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Lightroom on a PC won't recognize my SSD drive--need help!!!

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katekc

New Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2021
Messages
3
Lightroom Version Number
10
Operating System
  1. Windows 10
Has anyone had this problem? It started maybe four months ago, where LR would suddenly not recognize the photos (I keep LR catalogue on the PC and photos on the hard drive. After an hour on chat with Adobe, they told me that my problem was OneDrive, so I went to Microsoft, and they helped me unlink OneDrive. It's been fine for about a month, and now it's back. I've been using a new Samsung SSD drive with no problems, and suddenly, seemingly out of the blue, LR won't recognize the photos on it. Has anyone else had this problem and do you have any recommendations! Thanks so much.
 
What do you mean with “won’t recognize”? What does (not) happen exactly?
 
I used One drive For Business (ie 365) for a small number of files in a small number of folders. I later installed OneDrive Personal (to assist a niece who had issues and could only use OneDrive Personal to see the files she wanted to share with me). Very soon afterwards I found all sorts of anomalies.... I discovered shortly after that Windows had moved my Desktop onto OneDrive (Personal) plus lots of Desktop sub folders, plus lots of other Library Folders, such as Pictures, Music, etc. I was unaware that Microsoft/OneDrive would make such drastic changes to my PC config. I specifically did not want these folders in the cloud. Because I was configuring a new laptop at the same time, these changes rippled thru to other PCs I own. It took me months to unravel the mess, I am still not sure if I have got back to where I started.

My philosophy with disk storage services (such as One Drive, DropBox, iCloud, etc) is that any files or folders I copy to these services are purely for the convenience of replicating the files on another PC (and I never use these services for backup purposes) and that I am prepared to lose these files or folders at any stage (because I keep the originals in my original folder structures outside of the virtual storage services).

I am not suggesting that everyone follow my methodology on this..... but there may be some aspects of the behaviour of OneDrive on your installation which may be causing you these issues. For example, the root cause may stem from file admin taking place on a different PC of yours which may overlap the OneDrive installation on that remote PC.

Of course, this may be irrelevant to your scenario... but just wanted to flag it as a possibility.
 
I used One drive For Business (ie 365) for a small number of files in a small number of folders. I later installed OneDrive Personal (to assist a niece who had issues and could only use OneDrive Personal to see the files she wanted to share with me). Very soon afterwards I found all sorts of anomalies.... I discovered shortly after that Windows had moved my Desktop onto OneDrive (Personal) plus lots of Desktop sub folders, plus lots of other Library Folders, such as Pictures, Music, etc. I was unaware that Microsoft/OneDrive would make such drastic changes to my PC config. I specifically did not want these folders in the cloud. Because I was configuring a new laptop at the same time, these changes rippled thru to other PCs I own. It took me months to unravel the mess, I am still not sure if I have got back to where I started.

My philosophy with disk storage services (such as One Drive, DropBox, iCloud, etc) is that any files or folders I copy to these services are purely for the convenience of replicating the files on another PC (and I never use these services for backup purposes) and that I am prepared to lose these files or folders at any stage (because I keep the originals in my original folder structures outside of the virtual storage services).

I am not suggesting that everyone follow my methodology on this..... but there may be some aspects of the behaviour of OneDrive on your installation which may be causing you these issues. For example, the root cause may stem from file admin taking place on a different PC of yours which may overlap the OneDrive installation on that remote PC.

Of course, this may be irrelevant to your scenario... but just wanted to flag it as a possibility.
Thanks for your comment. One Drive is not a good thing. I don't have other computers One Drive was linked to. I thought I'd loved it by finally unlinking One Drive. And that cloud is no longer showing up on my task bar. But yes, I wonder if its somehow not completely gone. Also, the lock and wal files keep popping up in my folder when I open LR.
 
When you see "?" marks in the LrC folders panel, if you then go to File Manager (My PC or Windows Explorer), does it show you the drive in question? If not, try replacing the cable connecting the drive to the PC. If you do see the drive in File Manager and can see your folders and images in File Manager, then you may want to see if Windows assigned a different drive letter to the drive than the one showing up in the LrC Folders panel. If they are not the same, in windows assign a specific drive letter to the drive (use the same one that LrC shows if possible) so that it doesn't change each time you re-boot your computer. If you'd like to go to a higher dirve letter (like "P" for "Photos"), first make the assignment in windows so the drive is showing up in File manager with the designated drive letter. Then, in LrC, relink the "?" folders to the correct folders in the newly re-lettered drive.
 
Also, the lock and wal files keep popping up in my folder when I open LR.
This seems to indicate that OneDrive has some impact on your Lr installation. I used the example of multiple Pcs sharing OneDrive Folders, but my main issue is that Windows moved Library Folders such as MyDocs, MyDesktop,MyPics,MyMusic, etc when I installed OneDrive Personal. This was devastating to my carefully setup folder structure and impacted lots of how I used various apps, not only Lr.

I spent days and days trying to untangle the issue/mess, including getting support from Microsoft via my Office 365 account. There were images in these folders which were also inside my Lr Catalog, and causing various issues, but luckily for me those images were not part of my main photo collection. I was happy to remove these folders from my Lr Catelog. For others, such images might be very important and may need more careful maintenance to reestablish a base status.
 
Hi, When I open LR, I can see my SSD drive and the folders on it. But they all have question marks next to them. And when I go to develop a photo, it tells me the file cannot be found.
As you are using Windows, this could have been caused by something rather simple. Windows sometimes changes the drive letter, for example when you connect another pheripheral. Check what drive letter the drive has in Lightroom and then check what drive letter it really has (in Explorer). If they are not the same, then first assign a fixed letter so it can’t happen again (use a high letter like ‘P‘ for Photos): How to manage and assign permament drive letters in Windows 10 and then fix the missing photos: Lightroom thinks my photos are missing—how do I fix it? | The Lightroom Queen
 
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