Lost Folders

[Potus5]

For some curious reason I have lost in LR the linkages to a number of my folders. For example, when I attempt to back up my LR catalog to an external drive the "choose" pull down menu in the catalogue backup routine does NOT display any of my external hard drives nor most of the seperate internal drives. All that is listed is a hierarchial list of my personal 'C' drive user folders like "My Pictures" and "My Music". Thus I cannot choose the external hard drive where I previously stored my catalog backups. Yet my computer itself recognizes these drives, when I clikc on the "Computer" or the "Windows Explorere" icons, all my internal and external drives are recognzied and listed.

Likewise, I only see the same folder structure as above, in LR when I run the import command and attempt to move or copy RAW images to an external hard drive. When I click on the "choose" pull down menu in the "copy to" listing for the "copy photos to a new location and add to catalog" command, none of my extrnal drives or internal drives are listed. All that is listed is the various 'user' folders like "My Pictures" and "My Music".

Any idea what has happened and how to fix the problem? I've tried rebooting the commputer and relaunching LR but to no avail in solving the problem.

I'm runing LR2.6 on a 4G RAM board, using Windows 7. The computer system and LR worked fine two weeks ago when leaving on a photo trip to Jordon I shut everything down - depowered the computer and the external drives. When I returned this week and repowered the unit, LR could not recognize any of my external drives or most of the internal ones. The assigned drive letters for all my external drives had been altered for some reason by the boot-up and LR could not find the external drive with the catalog. I had to copy the catalog to the internal system drive and have LR load it from there. And with none of the external drives being reconized or even listed with their new drive letters I cannot direct LR as to what drives it should access.

Appreciate any advice on this issue.

 

[Potus5]

my theory vis the 3rd question was right - when logged in on the Glenn desktop and when I restart the computer I'm presented with two log in icons on the restart - one named "Glenn" and the other "Other Users". So result is:
1. when logged in on the Glenn desktop when I want to swithc to TNG account, I have to go to the "Other Users" and type in the user name "TNG"; but
2. when logged in on the TNG desktop when I want to go back to the Glenn desktop account I have to go to the "Other Users" and type in the user name "User" in order to bring up the Glenn account.

As for the further tests you requested:
1. Logged in as Glenn/User and launching LR - in the backup catalog location choice pull down menu all that appears is the word 'Desktop' and under it the folder "Glenn' - expanding that Glenn folder merely displays the various sub-folders for the profile. There is not "computer' folder to expand and no listing of the various other internal and external drives like D, E, F, L, N, P and Q - even though in Windows Explorer these drives are lsited and accessible.
2. Logged in as Glenn/User and double clicking via Explorer on the master catalog I get a message that Adobe LR is "trying to configure LR 2.6" and this then switches to a message "Feature ...is on a network resource that is unavailable" [and is using the 'use source' C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\{83BB4A4I....". When I then click on the 'browse' to search for an alternative source I can get access to all my internal and external drives. Since my LR program is actually lodged on my drive D - Programs I went to that drive as D:\Users\User\AppData\local but all that is listed therein is a folder called 'Microsoft' - there is no folder 'Temp'. If I then clikc on the "OK" button I get another error message like the screen shot I sent the other day - to wit - "The path C:\Users\User\AppData\Temp ...." cannot be flund. Verify you have access to this location and try again or try to find the installation package 'Adobe_Lightroom.msi' in a folder from which you can installthe product Adobe PS LR 2.6."

Am now going to log off and reboot and logon as TNG and repeat the exercise.

Glenn

 

[Potus5]

OK - ran the second test. Logged off and logon on as TNG. Doubled clicked on my Master Catalog and GOT THE SAME RESULTS as the 1st test - get the message that Windows is trying to configure LR2.6, then the error messages that the "Feature ...is on a network resource that is unavailable" [and is using the 'use source' C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\{83BB4A4I...."] and then the rest of the same set of error messages.

Then for curousity sake Im going to run another set of two tests - while logged on as TNG doubled clicked on the LR desktop icon and see what happens; and then comapre that result with the same test while logged in as Glenn/User. Will let you know the results asap.

 

[Potus5]

Ran the second batch to two test, as follows:
1. Log in as Glenn/User, double click the LR desktop icon - LR backup catalog routine starts - can't change the backlog catalog directory locatio [under Choices pull down menu all that is listed is the 'Glenn' folder with no listing that would get me to any of the drives]. However, then told it to SKIP the backup - LR then loads my maste catalog, successfully, and clickling on 'Import' gives me access availability to ALL of the drives [internal and external].
2. Logged off and log in as TNG - double click on the desktop LR icon - lo and byhold the backup routine starts and under choices I've access to directing the backlog to any of my drives - all available. Likwise then the maste catalog loads and with the 'Import' routine all the drives are available.

So - there is a difference in the results for the two batches of tests:
A. When logged in as TNG between double clicking directly on the master catalog which results in an inability to start up LR - BUT I can start the LR program via the desktop icon with access to all drives for backup and importing.
B. when logged in as User\Glenn when double clicking directly on the master catalog there's an inability to start up LR, - but I can start the LR program via the desktop icon but the backup routine will not let me change the directory location for the backup, while the import routine will give me access to all of my drives!!!!

 

[Jim Wilde]

OK, it seems to me that we have two issues here:

1. There is a problem with the installation of Lightroom on your system, no matter which logon you are using, as launching by double-clicking on a catalog tries to install a missing feature which it thinks is/was on an unavailable network resource (was LR originally downloaded to a network drive and installed from there?). Regarding the missing file in the Temp directory, the fact that you had chosen to install on your D drive does NOT mean that the OS will use a User file on the same drive....it doesn't work that way, Windows will always put User data by default on the same drive as the main Windows installation (in your case the C drive). Those User files on your D drive haven't been updated since May last year and are just a distraction.

2. There is a further problem on your Glenn account which results in your drives not being available to the backup process.

Conclusion from all of this? Difficult to say with certainty....I have an uncomfortable feeling that there's an underlying problem in your operating system which may come back to bite you in the future....for sure I would be thinking about doing a clean fresh install of Win7 if this were my system - though I do understand that you may not be to enamoured with that idea!

I had certainly thought we were headed down a route of trashing your Glenn account and rebuilding a new profile, but if you are game we could just try to fix the definite problem in front of us (i.e. Lightroom) and go on from there. If you are happy with that approach, then suggest you logon as Glenn and leave the TNG account dormant for the time being (but don't delete it yet).

To fix Lightroom will almost certainly involve an uninstall/reinstall, but before that we could I guess try trashing the preferences file (seems to be a bit of a miracle cure in many cases).

If you are happy to proceed down this path, let me know and I'll get the instructions ready.....

 

[Potus5]

TNG

I'm comfortable being in your hands and certainly willing go with your advice, including reinstalling Win 7 if that's your conclusion. In preapring the instructions for me one thing we should do I believe is back up the various LR preesets, etc. While I have some on the original disks most are ones I have downloaded from various LR forums and I have collected from others - not looking forward to having to find them on the internet and have to download them again - so I'd apprecaite the steps on how to do a backup save of these to we can subsequently reinstall them.

 

[Potus5]

Forgot to answer you other question - vis the original installation.
I installed LR 2.1 via an Adobe LR CD that I still have. This was as an upgrade from an earlier LR1 installation, for which I no longer have the CD [least can't readily find it]. Subsequent upgrades to the LR 2.1 version were done via 'upgrade' procedure over the internet from the Adobe LR site.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Jim's doing a great job, so I won't interfere and confuse things. With regard to your installation CD's, that won't matter at all as long as you have the LR1 and LR2 serial numbers. You'll just download the latest 2.7 update and enter the serial numbers into that.

 

[Jim Wilde]

[quote author=Potus5 link=topic=9619.msg65224#msg65224 date=1272'51426]
TNG

I'm comfortable being in your hands and certainly willing go with your advice, including reinstalling Win 7 if that's your conclusion. In preapring the instructions for me one thing we should do I believe is back up the various LR preesets, etc. While I have some on the original disks most are ones I have downloaded from various LR forums and I have collected from others - not looking forward to having to find them on the internet and have to download them again - so I'd apprecaite the steps on how to do a backup save of these to we can subsequently reinstall them.
[/quote]

Preserving your Lightroom settings was going to be the first step in the instructions.

At this stage possibly a full Win7 re-install may be a step too far....the only reason I'd be thinking about it on one of my own machines would largely because I'm very comfortable with doing rebuilds and have learnt over the years which settings I need to backup and where they are, so the whole exercise becomes almost enjoyable....like starting over.

But for now, let's just try to fix Lightroom and see how we go, we have lots of options should things not work out. Let's start with simply trashing the preferences file and see if that has any effect. First question is: where do you keep your settings? There's a setting in LR's preferences which allows you to store your settings in the same folder as the catalog, though by default this is NOT checked in which case your settings would be stored in your User account AppData.

Do you know for sure if you've set that switch? If you can't recall, simply start Lightroom as normal (remember you should now be logged on as Glenn again) and go to Edit>Preferences>Presets and see if that setting is checked or unchecked.

If it IS checked, then in Windows Explorer, browse to the folder where you keep your main catalog and there should be a folder called Lightroom Settings there. Expand it and take a screenshot.

If it is NOT checked, then in Explorer browse to C:/users/user/appdata/roaming/adobe/lightroom. Open this folder and again take a screenshot.

Question: do you have any plug-ins installed in Lightroom? If so, do you know where you store them (as this is user-definable I believe).

Talk to you later....

 

[Potus5]

TNG

Progress Answers to your questions/direction:
1. Yes, the switch was checked for the saved settings - in Edit>Preferences>Presets the box was checked on for "Store presets with catalog".
2. For curiousity I also clicked on the adjacent dialog box "Show LR Presets Folder" - this showed the folder location as C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom and under it were a host of folders for my presets, plugins, etc.
3. Using Explorer I then checked on the drive where my maste catalog is maintained - my internal F drive - F:\Lightroom\Glenn's Master LR Catalog\Lightroom Settings - attached is a screen capture of the folder.
4. Yes, I have plug in installed - they appear to be lodged in C:\Users\User\AppData\Adobe\Lightroom. A screen capture of the folder is attached.

If I'm missing anything you need let me know.

Glenn

 

[Jim Wilde]

Thanks Glenn, that's very useful....at least now we know where everything is should we need it.

No need for taking copies yet, we'll just trash the preferences file first to see if it has any effect (probably unlikely, but worth a shot). Browse back to C:\users\user\appdata\roaming\adobe\lightroom....expand to reveal the sub-folders and find the Preferences folder. Right-click on it and select Rename, which makes the name editable. Rename to something like OldPreferences and enter. Now you have no preferences file, so start Lightroom by using the desktop icon and it will start up as if it were a new installation (creating a new Preferences folder in doing so) with a new empty catalog. When it's started, choose File>open Catalog and see if in the ensuing browser window you can browse to and select your master catalog.

If you can't browse there we still have a problem.....

Hope that's all clear?

 

[Potus5]

Yes that worked. Renamed the Preferences folder as "Old Preferences", started LR via desktop icon, LR loaded with new empty catalog, went to File>Open New - browser window that came up gave a pull down menu list of all my drives, I cycled through to the MAster Catalog and could see it BUT I didn't load it yet - not certain you wnated me to actually load it or merely see that the browser window in LR was working.

BTW - when LR started it asked me if I wanted to update to version 2.7 - I declined at this stage.

Glenn

 

[Jim Wilde]

OK....well that's a bit of progress!

Now do the other test....close down Lightroom then try the launch by double-clicking on the master catalog on your F drive...

 

[Potus5]

OK - am doing that. It relaunched, I opened File>Open Catalog and selected my Master Catalog in the F drive. Backup routine came up - this time it automatically set the backup directory as F:\Lightroom\Glenn's Master LR Catalog\Backups BUT in the Choose pull down menu to change the direcctory location all I still get is the "Glenn" option without any access to the other internal and external drives. I'll attach under a separate e-mail note a screen capture of this dialogue before I tell the routine to 'Skip' the backup for now [I've already got three copies backed up with today's date and there have been no changes to the catalog content. Master catalog seems to have loaded fine and the 'import' gives me full access to all of my drives.

 

[Potus5]

here's the screen capture

 

[Jim Wilde]

Sorry, I'm a little confused....which catalog did you double-click on to launch Lightroom?

And to try to summarise the current position....the only (at the moment) issue is that Lightroom will not let you choose a different location for storing your catalog backups? You can import from any of your drives, you can launch by double-clicking on a catalog, you can chage catalogs by selecting from any of your drives?

 

[Potus5]

Sorry - quess I was unclear. I doubled clicked on the LR desktop icon to launch LR after I ha renamed the "Prefeences" folder. LR then came up and I went to File>Open Catalog and then browsed to the master catalog on my F drive to load it.I have NOT tried to launch LR by double-clicking on a catalog - do you want me to try that again - we did prior to renaming the Preferences folder but not since then?

In terms of issues - yes, you're right, the only (at the moment) issue is that LR will not let me choose a different location for storing the catalog backups. I can import from any of my drives.

 

[Jim Wilde]

Yes, we do need to try that launch by double-clicking on a catalog file. If that is still not working (and I can't think that it will) then we still have a significant issue to resolve....if you could quickly try that we might be ready to move to the next step....

 

[Jim Wilde]

Glenn, I'm going to have to shut down for the night now....if you could just run that test and post the results I'll be able to think about the next steps and can post them in the morning..

Talk later.

 

[Potus5]

Ran the test of double clicking on the Master Catalog file while logged on as Glenn/User - same result - get an error messages - "function unavailable" and that Windows can't find the install file.

Saturday I'm out early in the morning but should be back at the computer by around 1':3' am my time.

Have a good rest!!!!!

 

[Jim Wilde]

Good Morning!

So, a brief summary....after a few days of effort we are still left with two basic problems:

1. You cannot choose where to create your backups using the "Browse for files and folders" dialog box. And this problem only started a few weeks ago? This is when logged on as Glenn, though when you are logged on as TNG this problem does not exist, YES?

2. When trying to launch Lightroom by double-clicking on a catalog file, an install process tries to start but fails. And this occurs when logged on as either user, YES? Although we haven't discussed this, I'm assuming that you do NOT normally start Lightroom this way? And if so, we really don't know how long that problem may have been lurking around, YES?

Are you able to confirm all these YES questions?

Of these 2 issues, the first may be the most irritating to you so we should definitely try to fix that. The second MAY be a total non-issue if you never need to start LR that way, BUT it may be indicative of a deeper problem....so I think we should try to fix that also.

We COULD simply do the LR2.7 upgrade and see if that works, but to be honest I'd much rather try to fix the problems we can see just in case we make things worse by trying that install. So IF you are happy to 'give it a go', lets start with the first problem and proceed as follows:

1. Ensure you are logged on as Glenn, and Lightroom is NOT active.
2. Using Windows Explorer, create a new folder in the root directory of your D drive, name it something like MyDesktop.
3. Browse to C:\Users\User\, expand this folder and right-click on the Desktop folder, and select Properties (right at the bottom).
4. In the Properties dialog box, click on the Location tab and select Move.
5. Another browser window opens, browse to that MyDesktop folder you previously created on the D drive, click on it to ensure it is selected and choose Select Folder at the bottom of the window.
6. You will then get a message asking if you want to move all the items in the folder, choose OK.
7. Windows will then quickly move your Desktop items to the new folder, and this will be transparent to you. It will leave an empty Desktop sub-folder in your User folder, please do NOT delete this!
8. If all of the above has worked OK, you can now start Lightroom as normal and check out the catalog backup option to see if anything has changed. I hope it will have (though if not you MAY need to reboot first). You may also need to 'force' this routine to wake up to the fact that other drives exist by selecting the new Desktop location and doing a backup. Then close and restart Lightroom to see what display you then get on a catalog backup....

Please let me know how you get on with that, and if you are curious about what this was all about, check out this:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/2652239

Basically it sounds like this is not a unique problem so we are just trying the workaround as documented here. If it works we could consider moving the desktop entries back and see if the problem recurs or stays fixed. The fact that the problem doesn't happen on the TNG account still makes me feel you have a problem with the Glenn user profile, but if this is the only problem and we have a workaround it will save you the hassle of rebuilding your profile for now.

Let me know how you get on, and if it works I'll send you the next set of instructions for the second problem.

Cheers!

 

[Potus5]

Hi - Good morning - am at my computer now.

Yes, in response to your questions:
1. Yes, I cannot choose where to create my backups using the "Browse for files and folders" dialog box. And this problem only started a few weeks ago? This is when logged on as Glenn, though when I am logged on as TNG this problem does not exist.

2. Yes, when trying to launch Lightroom, whether logged in as Glenn or as TNG, by double-clicking on a Mastre catalog file, an install process tries to start but fails.

3. You are right - I normally do NOT start LR by double clicking on the catalog file - 1''% of the time I commence LR by double clikcing on the program's desktop icon. As such, yes, we don't know how long the problem has been occuring.

BTW - I tried a couple of other cataloges I have - one from a trip to India in 2''9 [catalog dated '3/'6/2''9 and another an old test catalog I created in learning about catalogs - this had had called Glenn's Merged Overall Catalog created 14/1'/2''9. Double clicking on either of these other cataloges to launch Windows Installer as a way to start up LR results in the identical error messages - Windows Installer is unable to find a feature to launch LR.

I fully agree with you - I'd prefer to spend the time to fix the problem rather than risk making things worse by doing a LR2.7 upgrade - let's save that option as a 'final solution'!.

I'm now going to run the proceedure you set out in your note and will get back to on the results.

Glenn

 

[Potus5]

TNG

No luck - here's what happened.
1. Logged on as Glenn, and Lightroom was NOT active; using Windows Explorer successfully created a new folder in the root directory of my D drive, callled MyDesktop.
2. Browsed to C:\Users\User\, expand this folder and right-click on the Desktop folder, and selected Properties - in the Properties dialog box clicked on the Location tab and selected Move.
3. New browser window opened, went to the new MyDesktop folder on D, clicked on it and choose Select Folder at the bottom of the window. Got a message asking if I wanted to move all the items in the folder, choosed OK.
4. Windows moved my Desktop items to the new folder; leaving an empty Desktop sub-folder in my C:\Users\User folder - did NOT delete this.
5. Started LR via the program's desktop icon, backup routine started and asked if I wanted to save the backup catalog to my F drive [as before] - went to the Choose box to see if the other drives were available so I could save it to my Q drive [perr my old routine before this problem started]. No luck. No drives or access was to the drives was evidient.
6. So, I rebooted the computer to see if that would make a difference. Nothiong changed - attached is a screen capture of the resultant backup cataloge choose options.

Not certain I understood what you meant when you said "You may also need to 'force' this routine to wake up to the fact that other drives exist by selecting the new Desktop location and doing a backup". Could see not way to force the backup location - how do you suggest I force it?

Glenn

 

[Potus5]

TNG

forgot the screen catpture attachment - here it is.

 

[Jim Wilde]

[quote author=Potus5 link=topic=9619.msg65288#msg65288 date=1272124494]


Not certain I understood what you meant when you said "You may also need to 'force' this routine to wake up to the fact that other drives exist by selecting the new Desktop location and doing a backup". Could see not way to force the backup location - how do you suggest I force it?

Glenn
[/quote]

Thanks for that....what I basically meant was actually do a backup, but choosing the MyDesktop location. Try that, then restart to see if it makes a difference.

 

[Potus5]

TNG

I read the linked post you has sent me and for curiousity going to properties//security/advanced/owner, did check the 'ownership' of my various drives. VERY INTERESTING - they read differently as follows:
1. C drive owneer is set as "Glenn(RECROOM\User), with change options to Adminsitrators (RECROOM\Administrator)
2. Drives D through to N [my other internals E and F, and my 4 external drives Raided as two in the DROBO - drives L and N - have owner as "Administrator" with change option to Glenn (RECROOM\User);
3. My other two externals - P and Q - the owners are set as SYSTEM with change options to Glenn or Administrators.

Glenn