Lightroom cant find external file

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Sodapop

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Unplugged all connections from computer to clean it. Plugged all back in and now cant find photos in external. They syow but wiwth a question mark in folder column and exclamation mark in thumbnails.
Tried all instructions for missing photos none work. What do I do? External drive used to be g now it is h. Help
 
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Quickest thing is to right-click on the top-level folder showing in the Folders Panel and select "Find Missing Folder", a file browser window opens. Navigate to and select the folder which is now listed on the H:/ drive. That should fix it for now (if you have more than one top-level folders you'll need to repeat for each one).

Sometime in the future the same issue will recur, i.e. next time you'll plug things back in but in a different order and the H:/ will become G (or some other letter). So the best long term fix is to reallocate a different drive letter near the end of the alphabet, relink to the new drive letter, and you should be OK thereafter.
 
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Tried that. It cant find the missing file. I could reimport but then would lose all adjustments keywords etc. 11,000 photos Very frustrated, all because I changed the sequence of plugging drives. I guess there is no quick fix but please plesae if anyone knows a way around this I need your help.

Sodapop said:
Unplugged all connections from computer to clean it. Plugged all back in and now cant find photos in external. They syow but wiwth a question mark in folder column and exclamation mark in thumbnails.
Tried all instructions for missing photos none work. What do I do? External drive used to be g now it is h. Help
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Really, this is a very simple fix. When you right-click on a missing FOLDER, not file, you select "Find Missing Folder" and in the resulting file browser YOU have to tell Lightroom where that folder is by browsing to it (on the H drive).

If you can't get that to work, then I suggest you shut down the computer, unplug the G and H drives, startup the computer again and this time first plug in the drive containing your pictures, and hopefully it will be given the G drive letter again.
 
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Thanks for your reply. Pluging in the H drive after restarting does not change the letter. Is there a way to rename the H drive to a G drive and would that allow Lightroom to find? I can find the sub folder and bring it back OK. However I have many sub folders filed under a folder named all my photos as I was instructed to do when I started with LR. How can I find and reconnect all of those folders at one time?
Sorry for being so thick, I am obviously not a computer whiz. Need your help on this

soda
 
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If all the folders are under that one parent folder called "all my photos", then that's the folder you should right-click on....do the "Find Missing Folder" on that one folder, and ALL the sub-folders will be relinked as well.

You can only change the letter of the H drive back to G if nothing else is using the G letter (I suspect that there may be). If G is free, then yes you can change H to G by following these instructions.
 
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When I go to the folders, the external drive shows up with all the ? marks but there is no question mark beside all my photos folder. It does exist because it is there when I open the drive outside of lightroom. What am I doing wrong?
 
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That shouldn't be possible. Are you looking under the G drive in the Folders Panel? If you've already re-linked one of the missing sub-folders to the H drive, then yes that "all my photos" folder will appear under the H drive, without the "?" mark.....but it should still also appear under the G drive WITH the "?" mark.

Why don't you take and post a screenshot of the Folders Panel, showing both the G and the H drive (if the H drive is showing)? It'll then be a lot easier for us to figure out what's happened.
 
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Here is a screen shot. Switched drive back to H since that is what now shows in Lightroom. The All my photos does not show a ?

Screen shot will not load for some reason.

Can I simply "impor"t them back in?



Jim Wilde said:
That shouldn't be possible. Are you looking under the G drive in the Folders Panel? If you've already re-linked one of the missing sub-folders to the H drive, then yes that "all my photos" folder will appear under the H drive, without the "?" mark.....but it should still also appear under the G drive WITH the "?" mark.



Why don't you take and post a screenshot of the Folders Panel, showing both the G and the H drive (if the H drive is showing)? It'll then be a lot easier for us to figure out what's happened.
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Your screenshot came through OK.

First thing, please don't try to reimport as that would risk losing all your edits.

Second, please don't try any more recovery attempts unless you are certain of the outcome.....we need to try to figure out what you steps you've taken that has caused the issue that I'm now seeing, and then correct it. Can I have another screenshot, this time of the H drive showing all the sub-folders in the All Photos folder. I can't see an "all my photos" folder, so I assume you mean "All Photos"?
 
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