've messed with the folder structure, when I import from a different device, do you think LR will recognize the folders as already existing defaults and import them properly?

How I've imported in the past is that I plug the phone into the computer, and download the Folders of Pictures to the computer. Then I import those folders into Lightroom. For the GoPro, I use the card and Nikon card reader to import them.

It's going to be a lot of rework, but I'll be able to use LR as a real library of all photos from all devices.

One last question, how much would I gain by going with the Subscription to LR, I'm not opposed to it, but have avoided it. And, how hard /time consuming of a switch do you think it will be?

Thank you so incredibly much!

 

[clee01l]

I would not alter existing folders. But going forward, I would use the default YYYY/MM folder structure for new images. (This is the one that I use currently. In the past I have used YYYY/MonthName/DD and YYYY/MM/DD. The problem with YYYY/MonthName/DD is that April and August sort first before the other months.) After changing Date Named folder schemes, I tried to correct the old folder. Thais proved to be more troubling for little gain and was not an efficient use of my Lightroom time. Since folders are such a poor organization model for images and Collections are so much more efficient. I only open my folder panel the I need to do some housekeeping like moving older folders to an END and recovering space on my primary drive where performance is greatest and newer images are likely to be the ones that I will access for developing, printing or sharing on the web.

how much would I gain by going with the Subscription to LR

First, your mobile device images would sync directly to the cloud storage and on to the Classic master catalog seamlessly and automatically. The issue in your initial post goes away. If I take a photo on my phone, it automatically gets imported into the Lightroom mobile Phone app, from there to the cloud and back to my master catalog at home. If I cream an "album" on my phone it becomes a Collection on my Master catalog. I can sync proxy files from collections in Classic to the cloud and these show up in Lightroom for the Web and in the Lightroom Mobile app on the phone. This is a convenient way to share photos with friends and family.
Second, if you get a new camera (new since LR6.14 was released), the RAW proprietary format by that camera manufacturer will get correctly demosaic'd by Lightroom and no intermediate DNG conversion is required.
Third, All of the new functionality since LR6.14 is now available and since Adobe added new feature with each new release of LrClassic, you will have these .
Fourth, all of the performance improvements and bug fixes since 6.14 will be available in your upto date version of Lightroom Classic.
Fifth, In Addition to Lightroom Classic, you will get a desktop version of Lightroom Mobile Something that you can use to access your master catalog like you can on the iPhone if you have a laptop and want to take part of the master catalog as you travel. You also get the Photoshop app, 20GB or 1TB of cloud storage. and some other web related Adobe apps.

 

[jenandbob]

Cletus, It's been a big week. Got a new computer yesterday, a supp'd up Dell with two monitors and upgraded to Lightroom Classic CC & Photoshop (used to use PS Elements back in the day, so I'm excited to have PS now). Hubby did all the work to get my catalog moved over (took getting Adobe to do remote access) to the new computer and Lightroom Classic. It's just missing my LR Presets, do you have a resource you can point me to in order to find those on the old computer and bring those into the new computer and LR Classic?

Now that I'm on LR Classic CC, with the 20 GB plan, Do you have a workflow you recommend for using the Cloud space I have to migrate pics from my Camera (Nikon D850) to my phone, to LR on my Phone, to LR CC (?) Cloud, then to my personal server. I would like to use the Cloud as the passthrough spot, but avoid getting duplicate images all over the place.

Thank you so much for all your help! I really appreciate you for it.

 

[clee01l]

The presets folder is located either in the Lightroom settings folder or in a system folder. I’m on a slow internet connection away form home atm or I could provide a link to a blog article showing the location of you LR related files.

I import my 48mp Nikon NEFs to Lightroom on the phone/iPad and Lightroom syncs with the cloud and down to Lightroom Classic on my desktop top. Even with my current slow internet connection, my images shot this weekend will be on my desktop when I get home Monday. The only problem for you is that you will need to manually manage your 20GB limit in the cloud. A camera card is NEFs will quickly consume all of that 20 GB I have the 1TB plane and pay the additional fee to get more storage. 1 TB is overkill since I only use about 100GB.


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