Library module LR 5 - trouble moving photos with their folder structure to external drive

[cruxrush]

Lightroom Version Number

5.3

Operating System

1. Other (please note in thread)

OSX 10.7.5. I'm moving some photos from a 2008 iMac to an external drive so I can access them with a 2020 MacBook and LR Classic, but it is not going smoothly. When I tried to move a folder (2018 Scans from Slides) with 7 subfolders, the subfolders moved but not the folder. I tried to move the folder by itself but was told "Folder already exists"--but if it existed, it wasn't showing itself. So I made another one and tried to move the subfolders into it. Some of them moved OK but others wouldn't. I tried making another subfolder for Garden 2005 in the new folder and moving the photos by select all/dragging, and this time 26 of them moved but 17 wouldn't. I was told "Files already exist" but again, if they do, they're not showing themselves there. Can anyone please help me to straighten out this mess?

 

[Roelof Moorlag]

This 'move' operation, did you do that from wihtin Lightroom or in Finder?

 

[cruxrush]

Within Lightroom.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Lightroom is not a browser. It only shows folders that contain at least one image (could be in a subfolder) that is catalogued. So if you get a ‘folder already exists’ error when you try to move a folder, then the explanation is that a folder with the same name already exists at that location, but that folder is not catalogued.

 

[cruxrush]

Thanks for your help. It gave me the stimulus I needed to go looking outside of LR, and sure enough, I found a couple of "rogue" folders, with only some of the images--no idea how I did that--and deleting them solved the problem. Now I have to start a new thread about the next problem...